AI: The future of precision agriculture

CHENNAI: With the world population expected to grow to 10 billion by 2050, there is an enormous responsibility and urgent need to increase crop production and yields globally. Scientists have proposed ways to increase the agricultural area and use new techniques to overcome the ever-increasing food shortage.

The situation is such that the United States had called India’s export ban on basmati rice an unnecessary trade barrier. India countered by saying that the new ban was a regulation rather than restriction.

In today’s age of advanced technology, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming common in many fields like education, business, research, industry, medicine etc. But scientists claim that India has a long way to go for the wide use of AI in the agricultural sector.

Thanks to the agricultural scientists like the late MS Swaminathan and organic farming expert G Nammalwar, today, South India, particularly Tamil Nadu is not only self-sufficient in agricultural produce, but the State is also able to export a good part of its produce to many developed countries.

TN catching up

Israel has been leading a green revolution using AI in agriculture for years. India, which has the largest population after China, is witnessing strong progress in the IT sector.

Similarly, while Tamil Nadu, with a population of 8 crores, is moving towards the next stage of development by introducing many innovative technologies including AI in information technology and medical sectors, it’s evident that Tamil Nadu is not fully prepared to introduce new technologies in farming, despite having a vast agricultural area.

“To address the growing demand for food and manage the agrarian crisis, scientists worldwide predict that AI will be a solution to humanity’s biggest challenge in crop cultivation and yield, given the increasing urbanisation and the decreasing cultivation areas. Tamil Nadu is one of the heavily urbanised states in the country with more than 50% of its population residing in urban areas. With 24 reserve forests, Tamil Nadu’s forest cover is 23.69% thus leaving less than 30% of its land available for cultivation,” explains Brinda Kumaraguru, conservation scientist, Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, Tiruchy. “There is an urgent need to integrate the big data of both agricultural land and the adjacent forests as the data can be crucial in evaluating or foreseeing the impact of climate change.”

While AI and machine monitoring is now common in the poultry sector in Namakkal, AI is yet to make a mark in inland fisheries and water conservation. Both water conservation and inland fisheries can play a crucial role in maintaining the protein requirement and can be embedded with organic farming.

“This is an era of chat GPT and machine learning. Tamil Nadu being the IT hub should take the lead to train its farmers and tribes, who mostly depend on agriculture for their livelihood,” Brinda adds.

Agribots to AI tools

To overcome various challenges such as the impact of climate change, shrinking cultivation areas, lack of manpower, and other related issues, it’s imperative to implement AI in the agricultural sector.

From drones to agricultural robots (agribots), farmers in many western countries have increased their yields and reduced costs by using a variety of AI-powered tools, thus cementing AI’s significant contribution in transforming the agri industry.

AI has improved crop production, and has enabled real-time monitoring, harvesting, processing and marketing. Different hi-tech systems are designed to determine various important parameters such as weed detection, yield detection, crop quality and many more.

Gowtham Praveen, associate professor and agri researcher from Ramanathapuram district, highlighted a new research that can predict crop growth on mobile phones, which is currently being implemented on a pilot basis across the world.

“With AI, using machine learning technology, farmers can predict the growth of the crop on their mobile phones. How? By using the photo taken on the first day of crop germination, then on the next 15th day (0-15), and again, on the next 30th day (15-30). They can even see how the crop will evolve in many ways. Further development can also be predicted,” explained Praveen.

By analysing various parameters including the quality of the crop, farmers will know if the crop is growing in the right direction. “Has it been attacked by insects, animals, etc? Have any intruders entered the crop cultivation area? There is also a facility to sound an alarm when intruders enter the farmland. It’s powered by cameras and sensors throughout,” he pointed out. “AI helps the farmers by yielding healthier crops, controlling pests, soil monitoring and many more ways. With AI-weather forecasting, farmers can have information on weather analysis. With price forecasting, farmers will be able to predict the price of crops for the next few weeks, enabling them to get maximum profit.”

