One of the most astounding reports that dominated the news cycle last year was the Composite Water Management Index by NITI Aayog. Among the several findings, one that stood out was nearly 21 Indian cities could run out of groundwater by this year. When the agricultural revolution took place in the mid-60s, one of the major upheavals was the introduction of largescale irrigation projects across the country. In just 50 years, we’re staring down the abyss of a water crisis. And this is when more than 60% of crops cultivated in our country rely on groundwater.

One of the rampant challenges today in agriculture is the wastage of water. Nearly 80% of Farmers often excessively water crops or use too little – there isn’t a scientific method to evaluate how much water a field requires. This was a critical opportunity for Mallesh TM, who founded Cultyvate – a farming solution built on AI and IoT that measures exactly how much water a field requires, and monitors soil moisture levels.

“Farmers in India lose nearly Rs 2 lakhs every year because their fields don’t receive the right amount of nutrition and water, adversely affecting their output and impacting their revenues. Aside from direct losses like this, farmers end up consuming up to 30% more water and electricity,” explains Mallesh.

Measuring, Monitoring, Analysing For Precise Water Requirements

cultYvate calculates the precise amount of water required for the crops based on static and dynamic data points collected at regular intervals to provide automated irrigation solutions. Static parameters are crop type and soil type, which are collected at the beginning of the farming season. The dynamic parameters include age of the crop, amount of water during earlier sessions, wind speed, intensity of sun and several others, which are collected every day automatically, for a precise calculation of water needs of a specific crop.

As a part of the automated irrigation system, a complex algorithm analyzes the data collected, identifies the power supply voltage to adjust the water flow, and ensures that the crops are fed with the precise quantity of water, maintaining the balance between the amount of water available. The proprietary cultYvate system uses a combination of soil sensors, flow meters and valves combined with satellite data to arrive at precise watering data. The irrigation scheduling comprises state of the art wireless and battery operated controllers that are designed and tested to run under extreme conditions. They are designed to consume very little power and last long while seamlessly transmitting the data all the way from the sensors and flow meters to the cloud. The sensor’s smart gateways have local intelligence as a backup during disruption of services from the cloud.

cultYvate’s ML algorithms constantly analyze the data from all the farms of customers worldwide. The artificial intelligence engine compares and learns from millions of use cases on a daily basis to provide specific automation controls for most environmental scenarios. In addition, specialist farm economists and statistical experts constantly monitor and update the algorithms for any new use cases making automated irrigation system of any farm in the world under most circumstances intelligent and free of human intervention.

The Impact on Crops

The solutions offered by cultYvate span across & and are customised for low value crops like paddy, tobacco, sugarcane; high value crops like banana, grapes and pomogranate and ultra-high value crops like flowers and exotic vegetables & fruits, which include crop-based irrigation schedules and real time soil monitoring.

Mallesh and his team have been working with farmers in several states in India. He explains how he was able to use cultYvate to turn around the yields for paddy farms in Karnataka. Farmers were not growing paddy in summer due to water shortage. But those who decided to grow had to manage their water needs, which was not possible because paddy cultivation seeks flood irrigation. With yield was averaging 16 - 18 quintals per acre. So, IoT-enabled alternate wetting and drying technique was implemented leading to savings of nearly 50% water, enabling the farmer to grow Paddy during summer. Nearly 45% of water was saved, yield enhancement rose to 16% or 21 quintals per acre. The farmer could grow the crop even in the hot summer months, hence 100% revenue considered to be additional revenue. Moreover, there was a 12% improvement in quality and 28% water saving, This system also eliminated the need for manual labour.

Working With Various State Horticulture Departments & Enterprises

Now, the team is working with the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Bangalore to take this solution to larger farmers group in Mandya district in Karnataka. They are already working with 50 farmers having 300+ acres of paddy field in Punjab, and are engaged in talks with agribusiness major OLAM International to support paddy growing farmers in Haryana. For banana cultivation using cultYvate, pilot and field trials have been completed and the company is engaged in talks with Banana Export Zone as well as the horticulture department at Kadapah in Andhra Pradesh to cover 10,000+ hectares of banana farming land and with the TN Govt’s horticulture department. Mallesh has also completed pilot and field trials for tobacco plants, and is in talks with ITC to cover all 10,000+ hectares of farm land over next 5 years. The team is also in early discussions with multiple sugar mills in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.