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AI in
Agriculture
DR. BUSHRA PRAVEEN

Role of AI in Agriculture
Although AI is making a significant impact in all the domains, Agriculture sector is something which getting
a greater attention in recent times across the globe.
Agriculture sector contribute to the economic growth, hence considered to be a backbone of any economy.
 Worldwide agriculture industry is $5 trillion. At the same time, the population is expected to grow more
than 9 billion by 2050.
The supply-and-demand analysis for food reflects that in spite of a 50% increase in crop production in the
last ten years, the rate of increase of food production will not be sufficient enough to feed the increasing
global population which is projected to reach approximately ten billion by 2050
This will lead to push agricultural production by 70% to fulfil the demand.
Moreover, land water and other natural resource became insufficient.

India is not different from other countries where we face these challenges.
In particular, Agriculture remains a high-priority sector of the Indian economy, accounting for
the livelihoods of around 58% of the country’s population.
 It also occupies a prominent position in the global economy and contributes 11.9% of the gross
value added (GVA) in global agriculture (USD 3,320.4 billion) second only to China.
It is the 7th
largest country geographically in the world with 328 Mha area. India has about 160
Mhaof arable land, second largest after the United States of America and experiences all the
15 prominent climates with 46 out of 60 soil-types that exist on the earth. About 50% of its
total geographical area is cultivated which ranks it among the top user of the land for
agriculture.
 In the more geographically suitable Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) and the deltas of the eastern
coast, the proportion of cultivated to total geographical area often exceeds 90%

 Indian agriculture, one of the oldest systems of the world; is diverse,
heterogeneous, unorganized and often subjected to vagaries at various phases from
‘seed to market’.
It is the critical sector of economy for the sustainable and inclusive economic growth
of the country.
The sector engages 49.6% of the workforce, often seasonally, under-employed,
under-paid and accounts for about 17% share in India’s Gross Domestic Product
(GDP)

Given the importance of agriculture and shortage of agriculture production, requires a
smarter innovation to increase the productivity.
Hence, Technology has become critical in driving all major global economies forward.
All sectors, including agriculture, are innovating to address complex problems. India,
being one of the largest economies in the world, is no exception and witnessing a
huge technological transformation since the last two decades.
Flagship programmes like ‘Digital India’ and ‘Startup India’ have resulted in the
country becoming the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world, growing at a year-
on-year (YoY) rate of 12–15%.

Though agriculture in India is at a transitory juncture, with a focus on integration of
technologies for better operations, the sector still faces several challenges across the
value chain.
These challenges require disruptive interferences which can be provided by technological
solutions.
The entire system needs to adapt to a holistic approach which can be built upon
indigenous and traditional farming knowledge integrated with transformative smart
farming practices, including adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and techniques.
Adoption of AI technologies will pave the way for higher production with the optimum
utilisation of available resources and facilitate predictive analysis, crop health
management, enhance quality and traceability, etc.

The adoption of innovative and transformative smart farming practices in the
country is gradually becoming a major trend.
Smart and technology-driven resource management, modernisation of agri supply
chains, climate risk mitigation strategy, digitising farm collectives as farmer producer
organisations (FPOs), emergence of a start-up ecosystem and Government initiatives
in digital farming are some of steps being taken to encourage smart farming
practices

From the global market point of view, smart agricultural systems and technologies, including
AI and machine learning (ML), are showing remarkable growth with the investment and
expenditure trends expected to triple by 2025 to USD 15.3 billion, out of which AI
technologies alone are projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.5%
Within AI interventions, internet of things (IoT) enabled agricultural (IoTAg) monitoring is
considered to be the fastest-growing technology segment, projected to be worth USD 4.5
billion by 2025.
The global market size for AI in agriculture stood at USD 852.2 million in 2019 and is
expected to reach USD 8,379.5 million by 2030, exhibiting a CAGR of 24.8%14 during the
forecast period (2020–2030). This market growth is propelled by increasing penetration of IoT
in the agriculture industry with implementation of data generation through sensors and aerial
images for crops, leading to an increase in crop productivity through deep-learning technology

Further, technology advancements in recent years are reengineering both the
upstream and downstream segments of the agri value chain. Cutting-edge
technologies in AI such as IoT, ML, cloud computing, statistical computing, deep
learning, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are enabling the sector to
overcome the challenges of productivity, quality, traceability and carbon emission
with enhanced profitability.
Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being predominantly used in the
agriculture sector.
Kisan drones are likely to bring change through accurate weather forecasts and
secure, precise crop analytics which are AI enabled and accessible.

Multi-spectral and imaging features of drones can aid crop stress monitoring, assess
a plant’s growth stage, yield prediction and help in delivering fertilisers, herbicides
and water.
Drones can also help assess crop health, weed infliction, pests and infections
status, and suggest judicious use of chemicals to address these issues.
Hence, drone technology can help enhance the efficiency and consistency of crop
management along with making it cost effective

There has been considerable development in the usage of drones in the agriculture
sector.
The Government of India (GoI) has also made a few important announcements
towards the use of drones in the agriculture sector, and the notification of Drone.
Rules, 2021, launch of the drone Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and
introduction of a single-window Digital Sky Platform are some of the important steps
taken by the GoI.
As the agriculture sector of the country develops further, the usage of drones in
farming methods is predicted to grow with many start-ups investing in low-cost drones
which can support farmers, enhance their knowledge and generate employment for
the rural youth.

