NITI Aayog, IBM to develop AI tool for real time advisory to farmers
05 May 2018
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NITI Aayog and IBM have signed a statement of intent to develop a crop yield prediction model using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide real time advisory to farmers in ‘aspirational districts.’
The aim is to use technology to provide insights to farmers and help them improve crop productivity and soil yield, control agricultural inputs with the overarching goal of improving their incomes.
“Bringing in future technologies like Artificial Intelligence into practical use will have tremendous benefits for the practice of agriculture in the country, improving efficiency in resource-use, crop yields and scientific farming,” said Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, while signing the statement of intent. “The ten Aspirational Districts chosen will be invigorated with cutting-edge technological support to leap-frog development of agri-based economies”.
The first phase of the project will focus on developing the model for 10 such districts in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh
The scope of the project is to introduce and make available climate-aware cognitive farming techniques and identifying systems of crop monitoring, early warning on pest / disease outbreak based on advanced AI innovations.
It also includes deployment of weather advisory, rich satellite and enhanced weather forecast information along with IT and mobile applications with a focus on improving the crop yield and cost savings through better farm management.
IBM will be using AI to provide all the relevant data and platform for developing technological models for improving agricultural output and productivity for various crops and soil types, for the identified districts.
NITI Aayog will facilitate the inclusion of more stakeholders on the ground for effective last-mile utilisation and extension, using the insights generated through these models.
“IBM is proud to be associated with NITI Aayog for working on the first of a kind project leveraging AI in agriculture across 10 districts in India, in phase one,” said Karan Bajwa, managing director, IBM India.
