How science and technology is helping farmers in India?
Despite employing about 65 percent of India's workforce, the agriculture industry accounts for only around 18 percent of the country's GDP. Despite major improvements in food grain output, the government faces a number of hurdles as it seeks to expand agricultural production as a percentage of GDP.
Agriculture in India is heavily reliant on nature, yet factors such as climate change and global warming make farming uncertain. Farmers must be educated in the use of contemporary technologies and new ideas in order to boost production and profit.
Technology plays a significant part in farming and agriculture activities, and the scope has expanded with the introduction of digital technology. Agriculture innovation is driving a shift in agricultural techniques that is reducing losses and increasing efficiency. Farmers are benefiting from this. The trend of using digital and analytic tools to drive continuous improvement in agriculture is here to stay, resulting in higher crop yields and helping farmers earn more money.
Difficulties
Lack of Knowledge
Other issues confront the agricultural community. The main issue is that farmers do not receive the fair market value for their produce. This is primarily due to a large number of intermediaries. Lower profits force them to take on debts they can't afford, further impoverishing them. They don't have access to pesticides that are more potent and of higher quality to protect their crops against bugs, illnesses, weeds, and mites. In addition, Indian farmers do not have access to information about soil health or a strategy to boost crop yield.
Farmers in India also lack the knowledge and technology to use sophisticated irrigation methods like those used in China, the United States, and other countries.
Most of the problems that farmers confront can be solved with technology. It can help them more precisely predict climate, use less water, boost yield, and increase their net profit margins.
Issues Concerning Conventional Farming
While much has been done to improve cultivation, Indian agriculture continues to rely on ancient farming techniques, natural water irrigation, and development approaches. Farmers rely on rain, rivers, and groundwater. Overpumping of water has resulted in a drop in groundwater levels in some areas, causing water logging and salty soil. Soil disintegration and floods are major threats to Indian farmers across the country in rain-fed areas.
Agricultural Productivity is Low
Agriculture in India has the potential to boost farm production and yield. Hybrid and genetically modified crops, seed quality, irrigation techniques, crop diversification, and value chains have all seen steady acceptance. However, it appears that the use of technology based on sensors and GIS-based soil, climate prediction, water assets information, mobile-based farming, broad market data information and data services, and farming automation using robots will be impossible to achieve.
Precise Predictions
Farmers may use big data to get the knowledge they need to grow high-quality, desirable crops. They can use data to determine the best seeds and other agri-items to employ in order to achieve the best results. Artificial intelligence can help them predict weather patterns and make appropriate plans. They can also take advantage of cutting-edge e-platforms to bypass middlemen and legitimately approach merchants to demand fair prices for their wares.
Artificial Intelligence.
Because precision data is more readily available, AI adoption and development in agriculture is expanding. Large-scale farming can benefit from artificial intelligence-based current and cutting-edge instruments. In different parts of a field, farm machinery can plant different densities of seeds and apply varied amounts of fertiliser. Despite the fact that AI has become a backbone of the tech network, a large number of key agriculture input companies are still unable to actively pursue AI applications in farming. Agricultural production can be successfully displayed using remote sensing and GIS applications.
Big Data
Big data has now emerged as a critical component in the application of technology to agricultural production. Agro-business can benefit from big data by increasing harvest production, reducing risk, and enhancing efficiency. Farmers may use the data provided to help them make timely decisions that result in amazing results. Soil sampling data can help farmers predict their farm's expected output, as well as the most economical use of fertilisers and pesticides, lowering their input costs.
Nano Science and Geospatial Agriculture
Nano Science is a technique that uses smart delivery systems and nano sensors to provide information to farmers about whether plants are receiving adequate amounts of water and other vital nutrients. It also provides information on the quality of the food harvested. Agricultural productivity can be expanded on a big scale by using geospatial cultivation. Weeds, the composition of the soil and its moisture content, production (ripeness), seed rate, the demand for manures, and other factors can all contribute to higher yields.
Drones
They contribute to increased output by reducing costs and misfortune in agricultural products through supervision activity. Drones can help with advanced sensors, digital imaging capabilities, soil inquiry, agricultural spraying, crop monitoring, and the evaluation of the health of yields, including fungus infestation.
Deep Learning
Deep learning, for example, can play a critical role in providing important data to farmers on a variety of topics, such as soil health, genetic engineering of seeds, best practises for planting and picking crops, animal health, getting guidelines and approaches, and leveraging the right financial aid and government schemes.
Technology's Importance in Agriculture
Fertilizers, insecticides, seed technology, and other aspects of agriculture are all affected by technology. Pest resistance and greater crop yields have been achieved thanks to biotechnology and genetic engineering. Tilling, harvesting, and physical work have all become more efficient as a result of mechanisation. Irrigation and transportation infrastructure have improved, processing machinery has decreased waste, and the result can be seen across the board.
Robotics, precision agriculture, artificial intelligence, block chain technology, and other new-age technologies are among them. Agriculture has benefited from technical improvements such as:
• Agricultural mechanisation has increased production.
Combine harvesters are becoming more popular as a way to eliminate manual labour and speed up procedures. Small landholdings characterise Indian farming, necessitating collaboration with others in order to benefit from modern machinery.
• Artificial intelligence-based climate/weather forecasting.
Artificial intelligence is a significant advancement in agriculture (AI). Data collection is aided by modern AI-based technology and technologies, which aid precision farming and informed decision-making.
Drones, remote sensors, and satellites collect data on weather patterns in and around the fields 24 hours a day, seven days a week, supplying farmers with critical information on temperature, rainfall, soil moisture, and other factors.
However, in a country like India, where marginal farming, fragmented landholdings, and other factors operate as roadblocks, AI is gaining traction slowly. However, there is little doubt that AI-based technology can bring accuracy to large-scale farming and result in a massive increase in output.
• Biotechnology-assisted development of resilient crops.
Traditional breeding procedures, genetic engineering, and the production of microbes for agriculture are all examples of agriculture methodology. In general, genetic engineering use DNA knowledge to find and manipulate genes in order to improve pest resistance in crops, as well as the generation of high-yielding types for livestock.
Biotechnology's impact on agriculture has resulted in a win-win situation for both farmers and consumers. Though some problematic approaches have hampered biotechnology adoption, there is no doubt that, given the changing environment and rising population, SAFE biotechnology is critical to the future of agriculture.
• Big data is being used to improve farm yields and supply chain management.
The collecting and compilation of data, as well as the subsequent processing of that data to make it useful for decision-making and problem-solving, are growing the capabilities of big data. Big data is expected to play a significant role in smart farming, with benefits extending throughout the supply chain and markets. Agriculture is getting more complex, and it is influenced by a wide range of factors.
As a result, more sophisticated data is being collected and used, which must be usefully evaluated and handled. Data can come from a variety of places, including social media, supplier networks, markets, and sensor/machine data collected in the field. Agriculture is undergoing a transformation as a result of the use of big data, which has an impact on crop productivity, supply chain management yield prediction, etc.
Conclusion
Drones have been proven to be effective in Rajasthan in protecting agricultural produce from locust invasions. We may turn the issue of the Corona pandemic's global spread into an opportunity, as there was fear about a global food shortage as a result of the epidemic. Because of this concern, there has been a significant supply and demand disparity since people began stockpiling food. India can take advantage of this situation as an opportunity to help our farmers achieve economic prosperity.
Posted By InnoTechzz