The Times Of India - Delhi, 2017-11-10 Cropped page Page: AA4

Copyright 2016 Olive Software 2017-11-13 03:33:03

TimesSpecial

Anand J & Shilpa Phadnis | TNN

In Andhra Pradesh’s Devanakonda mandal in Kurnool district, farmers look to the sky for rain to nourish their groundnut

and cotton crops. Their land-holdings are just two to three acres, and most depend on gut feel and experience to decide when to sow.

Last year, International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Andhra Pradesh govern-ment and Microsoft partnered to add technology to the mix. Microsoft used its Azure cloud platform to study 40 years of data on weather patterns, soil conditions and more, built a modelling framework with ICRISAT, applied machine learning technologies, and started sending SMS adviso-ries on sowing to farmers.

Cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelli-gence technologies, and pow-erful communication and col-laboration tools — all of which today come at low costs — are enabling societies to gather and analyse large volumes of data in ways that were impos-sible before, and deliver criti-cal and useful information to the least privileged. In agricul-ture, education and health-care, technology has the poten-tial to transform lives and a number of companies are taking the first step.

Rajan Anandan, MD of Google India, says it’s a matter of time before someone does in healthcare, education and agriculture what Airtel did in telecom — revolutionise the sector by bringing quality ser-vice at low prices.

In Devanakonda, the SMS alerts proved their worth when it rained in May, and some farmers decided to sow. The model recommended June, and 175 farmers went by this advice. Those who sowed early suffered because there was a dry spell, which de-stroys groundnut, after the plants flowered. “Those who went by our advice saw an av-erage 30% higher yield than those who sowed early,” says Suhas P Wani, director of Asia Research Program at ICRI-SAT. The programme has been expanded to cotton, ragi, rice and maize in 13 districts of AP. ICRISAT and Microsoft have entered an understanding

with Karnataka to develop an agricultural commodity price forecasting model for tur crop. “This year we should reach 2,500 farmers in Andhra, and 1,200 in Karnataka. By next year, the number should be 10,000 in each state,” says AVR Kesava Rao, honorary fellow and scientist (agroclimatolo-gy) at ICRISAT.

A senior Cisco executive notes that two-thirds of the population is in rural areas, but two thirds of our resourc-es are in urban areas. “New

technologies are enabling the transfer of the latter strengths to the former,” he says.

Cisco was among the first to attempt socially transfor-mative projects using technol-ogy. In 2010, when floods rav-aged parts of north Karnata-ka, the networking giant ad-opted five villages in Raichur district, rebuilt over 3,000 homes, and established four networked schools and a digi-tal healthcare centre. Teach-ers in Bengaluru delivered live video courses over the inter-net in English, mathematics, science, and social science to 1,000 children in the newly-equipped schools. The health-care centre enabled live re-mote consultations with doc-tors in Bengaluru.

Anil Bhansali, MD of Mi-

crosoft India R&D, says the company worked with the AP government to develop a model that can predict which student is likely to drop out of school so that authorities can make appro-priate interventions.

Similarly, Nandan and Rohini Nilekani’s EkStep is using technology tools to measure the learning and performance levels of gov-ernment school students, and determine appropriate inter-ventions. EkStep estimates

that it has touched 1 to 3 mil-lion children through its partner organisations. Shan-kar Maruwada, co-founder and CEO of EkStep, says technology by itself may not solve issues, but can improve the capabilities of people, organisations and govern-ments to solve problems.

A number of startups are working on a variety of mod-els that exploit new technolo-gies. IIT-Madras graduate Vi-vek Rajkumar’s Aibono uses drones to do multispectral aerial imaging of plant leaves to understand the health of a crop, and advises farmers on what NPK (nitrogen, phospho-rus, potassium) fertiliser ratio to use. “A simple change in NPK ratio can alter produc-tion by a good margin,” says

Rajkumar, who has been fund-ed by early Facebook investors Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, and works with more than 250 farmers in the Nilgiris.

Rohtash Mal, a former CEO of tractor firm Escorts, has established what can be called an Uber for tractors. “Only 10% of the country’s farmers can afford farm ma-chinery. How to reach the country’s 90% was our ques-tion,” says Mal. His EM3 pro-vides farm machinery and vehicles on demand. Technol-ogy allows him to ensure speedy service and transpar-ent billing.

In healthcare, technology is easing the path in places where doctors are hard to reach. Geetha Manjunath’s Niramai, for instance, uses thermal images and artificial intelligence to assess energy level in cells and detect breast cancer remotely and at lower costs. Bengaluru-based Sig-Tuple uses a small camera to read pathology samples and send the data to a cloud server that analyses and produces a digital report instantly.

However, large-scale com-mercial models are yet to emerge. Long-term success may require users to pay for what they use, and the par-ticipation of private entities who have the knowledge and incentive to run such projects. The Cisco executive says the country is at the phase of get-ting people to understand what technology can do for them, and large, successful projects will emerge in time.

Welcome to the era of smart farming

Former CEO of tractor firm Escorts Rohtash Mal has established what can be called an Uber for tractors. “Only 10% of our farmers can afford farm machinery. How to reach the 90% was our question,” says Mal

Getty Images

New tech is revolutionising agriculture. Farmers can now rely on AI models that predict the best time to sow, use drones to map crop-health and rent tractors on Uber-style apps

BE A SMART TOI CITIZEN REPORTERKeep mobile phone’s GPS on while clicking and sending picturesDescribe exactly where and when picture was taken, giving street names and other locators

More photos, videos on timesofindia.com

Tandoors add to poisonCITIZEN REPORTERMANDHATA SINGH

Debris, mud left on roadCITIZEN REPORTERDEVENDER DHINGRANARWANA ROAD, IP EXT

MOHAN ESTATE, MATHURA ROAD

No ban on truck entryCITIZEN REPORTERPRASHANT PRAKASH

SONIA VIHAR BORDER

This is public transportCITIZEN REPORTER YATIN SETHI

VASANT KUNJ

THIS IS WHY DELHI IS SO POLLUTED

Diesel gensets still usedCITIZEN REPORTERVIRENDER KUMAR

ANAND VIHAR RLY STN

THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHIFRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2017

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 10-11-2017 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: CAP32 User: mohit.mathur2 Time: 11-09-2017 21:00 Color: CMYK

r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7

I CITIZENI REPORTER

I 4*

1 C l v'̂l 4

`' J )

.

+ r y i3 a f Q i C Y x i tn. v '

. I

1 y_, ,T J

7.k.vL

I nI'

J, . _ ,x '

rat' 1

r f1 F - oLav ' 1E

1 aF I1 di 1

1 .,w - 1 11 C 1

11 41 11 11 11 11 1

1 - t N K t 1 1

1 N It

;' I 11 J . .

_ _I ri _1 x - t i 11 " 11 1

1 - 1- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - J

. _ ..> ..