Workers at Niqo Robotics riding a tractor with an AI-powered spot sprayer at a testing facility on the outskirts of Bengaluru. — AFP
Each morning, Indian farmer R. Murali opens an app on his phone to check if his pomegranate trees need watering, fertiliser or are at risk from pests.
“It is a routine,” Murali, 51, said at his farm in the southern state of Karnataka. “Like praying to God every day.”
Much of India’s vast agricultural economy – employing more than 45% of the workforce – remains deeply traditional, beset by problems made worse by extreme weather driven by climate change.
Murali standing beside a Waspmote device with AI sensors installed at his farm in Melur village, Chikkaballapur district. — AFP
Murali is part of an increasing number of growers in the world’s most populous nation who have adopted artificial intelligence-powered tools, which he says helps him farm “more efficiently and effectively”.“The app is the first thing I check as soon as I wake up,” said Murali, whose farm is planted with sensors providing constant updates on soil moisture, nutrient levels and farm-level weather forecasts.
He says the AI system developed by tech start-up Fasal, which details when and how much water, fertiliser and pesticide is needed, has slashed costs by a fifth without reducing yields.
“What we have built is a technology that allows crops to talk to their farmers,” said Ananda Verma, a founder of Fasal, which serves around 12,000 farmers.
A worker from BeePrecise, where a team has developed AI monitors to measure the health of beehives. — AFP
Verma, 35, who began developing the system in 2017 to understand soil moisture as a “do-it-yourself” project for his father’s farm, called it a tool “to make better decisions”.
Costly to maintain
But Fasal’s products cost between US$57 and US$287 (RM253 and RM1,273) to install.That is a high price in a country where farmers’ average monthly income is US$117 (RM519), and where over 85% of farms are smaller than 2ha, according to government figures.
“We have the technology, but the availability of risk capital in India is limited,” said Verma.
New Delhi says it is determined to develop homegrown and low-cost AI, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to co-host an AI summit in France opening on Monday.
Agriculture, which accounts for roughly 15% of India’s economy, is one area ripe for its application.
Farms are in dire need of investment and modernisation.
Water shortages, floods and increasingly erratic weather, as well as debt, have taken a heavy toll in an industry that employs roughly two-thirds of India’s 1.4 billion population.
India is already home to over 450 agritech start-ups with the sector’s projected valuation at US$24bil (RM106.45bil), according to a 2023 report by the government Niti Aayog think-tank.
But the report also warned that a lack of digital literacy often resulted in the poor adoption of agritech solutions.
Buzzing start-ups
Among those companies is Niqo Robotics, which has developed a system using AI cameras attached to focused chemical-spraying machines.
Tractor-fitted sprays assess each plant to provide the ideal amount of chemicals, reducing input costs and limiting environmental damage, it says.
Niqo claims its users in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh states have cut their outlay on chemicals by up to 90%.
At another start-up, BeePrecise, Rishina Kuruvilla is part of team that has developed AI monitors measuring the health of beehives.
That includes moisture, temperature and even the sound of bees – a way to track the queen bee’s activities.
Kuruvilla said the tool helped beekeepers harvest honey that is “a little more organic and better for consumption”.
State helpBut while AI tech is blossoming, take-up among farmers is slow because many cannot afford it.
Agricultural economist RS Deshpande, a visiting professor at Bengaluru’s Institute for Social and Economic Change, says the government must meet the cost.
Many farmers “are surviving” only because they eat what they grow, he said.
“Since they own a farm, they take the farm produce home,” he said.
“If the government is ready, India is ready.” — AFP
