The concept of smart farming is still emerging but hyped and widespread worldwide in the last five years. Its implementation is not yet fully realised in any part of the world, but rapid developments are happening in this domain. It is the concept of controlling each activity using agriculture tech to monitor, track, analyse and communicate every possible field parameter. It acknowledges immediate actions such as irrigation, nutrients, fertilisers, and pesticide application on the crops that help maintain crop health and growth.
Smart farming can mitigate current challenges the world is facing, such as hunger & poverty, nutrition-rich diet, climate change, global warming, and the carbon footprint of agriculture on the planet. With the tight management and optimisation of resources, reducing agricultural waste, emissions, and impact on the environment is achievable.
Smart Farming in India is a bit challenging for several reasons. Though India is an agricultural nation, it is a developing country with the second-largest population. India has its challenges to deal with, such as education, employment, economy, hunger, mass poverty and agriculture growth. Tremendous changes are happening within India with the youth and technology that are not easy to grasp for Indian farmers.
Most Indian farmers are illiterate and adamant about their conventional agricultural practices. The balance between the two is essential. Thus, the Indian government is leveraging various schemes such as Make in India, encouraging youth for farming, creating incubation centres such as Atal Incubation centre, and changing farmers’ attitude towards farming as agribusiness for further development.
The startup ecosystem was the recent successful step taken by the Government of India. Now, India is becoming a home for startups in each sector; Agriculture is not an exception! Agritech startups are dedicated to design and develop agriculture tech solutions that are affordable, suitable, customised for Indian farming.
Agriculture tech research and development is at the peak in India, with more than 400 agritech startups. Though it is not easy to deploy smart farming in India, the government and agricultural companies are working on awareness, training, experimentation offers with fixed minimum income, insurance policies and encouraging farmers to adapt agriculture tech. The result is Smart farming in India is taking place slowly, but its significant effects will be visible in the next few years.
The climate is different at different locations in the world. Thus, yield produced differs worldwide and demands other technological solutions. The agriculture tech made suitable for Indian subcontinent climate, geological and geographical parameters have a higher success rate. It increases the adoption rate in Indian farmers, leading to the slow but steady deployment of smart farming in India. As a fast-growing and developing nation, India has already achieved remarkable progress in each sector, and soon it will be independent in agriculture too!