This year’s watchword has been digitization, and technology-driven solutions have slowly but steadily begun to change many areas of the economy. Until recently, the agriculture sector, which accounts for roughly 20% of India’s GDP, was an exception. Improved efficiency, connectivity, knowledge exchange, and numerous crucial and supporting activities are now available at the touch of a button thanks to the rise of agri-tech.
Drones, weather forecasters, automated machinery, AI-enabled planting and weeding, automated irrigation, and harvesting are just some of the latest examples of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in agriculture. AI is also used in soil testing and analysis, anticipating the best environment for crop safety, and even creating social platforms for farmers to engage.
Precision farming
Farmers’ revenue can be enhanced, and their input costs can be reduced to a greater extent, by optimizing their yield. Many digital companies are developing devices and providing solutions to assist farmers in taking preventative actions before a potential insect infestation in order to save their crops. There are technologies for capturing data at a micro-level about moisture, soil conditions, weather, nutrients, and so on, so that farmers only have to use very particular soil fertilizers.
Supply chain optimization
A frequent issue in rural regions has been a broken supply chain. Agricultural stakeholders and farmers suffer the most, along with other sectors and their stakeholders, because the shelf life of fruits and vegetables is extremely short. Farmers are frequently at a loss or are able to realize lower profits than they could since market prices vary dynamically across different mandis. Technology can aid in the development of improved supply chain solutions, traceability, and price transparency across different mandis, among other things.
Credit and loan availability
Institutional lending is hardly available to 30% of Indian farmers. The remaining 70% are reliant on unsecured credit with extremely high-interest rates. This is mostly due to a lack of farmer data, such as transaction history, credit history, assets, earnings, and so on. Once farmers begin to deal digitally, or at the very least begin to share their transaction activities digitally, it will be easier for them to keep track of their transactions, which will allow institutional lenders to assess their creditworthiness and give loans at normal interest rates.
No industry is now unaffected by technological advancements. Agriculture is one of them, and it is a sector on which the entire human life cycle is dependent, and we will witness substantial improvements in the next years thanks to the use of digital tools and platforms. The country’s agriculture sector is slated to undergo a revolution as a result of agri-tech, with significant changes expected. Agriculture is reliant on technology, agricultural machinery, food and fertilizers, irrigation, and the market system, and Artificial Intelligence will aid farmers in all of these areas in the next years. Agri-tech will be critical in every step of the process, from planting seeds in the field to harvesting crops and selling the finished product.
Aqgromalin an agri-tech startup, is also helping farmers with new and innovative techniques. It is building the nation’s largest blockchain-enabled tech and supply chain platform to streamline the animal husbandry and aquaculture ecosystem. Their tech platform enables farmers to access quality inputs delivered at the farm-gate, giving them a wider choice of species and price discovery. Their transparent sourcing parameters around target quality and price provide clarity to the farmer base on crop planning. Their tech platform also offers end-to-end traceability of the products thereby providing complete visibility of the value chain.