
The application of artificial intelligence is being seen in various fields. Not only in chatbots or AI art, i.e. writing, speaking or drawing, but it is also being used in practical sectors like agriculture. The use of artificial intelligence in agriculture is increasing yields and reducing wastage. Yields are being lost less.
Our lives in this agriculturally-dominated subcontinent are closely linked to the environment. However, due to global warming, climate change, indiscriminate deforestation and inefficient or unplanned farming, our weather is gradually becoming hostile. Along with daily life, these are directly affecting the agricultural sector.In the last two to three years, the use of artificial intelligence in digital content creation, visual editing, data processing and communication has brought about a huge change. The good news is that in the continuation of that, its use has also started in environmental conservation and development in the agricultural sector.
According to a survey by MarketsandMarkets, the AI technology sector in agriculture will take shape as an industry worth about 110 billion US dollars by 2025. There are sufficient reasons behind the creation of such a large market due to this combination of technology. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, in agricultureUsing artificial intelligence, it is possible to reduce water use for irrigation by half. It is possible to reduce pesticide use by 60 percent. As a result, firstly, costs in agriculture will be reduced, wastage will be reduced, valuable groundwater will be reduced, and health risks will be reduced due to the use of harmful chemicals like pesticides.
Two Google teams, Google Partner Innovation and AnthroKrishi, have already started applying AI technology to agriculture in India.The two teams are working on inventing some technologies powered by Google’s artificial intelligence, which can help in agriculture by processing agricultural data very easily and systematically and providing meaningful information. They call this foundation model Landscape Understanding or ‘Understanding the geological conditions’.
In this process, land boundaries are identified through machine learning using images obtained from satellites. In this way, different pieces of land are separated on the ground. The boundaries of the land are measured, arable land, barren land and forest areas are separated. Then, artificial intelligence will work to plan general cultivation and appropriate irrigation during droughts using that information.It will tell you where to dig a well or where to bring water from so that sufficient water can be delivered to all lands in the shortest time and at the lowest cost.
Apart from that, the research team is also developing different models for Landscape Monitoring or ‘monitoring of geological conditions’. The work of these models is to provide more detailed and informative advice for the lands. From this, farmers will be able to know in detail about the current yield, condition of the cultivated land, and what other types of fertilizers, organic materials and chemicals will be required in the land in the future. Such future landscape monitoring models will be able to work with all kinds of agricultural information including planted crops, land area, distance of land from water sources, seed sowing, crop harvesting time and many other agricultural information. This information will also be stored with this AI. In this way, during the cultivation of that land in the future, artificial intelligence will be able to help increase new yields from past data and protect the land from adverse weather conditions such as floods and droughts.
This type of farming is included in Precision Farming or Precision Agriculture. In Precision Farming or ‘Precision Agriculture’, various AI-powered sensors, drones and machine learning are used to monitor the development and yield of crops starting from planting. As a result, farmers can instantly know about the soil condition, temperature, humidity, physical and qualitative condition of the harvested crops. This allows them to protect the crops from hostile environments by applying sufficient amount of water and pesticides at the right time and also increase the yield in some areas.
Many artificial intelligence-driven products and technologies have already come to the market to help farmers in these tasks. The FieldView platform of the US-based company The Climate Corporation uses AI to help farmers with various types of information for Precision Farming. It helps in cultivating crops by providing information such as seeding rate, seedling distance, etc. based on the crop and land. This tool can also provide early signals about weather changes, planting density, and yield rates.
Indian startup Intello Labs can use computer vision and artificial intelligence to provide detailed information about the condition of fruits or vegetables.
Another such AI-powered application is Plantix. The application, developed by German company PEAT, can identify nutrient deficiencies in the soil, as well as what diseases the crop may have in the field, using this information to advise on the use of appropriate fertilizers and pesticides for that land and crop. For this, the farmer only needs to upload a few photos of his crop. The application will do the rest of the work using artificial intelligence.
Another Indian startup called Intello Labs can use computer vision and artificial intelligence to provide detailed information about the condition of fruits or vegetables. This can reduce the wastage of fruits and vegetables due to decomposition during marketing.
Agrocares, a Netherlands-based company, makes AI-powered hardware and software for agriculture. The most popular of these is their Nutrient Scanner. The tool can take soil samples and tell you which nutrients are lacking in them. This will allow farmers to prepare their land for cultivation with the right fertilizer in advance.
Several companies have also started using AI in weed control. The most advanced automated technology among them is brought to the market by Blue River Technology. Their ‘See and Spray’ machine can use computer vision and machine learning to identify crops and weeds separately in the field. It then applies herbicide only to the areas where weeds are present to kill them.
Artificial intelligence is also being used in agricultural chatbots like ChatGPT. Microsoft’s Farmvibes.bot is one such chatbot.Along with farming, AI has also started being used in cattle rearing. A company called CattleEye is using AI and machine learning in cattle care. This technology uses drones to monitor cattle at all times. It observes how the animals are behaving, whether they are eating properly, whether there are any problems with childbirth, etc. Using this information, it detects anomalies in the behavior and health of the cattle and informs the owner in advance. This allows appropriate action to be taken for the animal very quickly.
In addition to these uses in the field, artificial intelligence is also being used in agricultural chatbots like ChatGPT. Microsoft’s FarmVibes.bot is one such chatbot. Its job is to provide farmers with personalized advice and guidance considering the crop, land, and weather. About half a million farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are already using it and are benefiting from it.