Robots for green farming

Apart from this, there are AI robots (agrobots) developed by different companies to perform multiple tasks in farming.

“By collecting data on plant growth, AI can help produce crops that are less prone to diseases and better adapted to weather conditions. It can help scientists identify the best-performing plant varieties and cross-breed them to create even better hybrids. AI robots are also trained in checking the quality of crops, detecting and controlling weeds and harvesting the crop with faster speed compared to a human,” said Pooja, a scientist from Chennai (formerly associated with the Anna University).

Agrobots can easily and precisely remove weeds and other obstacles that have sprouted between crops in fields with herbicides.

“In this way, we can reduce the excessive use of chemicals sprayed on crops. Thus, the produce is of high quality and highly nutritious,” she added.

Challenges in implementation

Karthikeyan, a techie from Chennai said that farmers need to collaborate with technological experts to implement AI and handle it further.

“Farmers can’t just buy AI and start using it. AI is not something tangible. It’s a set of technologies that are automated through programming. In essence, an AI algorithm mimics the way people think. It learns first, then solves problems based on data. AI-driven transformation of agriculture will require changes in the industry. Farmers need to be educated and trained in how to use AI-powered solutions,” he explained.

Another techie Akash said that to reap all the benefits of AI, farmers should be able to access the required tech-infrastructure. “It could take years to develop that infrastructure, but doing so could result in a robust, fool-proof ecosystem. Understanding how AI works and how best to integrate tech knowledge into real-life processes is vital for maximising its benefits,” he added.

Welcoming the use of AI in agriculture is EV Elankeeran, president of the Federation of Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Association. He said that farmers and youngsters in farming will be greatly benefited by AI.

“AI will enable farmers to perform other tasks too, as they can monitor crop growth, pesticide spraying, weeding, etc., on their mobile phones. In the present scenario, there are various difficulties in getting labour for agricultural works. Crop sowing, spraying, irrigation, monitoring, weeding, tractor driving, harvesting, etc., can be done using AI, thus reducing costs,” he stated.

At the same time, Elankeeran pointed out that most farmers in agricultural work today are not aware of the technology. “Many private firms and start-ups are doing research related to agricultural machinery. But, there is not much opportunity to market them. So, the government must take steps to promote and popularise such machinery. It must also improve awareness about it among farmers, give them appropriate training through Agricultural Extension Centres, and even sell these machinery at subsidised rates. Unless the government takes the initiative, AI in agriculture will only remain a pipedream,” he opined.

Additionally, many scientists have opined that the adoption of AI, data cloud and emerging technologies in agriculture for developing countries can be a challenging task. “It will be very difficult to sell such technologies in areas where literacy rate is very low. In such villages, to use AI and its related tech, farmers would require the help of a college student,” they claimed.

As there are still no clear regulations and policies for using AI, it may raise various legal issues. “Due to the use of software and the internet, there may also be some privacy and security issues such as cyber attacks and data leaks. All these issues can create a major problem for farmers,” the scientists who are involved in agri start-ups said.

Government initiatives

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government is taking steps to introduce modern tech in agriculture, and has been promoting related machinery to hasten the benefits to farmers.

A senior official with the Tamil Nadu Agriculture Marketing and Business Board clarified that the government was aware of the need for technologies in the agriculture sector.

“The State government has resolved many problems by launching Uzhavan and E-rental apps. Uzhavan app enables farmers to find labourers for agricultural work and E-rental helps them rent/lease large quantities of machinery,” added the official. “It has also introduced a subsidy scheme for drones, which will be powered by AI. High-level consultations have been held regarding the introduction of many new technologies. As there are various practical issues, a suitable solution will be found soon.”

However, the future of AI in farming largely depends on the adoption of AI solutions. Although some large-scale research is in progress and some applications are already in the market, yet the industry in agriculture is underserved. Moreover, creating predictive solutions to solve a real challenge faced by farmers is still in progress at an early stage.