The GoI has been continually formulating and implementing policies and
schemes to promote digital transformation in agriculture with increased
impetus on supporting the ecosystem players, including agri-based start-
ups.
The Government is also enabling an institutional ecosystem for AgriTech
start-ups through incubators/accelerators.
It has adopted the theme of ‘AI for All’ and laid down broad
recommendations for nurturing the AI ecosystem in India through the
NITI Aayog.

Challenges
Despite the progress in creating and nurturing an AI-enabled ecosystem, the
agriculture sector faces a number of issues and challenges that need to be
addressed for facilitating a smooth transition.
The major challenges with the innovation and technology aspects of AI in the
agriculture sector are limited pool of AI and sectoral expertise, existing gaps in
public AI research, poor data quality and lack of access to data, lack of
coordination and cross-border collaboration.
The adoption and application aspects of AI in agriculture have limitations in
terms of achieving scale, IoT devices, data annotation, data security and
privacy, and technical understanding.

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO AI IN AGRICULTURE

Discussed below are six major
trends that are paving the way for
such transformation.

Six major trends
1. Smart and technology-driven resource management:
 Water management is one of the most important initiatives in terms of optimum utilisation of resources. Such
initiatives range from watershed management to drip irrigation. The GoI has focused on this extensively and
started the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) with a total allocation of INR 50,000 crore19
(from 2015–16 to 2019–20) for a period of five years.
As a part of the allocation, INR 4,000 crore has been earmarked under the Per Drop More Crop programme of
the PMKSY for improving irrigation efficiency. Geotagging of assets under the scheme can be monitored through
the Bhuvan app for better implementation across the country.
Similarly, the Fertiliser Monitoring System (FMS) software is introduced to monitor the movement of fertilisers at
different stages across the value chain. Relevant information such as rate of concession on fertilisers,
maximum retail prices (MRPs), dispatch details, fertiliser receipts and company details are provided on the
website.

Six major trends
2. Climate risk mitigation strategy:
Several initiatives are being taken to create a climate risk mitigation strategy as India
suffers from huge crop losses owning to the erratic weather conditions in the country.
Solutions for early warning systems are playing a vital role in estimating and
minimising risks incurred due to sudden climate-change scenarios. Automatic weather
stations (AWS) are examples of one such initiative.
They consist of weather and lightning sensors, rain gauge and data loggers to
measure the atmospheric conditions and provide prior weather-related information for
production planning

Six major trends
3. Modernisation of the agri supply chain:
Integration in the agriculture sector is enhancing with better connects in the value chain,
access to the global market and along with environmental concerns, food safety and quality,
animal welfare regulations are also increasingly impacting the sector.
To minimise the supply chain losses, efforts are being put to enhance the efficacy of operations
by focusing on critical factors such as quality, traceability, logistics and distribution.
Smart/responsible sourcing technologies are used through predictive market demand
forecasting using AI and prescriptive intelligence for route optimisation is obtained using AI/ML.
 Also, data-driven simulation modelling of food systems and quality with traceability are
maintained by using AI-integrated systems.

Six major trends
4. Preponderance and digitising farm collectives as FPOs:
Farmer producer organisations (FPOs) are formed when individual small and marginal
farmers come together and engage in farming operations and businesses as members
of an aggregated body.
FPOs help in creating opportunities for better credit facilities, insurance terms, post-
harvest management (PHM) infrastructure for quality management, precision
agriculture solutions for better crop management, etc.

Six major trends
5. Emergence of a start-up ecosystem:
A number of start-ups working on different aspects of digital/smart agriculture have
been founded. There is scope for more incubation and funding support for these start-
ups.
The global AgriTech market grew by 35.4% between 2019–2020 and is further
projected to grow between 2020–27 at a CAGR of 12.1%.
India is also growing in this segment along with China and the US. The GoI is
supportive of technology adoption and has invested in more than 300 AgriTech start-
ups during 2019–20, totalling to INR 3,150 crore.

Six major trends
6. Government initiatives in digital farming:
Adoption of innovative technologies is becoming one of the major driving forces for increasing productivity and promoting
agricultural development.
In addition to growing focus on technological adoption for increasing production, productivity and farm incomes, policies for
agricultural development are also being emphasised.
The Government has initiated multiple projects based on new technologies like AI, blockchain, remote sensing and geographic
information system (GIS), drones and robots through a digital mission for 2021–2025.
The Ministry of Agriculture has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for pilot projects with many of the major industry
players in the digital market.
The GoI is also focusing on digitising farmers’ data with the India Digital Ecosystem for Agriculture (IDEA) initiative.
This National Farmers Database is an ‘AgriStack’ with a collection of technologies and digital databases of farmers and other
stakeholders in the agriculture sector. It includes digitised land records and other relevant information for farmers. Such digitised
farmer endowment data facilitates in providing benefits under various schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman
Nidhai (PMKSNY) and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).
 A lot of data collected through these systems has information of different aspects of agriculture and enhances the possibility of
implementing AI technologies in farming systems.

Six major trends
Thus, it is observed that the Indian agricultural ecosystem is in the
process of infusing technologies aiming at enhancing the incomes of
farmers.
These innovations are driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and
comprises technologies such as AI, ML, IoT, big data, drones and
blockchain, and aimed at bringing rapid mand large-scale changes to
increase efficiency and productivity of the sector.

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A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO AI IN AGRICULTURE

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