Agriculture is pivotal to the Indian economy with a 17% contribution to national GDP. Further, it is the primary source of livelihood for 58% of the population. There is a dire need to increase agricultural output sustainably. This is necessary to not just feed an ever-growing population but also to make it an economically viable profession. This is only possible through a tech disruption. Historically the sector, especially in India, has been slow to embrace technology. This is fast changing with many Agtech start-ups paving the way for modernisation and innovation.
AI powered AgRobots – A revolutionary solution for the labour challenge in agriculture
AI Robots is one such disruption that can revolutionise agriculture. Farming is a highly labour dependent industry. Throughout the input, growth, and harvest stages there are multiple time bound tasks that needs to be done to ensure efficient output. Finding reliable labour do to do these tasks can become very challenging. AgRobots have the potential to change agriculture from being a “manned” sector to a hybrid sector. This can be done by automating many of the labour-intensive repetitive tasks with precision. Thus, saving lot of resources, time, effort and resulting in better output for farmers.
Broadly there are two schools of thought when it comes to AgRobots- Autonomy and Automation. Autonomy focuses on eliminating any human intervention with applications in large farms such as fully autonomous tractors. Automation breaks down labour intensive tasks into smaller tasks. The task can be automated for speed and efficiency to solve for looming labour challenges. Farmers face these challenges traditionally in the seeding, nurture, and harvest stages of farming. With breakthrough innovations in AI, the “compute” part of robots is getting more powerful. Thus, enabling small time models to be run on portable and dependable robots. While software is getting smarter, hardware is getting cheaper- this is the winning combination for robotics is agriculture to scale.
AgRobots for sustainable spraying
Spraying is one key pain area when it comes to Indian farmers as they heavily depend on blanket spraying. This involves blindly spraying the entire field with chemicals irrespective of whether it is plant or soil. Chemicals are intended only for the plant to protect them. Blanket Spraying results in tremendous wastage of water and chemicals making it highly unsustainable. To make matters worse blanket spraying is often carried out manually by a human with a knapsack sprayer putting their health at extreme peril. Blanket spraying can be very inconsistent resulting in over or under spraying of chemicals. Under spraying leads to decreased crop protection and over spraying compromises soil integrity, food safety and causes ground water contamination. For farmers, it drives up chemical costs and depletes soil nutrition in the long run.
TartanSense has developed accessible and reliable AI Spot Spray Robots that can automate laborious tasks which farmers’ today struggle to perform optimally. The Spot Spray robot is equipped with cutting edge computer vision and uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to spray chemicals only on the plant and not spray wastefully on the soil. Since the chemical is sprayed only on the plant, it saves up to 60% chemical input cost for farmers and in the long run preserves the nutritional value of their soil.
Future of AgTech
AgRobots have the potential to truly disrupt agriculture for the better. It can make laborious farming tasks exponentially easier by reducing input time, effort, and costs. 2023 is a paramount year for Agtech as a whole. Moreover, after years of R&D, the sector has matured to the point where it has started resolving problems faced by the farmer at ground level. In turn farmers are beginning to develop trust and have realistic expectations about AgTech. They seek tech that deliver results, are robust to withstand field operations and are accessible. Further, AgTech companies that embrace a farmer-first approach will lead agriculture into its new era of super-efficient and sustainable farming.
About the author:
Jaisimha Rao is the founder & CEO of TartanSense.
