NATIONAL CONFERENCE on Transformation of Agricultural Extension -

Strategies for Effective Reformation (TAESERE 2021)

Theme 5: Policy Interventions

Code: OP-5-
23

“Policy for promoting smart

farming technologies”
Name: Mathuabirami V
II Ph.D Scholar, Department of Agricultural
Extension and Rural Sociology
TNAU, Coimbatore
 Content
 Current scenario

 Smart farming
 Smart farming architecture
 Smart farming technologies

 Existing policies to promote smart farming

 Way forward

 Conclusion
Current scenario
 Concept of smart agriculture

 Sensing
Connectivity
Intelligence
Rajkumar and Sudarsanan (2020)
Smart farming architecture
 smart farming technologies

1. Automatic Weather station

2. Drones
3. Agricultural robots/Agribots
4. Driverless tractor
5. Smart green house
 1. Automatic Weather Station
• Assembly of various sensors to monitor various
environmental parameters to record and transfer this
data to some terminal equipment like PC or Server.

Typical sensors used in a weather station are,

• Air temperature
• Humidity
• Wind direction and speed (Anemometer)
• Barometric pressure
• Global radiation and radiation balance (Pyranometer)
• Precipitation / Rain
• Soil temperature
• Soil humidity and evaporation
 2. Drones in Agriculture
• An agricultural drone is an Unmanned Aerial
Vehicle (UAV) applied to farming in order to
increase crop production and monitor crop
growth.
Real-Time Monitoring
Crop monitoring

Soil analysis

Aerial Planting Spraying

• Monitoring plant
Drones
health
• Planting
• Seeding

• Drone sprayer
• Security

• Drone Pollination
• Drone irrigation
• Drone Artificial
Intelligence
 Benefits of Drone
• Identify pests, disease and weeds
• Optimize pesticide usage
• Refine fertilization
• Estimate crop yield
• Measure irrigation
• Replace problematic machinery
• Survey fencing and farm buildings
• Monitor livestock
 3. Agribots/ Agricultural Robots

• Collecting analytical data on soil and

plants
• Monitoring weed growth
• Seeding and spraying of pesticides

• Phenotyping of plants and herbs

• Sorting and Packing in post-production

 4. Driverless Tractors
• The tractor is the heart of a
farm, used for many different
tasks depending on the type of
farm .

• Tractors are the earliest machines

to be converted into autonomous.

• Human effort will be required to

set up field and boundary maps,
program the best field paths using
path planning software, and decide
other operating conditions..
5. Smart green house
 COVID 19 and Technology

“Globally, the supply chain in agriculture got

disrupted due to the impact of covid-19. Food

is now recognized as the top-most item in

terms of criticality. Agritech is one of the

ways to unlock the full potential of

agriculture in India."
 Existing policy to promote smart
farming
The Indian government supports smart farming enhance

productivity.

 At present, they are working to double the farmers’ income by

2022.

They want to increase farmers’ income with minimum efforts by

smart farming ideas.

NITI Aayog collaborates with the companies that include IBM

for technology-driven solutions.

Farmers get real time advice and are financed to increase crop

productivity.
 Along with this, the government of India plans to digitize the

PACS (Primary Agricultural Credit Society)

 Other supports that initiated by the government for smart

farming are MANAGE, mentoring the agri-tech start-ups,

PMKSY (Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana), and One

Nation One Market.

 The Indian government is also encouraging the use of technology

in agriculture. Policy think-tank NITI Aayog has partnered with

technology company IBM Corp, to develop a crop yield prediction

model using AI to provide real-time advisory to farmers.

 Similarly, Microsoft India is working with NITI Aayog to

lend its expertise in cloud, AI, and research for new

initiatives and solutions in the agriculture sector.

 Microsoft in collaboration with the International Crops

Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics

(ICRISAT) has developed an ‘AI Sowing App’ that sends

sowing advisories to participating farmers on the optimal

date to sow.
 Key challenges in Smart Farming adoption

Small landholdings
Unable to realize economies of scale in purchase of seeds,
manure, fertilizers, even in bank loans(considering transaction
cost, banks view it as uneconomical to provide small loans).
Farmers’ income
Low income means no access to capital for implementing the use
of IoT &other modern equipment that is needed for smart
farming.
Unskilled workers
Adequate training and education is required to firstly
understand the potential benefits of adopting smart farming and
subsequently implement and use SmartFarm devices, and also
understand insights and act on them
Availability of basic amenities like roads, electricity, and water
is a concern in certain remote areas
 Way forward

Identify the niche areas for the promotion of crop specific Smart

farming

Creation of multidisciplinary teams at central level involving agricultural

scientists in various fields, engineers, manufacturers and economists to

study the overall scope of smart agriculture.

Provide complete technical backup support to the farmers to develop

pilots or models, which can be replicated on a large scale.

• Pilot study should be conducted on farmers’

fields to show the results of Smart

agriculture implementation

• Creating awareness among farmers about

consequences of applying imbalanced doses of

farm inputs like irrigation, fertilizers,

insecticides and pesticides

 There is also a need for excellent engineers from institutions like IITs,

NITs, etc. to design machinery like robots and drones for Smart Agriculture.

 This can be facilitated by establishing a new branch of engineering called

agricultural mechatronics or robotics where faculty and students from ICAR

institutes, IITs, industries and farmers work together, interact and

collaborate to develop smart systems for Smart Agriculture

 Increase fund for IITs for promoting innovations pertaining to smart

agriculture

 Separate wing should be developed under ministry of education for

incorporating smart farming education in the higher education institutions

 Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity by helping the rural
poor to improve their livelihood through high-tech farming. The
government of India can facilitate in this process by giving soft
loans to the industry so that they get encouraged and engaged
themselves in agriculture and PA activities.

 High-tech Smart Agriculture therefore can help in bringing next

green revolution in India and can produce tremendous rural wealth
in a sustainable and environmentally sound way.

 In the light of today’s urgent need, there should be an all out effort
to use new technological inputs to make the ‘Green Revolution’ as an
‘Evergreen Revolution’.
 Conclusion

Smart Farming powered by analytics can be a boon to agricultural

productivity in India.

Area need attention.

A key area to be worked upon is the strategy to ensure economic

feasibility and ease of adoption.

Once, a policy framework is developed, the solution can then be scaled

across regions.

So, with the right framework and roadmap in place, it is likely that

smart Farming will enable Indian farmers to produce more and better

with less, and thereby earn more and enhance their standard of living.
• https://www.smart-akis.com/index.php/network/what-is-smart-
farming/#
• https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2018/05/data-analytics-i
n-the-indian-agriculture-industry/
• https://www.dataversity.net/predictive-analytics-use-cases/iegin
dia.org/ardl/Farmer_Incomes_Thiagu_Ranganathan.pdf
• https://www.precisionag.com/digital-farming/digital-farming-ke
ep-it-simple-analytics/
• http://www.preservearticles.com/economics/causes-for-low-pro
ductivity-of-indian-agriculture/6784
• https://www.zigya.com/study/book?class=12&board=cbse&subj
ect=Geography&book=India+People+And+Economy&chapter=L
AND+RESOURCES+AND+AGRICULTURE&q_type=&q_topic=Probl
ems+of+Indian+Agriculture+&q_category=&question_id=GEEN1
2121362