The application of artificial intelligence is seen in various fields. Not just chatbots or AI art, i.e. writing, speaking or drawing, it is also being used in practical sectors like agriculture. Using artificial intelligence in agriculture is increasing yields, reducing wastage. Yield loss is less. This market of about 1 thousand billion dollars...
Agriculture is closely related to our living environment in this subcontinent. However, due to global warming, climate change, indiscriminate deforestation and inefficient or unplanned farming, our climate is gradually becoming hostile. Along with daily life these are directly affecting the agriculture sector.
In the last two to three years, digital content creation, visual editing, data processing and the use of artificial intelligence in communication have undergone massive changes. It is a matter of relief that it has started to be used in environmental protection and development in the agricultural sector.
According to a survey by Markets&Markets, the AI technology sector in agriculture will become a $1 billion industry by 2025. There are many reasons behind the creation of such a large market due to this combination of technologies. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, the use of artificial intelligence in agriculture can reduce water use for irrigation by half. It is possible to reduce the use of pesticides by 60 percent. As a result, firstly, the cost of farming will be reduced, the wastage will be reduced of precious groundwater and the use of harmful chemicals like pesticides will be reduced and health risks will be reduced..
Two of Google's teams, Google Partner Innovation and AnthroKrishi, have already started applying AI technology to agriculture in India.
The two teams are working on developing some technology powered by Google's artificial intelligence, which can help agriculture by providing meaningful information by processing agricultural data very easily and systematically. They call this foundation model Landscape Understanding (Landscape Understanding).
In this process, land boundaries are identified through machine learning using satellite images. In this way, different parts of the land are separated in Bhoomi. Land boundaries are measured, distinguishing between arable land, barren land and forest. Artificial intelligence will then use that information to plan general farming and appropriate irrigation during drought. It will tell, where to dig a well or where to get water from, in the shortest time, at a low cost, enough water can be reached in all the lands.
Apart from that, the research team is developing two different models for landscape monitoring (Landscape Monitoring) or 'geographic condition monitoring'. The function of these models is to provide more detailed informational advice for the lands. From this, the farmers can know details about the current yield of the cultivated land, its condition, what kind of fertilizers, organic materials and chemicals will be required on the land in the future. Such future landscape monitoring models will be able to work with agricultural information such as planted crops, land size, distance from water sources, seeding, crop harvesting time and more. These data will also be stored with this AI. In the future, artificial intelligence will be able to use past data to increase new yields and protect the land from adverse weather conditions such as floods and droughts.
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| This is how AI and satellite imagery are used in anthropology to capture important crop data. Image: Google |
This type of farming is precision farming or precision agriculture. Precision farming uses AI-powered sensors, drones and machine learning to monitor the growth and yield of crops from planting. As a result, farmers can instantly know about soil conditions, temperature, humidity, physical and quality conditions of crops grown. In this, they can protect the crop from hostile environment and increase the yield in certain areas by applying adequate amount of water irrigation and pesticides at the right time.
Many artificial intelligence-powered products and technologies have already entered the market to assist farmers in these tasks. US-based organization The Climate Corporation's FieldView (FieldView) platform uses AI to help farmers with various information for precision farming. It helps in crop cultivation by providing information on seeding rate, sowing distance etc. accordingly based on crop and land. The tool can also provide advance signals on weather changes, planting density, yield rates.
Another such AI-powered application is Plantix. The application developed by the German company Peat (PEAT) can identify soil nutrient deficiencies as well as what crop diseases may be present in the land, using this information to advise the use of fertilizers and pesticides suitable for that land and crop. For this, the farmer only needs to upload a few pictures of his crop. The app will do the rest by itself using artificial intelligence.
Another startup Intello Labs in India can provide detailed information about the condition of fruits or vegetables using computer vision and artificial intelligence. This can reduce wastage due to rotting of fruits and vegetables during marketing.
Netherlands-based company Agrocares develops AI-powered hardware and software for use in agriculture. The most popular among them is their Nutrient Scanner. The tool can take a soil sample of the land and tell if it is lacking in any elements. In this the farmer can prepare his land in advance with proper fertilizers for cultivation.
Several companies have started using AI in weed control as well. Among them, the most advanced automated technology is brought to the market by Blue River Technology. Their 'See and Spray' machine uses computer vision and machine learning to identify crops and weeds in the field separately. Then only the area where there are weeds, herbicide is applied to kill the weeds.
Agricultural chatbots like ChatGPT are also using artificial intelligence. Microsoft's Farmvibes. bot is one such chatbot.
In addition to farming, AI has also started to be used in livestock farming. A company called CattleEye is using AI and machine learning to care for cattle. With the help of drones, this technology constantly monitors the livestock. Observing how the animals are behaving, whether they are eating properly or not, whether there is any problem in giving birth etc. Using this information, it finds anomalies in the behavior and health of the cattle and informs the owner in advance. In this, appropriate measures can be taken for the animal very quickly.
Apart from these field applications, artificial intelligence is also being used in agricultural chatbots like ChatGPT. Microsoft's FarmVibes.bot is one such chatbot. Its function is to advise and advise the farmers personally considering the crops, land and climate. About five million farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are already benefiting from its use.
Many such artificial intelligence-driven technologies are now being used in different parts of the world, even in neighboring India. So the day is not far when the farmers of our country will also start enjoying the benefits of artificial intelligence like the upper and middle class of the society.
Sources: Google, Ziva and SmartTech Solutions