AUGUST 201819here cannot be a more ironic coming together, than of the oldest vocation of mankind and its latest technology. A few years preceding the current ad-vent of digital technology, the mean-ing of `agri-tech' was limited to im-provements or modifications in farm implements, which could be used to till the land, sow the seeds, spray pesticides, apply fertilizers or har-vest the crops. At best, the innovation took the shape of a farmer sending a pic of a diseased crop to get a diag-nosis and remedy either by text or by call.However, latest strides in machine learning have prompted engineers to assess if there could be productive usage of the same in agriculture ­ and the results have been rewarding. Like in case of all innovations, these technologies are taking baby steps in gaining customer confidence and investor interest. There are instanc-es, all over the world now, of multiple start-ups entering the field of agri-tech and solving problems across the entire agricultural supply chain. The Agri-business canvas is quite massive, less understood, simplified to a fault and rarely addressed for improvements. The sector has been marred by low growth, limited in-novations, political interference and non-preference as a career choice by the brighter minds. It is not sur-prising therefore, that productivity, farmer incomes, efficiencies etc have continued to trail the rest of the eco-nomic sectors. The current advent of new age agri technologies prom-ises to change all this over a period of time.Let us now have a look at a few areas of application of AI with impli-cations and impact on Agriculture and Agri-Businesses:Field Preparation: There are technologies that area able to cor-rectly assess the field layout, and guide a tractor (with or without a driver) to prepare the field in such a pattern so as to maximize produc-tion. These technologies do away with the need to have a driver, they can accurately assess the lay of the land and move with a far greater pre-cision to maximize land usage. Seed Sowing: Seeds need to be sowed with adequate space between them, in a straight line or in a cer-tain pattern. AI based robotic appli-cations have now made it possible to do so. While doing so, they have replaced the manual method as well T
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