New tech is revolutionising agriculture. Farmers can now rely on AI models that predict the best time to sow, use drones to map crop-health and rent tractors on Uber-style apps
In Andhra Pradesh's Devanakonda mandal in Kurnool district, farmers look to the sky for rain to nourish their groundnut and cotton crops. Their landholdings are just two to three acres, and most depend on gut feel and experience to decide when to sow.
Last year, International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Andhra Pradesh government and Microsoft partnered to add technology to the mix.Microsoft used its Azure cloud platform to study 40 years of data on weather patterns, soil conditions and more, built a modelling framework with ICRISAT, applied machine learning technologies, and started sending SMS advisories on sowing to farmers.
Read more of this in a report by Anand J & Shilipa Phadnis published in Times of India....
