?Smart? Farming

An aap developed by entrepreneur Ananda Verma and his colleague Shailendra Tiwari is changing the way agriculture is being practiced in Karnataka villages. The two IITiansbuilt anInternet of Things (IoT)-led device which can enable farmers to gain control over the process of growing crops, making it more predictable and improving its efficiency. It will help farmers to micro-manage their farm operations sitting at a distant place. Of late, several technological interventions are transforming farming, which is becoming more industrialised and technology-driven. The duo says through their app ‘Fasal’ they could predict weather conditions, soil moisture, soil nutrients, pest attacks and more.

 

Ananda and Shailendra hail from agricultural families in UP. In 2017, they bought a plot of land near Mysore to grow ‘coloured capsicum’ (bell peppers) as a hobby. They realised that growing horticulture crops required close monitoring and attention.

 

To address the issue of information scarcity and lack of visibility, the duo came up with Fasal by the end of 2017. By 2018, they registered it as a startup.

 

The startup has built an IoT-led device with remote sensors that can be placed at farms to record crop, soil, and weather conditions. The data thus collected is analysed using artificial intelligence to generate farm-specific, crop-specific, and crop-stage-specific intelligence that is delivered to farmers in vernacular languages through the Fasal app. By using IoT sensors to collect environmental and machine metrics, farmers can make informed decisions, and improve just about every aspect of their work – from livestock to crop farming. For example, by using smart agriculture sensors to monitor the state of crops, farmers can define exactly how many pesticides and fertilizers they have to use to reach optimal efficiency.

 

“Fasal takes the guesswork out of farming and helps run farms on autopilot mode. Farmers can monitor their farms anytime, anywhere without being present on the field. Our goal is to help them make data-driven decisions on disease outbreaks, irrigation patterns, and crop care practices.” Fasal measures both macro and micro conditions, including soil moisture, rainfall, canopy temperature, and various other environmental factors.

 

“Overspraying ruins crops and leaves a chemical residue that can cause cancer. That is why India doesn’t have export varieties of fruits and vegetables. Foreign markets have strict guidelines on residue limits,” Ananda says. Also, farmers over irrigate because they have no definitive way to assess the amount of water needed in the crop’s life cycle. The soil may look dry on top, but it retains water at the root zone. As a result, agriculture is fast depleting India’s largest natural resource – water. Fasal not only solves this problem of over-irrigation with precise data, but also incentivises farmers for saving water through its new ‘Water Credit’ initiative aimed at promoting sustainable agriculture.

 

Farmers who maintain a certain water level for maximum hours in a month stand to get their entire Fasal subscription money refunded. About 25 farmers have already been allocated water credit since October 2020. The startup claims to have saved three billion litres of freshwater to date. Farmers using the platform are also witnessing significant spikes in profits and “huge water savings” even in the driest regions of Maharashtra.