AI can revolutionise Indian agriculture; but it needs more investment, innovation and regulation

India has successfully created a huge ecosystem of technology and innovation in the last few decades. A booming population and adverse climatic conditions place a great responsibility on the agriculture sector to increase food grain production and productivity. With 820 million people expected to be hungry globally and a $200 billion per year gap in food and agriculture Sustainable Development Goal investment, technological data-driven innovations are required on a priority basis. Indian agriculture is also responsible for the livelihood of more than 42 per cent of the country’s population and often deals with major constraints like small landholdings, labour shortage, low soil fertility and extreme weather conditions including biotic and abiotic stress which also result in less profitability for farmers. The traditional methods adopted by farmers are not sufficient enough to fulfil the requirements of the community. To overcome the same, agricultural automation is the only way and need of the hour.  

Emerging market trends for AI in agriculture

It is interesting to note that market forecasts for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven agriculture are quite bright and Compound Annual Growth Rate is expected to be 23 per cent till 2028. ICT tools, AI and Big Data are expected to be ‘game-changers’ in the Indian agricultural sector as these technologies are contributing significantly to the area of modern agriculture by controlling and automating farmer field operations. These technologies have particularly helped the small land holder in several rural areas and thus assisted the population address several challenges associated with the traditional agricultural farming system.

There is a great scope for solicitation of e-governance workflow systems to harness the power of ICTs in agriculture through appropriate policies and frameworks which includes mobile device apps, Internet of Things (IoT) for automation of farming activities, Big Data Analytics and Dashboard to monitor the impact, Block chain for transparencies, GIS technology for mapping farming activities and AI for monitoring and forecasting agricultural commodity prices and global trends in agricultural trade for sustainable agricultural growth.

The challenges faced by the agricultural system can be overcome through AI-derived techniques like remote sensors for soil moisture content detection and automated irrigation with the help of GPS. Advancement in digital technologies has felicitated widespread changes in agriculture by providing updated information, smart systems to monitor, control, and visualise various farm operations in real time and tally with comparable intelligence of human experts.  

Ongoing synchronisation of agriculture with AI and innovation

Agriculture is progressively becoming digitalised with AI, majorly in the area of agricultural robotics, soil-crop monitoring and predictive analytics. Farmers are already using sensors and soil sampling to monitor and generate data to be stored on farm management systems for better processing and analysis. Consequently, the data, along with specific algorithms, can be combined with weather information traced from satellites to create customised AI software for different agro ecological zones of India. Moreover, ICTs can facilitate farmers in post-production management i.e. low-cost primary processing, value addition, grading and packaging, cold storage for perishable items, online marketing etc. and thereby increase farmer income.

ICTs have almost revolutionised the lives of farmers and the functioning of governments, and industry with advanced information. Nowadays, everyone can access updated information worldwide through mobile internet easily. With the advent of ICTs, it is possible to have better communication and ensure the delivery of services and information to people who previously lacked access.

The application of ICTs and AI in the development of smart farm machinery, greenhouse cultivation, storage structures, irrigation systems, fertiliser application, weed/pest control, drones for plant protection, crop health monitoring, etc. have significantly contributed to agriculture. The application of AI in genetic engineering will result in refined technologies with greater performance. The government has already initiated various schemes to collect data regarding farmers i.e. soil health card, Kisan credit cards, crop insurance and even landholdings that are getting digitised. With the advent of AI, it is now possible to tell the farmer what to grow, when and how much to irrigate and about crop health, weather predictions, pest infestations and even drought conditions/stress. This will certainly enhance agricultural productivity and gradually reduce the physical intervention in agriculture. The integration of modern and advanced agriculture technologies has facilitated the agriculture sector with remarkable achievements and transformed the way farmers cultivate, harvest, and distribute agricultural commodities.  

The current impact of AI in agriculture

The use of AI technologies in Indian agriculture, or e-agriculture, has accelerated agricultural and rural development by adopting innovative ideas to improve existing information and communication processes as a whole. It is quite significant that ICT, AI and Big Data are playing a significant role in farming during pre- and post-harvest operations. Adoption of these technologies from crop sowing/monitoring to autonomous harvesting with the help of robots are gradually transforming agriculture and thus making the lives of farmers easier. In Telangana, the Saagu Baagu project has impacted the lives of more than 500,000 farmers which is an excellent example for AI prospects in agriculture. It is also important to note that the present gap in yield levels has exceeded more than 50 per cent in low-income countries rising up to 76 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa. AI has the potential to make breakthroughs in this regard.  

Future perspectives

ICT, AI and Big Data are gradually transforming agriculture research and thus making the system more efficient, knowledge-based, and sustainable, besides providing solutions for new and emerging challenges, and capturing uncommon opportunities. This is possible only through better skill development, knowledge sharing, and mentoring farmers, making them an integral part of the “Plough-to-Plate Agri-Food System”, promoting agri-preneurship through a dedicated “Agri-Youth Innovation Corpus Fund” for rural start-ups, farmer producer organisations, cooperatives and agri start-ups. There is a need for more investment and innovation around ICT, AI and Big Data to strengthen the agricultural sector and meet future market conditions and demand.  Besides, dissemination and adoption of these cutting-edge technologies in agriculture is possible only through implementing an appropriate regulatory mechanism. There is a need for policy intervention to safeguard the interests and intellectual property (IP) of the farmer community, which is lacking at present. Hence, protecting the rights of farmers, incentivising the private sector on par with the public sector; provision of exclusive rights for specific regions/states; third party auditing for reliable assessment of actual business and royalty realisation and strict implementation of IP regulations is the need of hour.

Statutory bodies responsible for IP protection should revisit existing IP laws and bring more clarity so as to remove grey areas by making technology-specific amendments and thereby make the regulatory frameworks innovation- and farmer-friendly.

Krishan G Thakur is Business Manager at Agrinnovate India Ltd. GoI Enterprise, New Delhi and Mohit is with Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centra Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar

Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth