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Big data analytics & AI can transform Indian agriculture, state experts
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Saturday, 23 March, 2019, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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Big data analytics, Blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) can spur the efficiency on Indian farmlands. “It can augment agricultural production, mitigate climate change issues, and make agri-supply chain management more efficient,” stated experts at the two-day international conference on Emerging scenarios in Agriculture, organised by Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM)
They highlighted that agribusiness was challenged. There has been a noticeable shift in market in terms of demography, lifestyle, and food consumption pattern. This, in turn, has posted opportunities to producers and other stakeholders to think beyond the conventional agriculture and venture into agribusiness.
This is because the traditional agribusiness model is transforming, calling for appropriate strategies to evolve from a more local and regional business models to a far more expanded and global business model.
In a session-changing Scenario in Agribusiness: Global Perspective chaired by Venkatesan Ashok, former consulate general of India, said that risk management was an issue and government has introduced the crop insurance and also set aside Rs 6,000 crore for each farmer after Interim Budget 2019 for small and marginal farmers, which indicated cash payment to farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme.
Ian Coxhead, agricultural and applied economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, said, “Indian government efforts to increase its agriculture exports to $38 million by 2022.”
“The Indian domestic market is large, and this has led to generate lower exports. But now in the wake of the new trade scenario, where the US has reduced the relevance of WTO will see countries like India being impacted,” he added.
“The US and China are at loggerheads in trade and policy negotiations which are bilateral. So far, WTO was the platform for small countries to win trade wars. In absence of a mechanism for trade, India needs to gear up and increase its exports through subsidies,” he added.
“But, the reality is that India is now an efficient agro-producer for the global market. This is because its food security policy discourages production for exports. The country needs to improve its cold chain and supply chain in the agriculture to remain competitive in the global arena,” Coxhead said.
Chipping his view from a technology view point, Gopal Naik of the Economics and Social Sciences Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, said that in order to be globally competitive, Indian agriculture needs to bring in technology and precision farming.
“Currently, there is considerable risk in the inputs and output of farmers. For instance, in the case of inputs, there is uncertainty in the quality of seeds and fertilisers,” he added.
“It is also estimated that 25 per cent of fertilisers are spurious. With regards to output problems prevail in pricing and scale-up. There is need for extension services to bring in precision farming to improve efficiency, competitiveness and reduce the cost of production by 30-50 per cent,” he added.
“Only technology can ensure right input at the right time and right quantity. Even and remote sensors and use of Blockchain to generate data at the farm level and bolster growth,” Naik said.
Stating that the agri-food sector is going through disruption with technologies, David Bozward, head, School Business and Entrepreneurship, Royal Agricultural University USA, pointed out that with the emergence of mobile app, food consumption of the population was monitored.
“This data was useful for agriculturists to plan what to grow. It was an age of super-foods and takeaways were the order of the day. It was here that tech adoption is the key to value addition. Blockchain , AI and mobile phones were going to disrupt the food value chain,” he added.
Solomon N Darwin, executive director, Garwood Centre of Corporate Innovation HAAS, UC–Berkeley, said that it was only access to data and scale up business models besides use of social media platforms which could create transparent and profitable farm ventures.
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