Digital Transformation Can Immensely Benefit Agriculture

At least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years if they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies.Inc42 predicts that by 2025 Indian agriculture will exceed US$ 24 billion and India’s food and grocery market will grow to 316.06 MT in FY 2021-22, with retail contributing 70 percent. Also, India has the sixth largest food and grocery market in the world. It is noteworthy that, in India, agriculture contributes about 17% to the total GDP and employs over 60% of the population. That being said, the agricultural sector in India is in a significant transitional phase enabled by technology, thanks to AI/ ML, IoT, and the likes. In this blog, we are going to explore as to how digital technologies can transform the agriculture sector and pave the way for better productivity and better results.

Improving the efficiency of agriculture

As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, Indian agriculture has been highlighted as vulnerable, which emphasizes the need for agricultural market reforms and digital solutions.This will  to connect farmers with markets, create safety nets and provide reasonable working conditions, and decentralize agriculture to make it more resilient. This dearth of inefficiencies and lack of resilience within the agricultural supply chain is where it can be rectified, and this is where digital transformation can take centerstage.

1. The Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Vehicles: Global Agricultural Robots Market value in 2021 was 43,356.7 million, according to a sBlueweave Consulting), a strategic consulting and market research firm. Over the period of 2022-2028, Tthe market will grow at a CAGR of 9.9%, reaching up to USD 81,930.3 million by 2028. Autonomous vehicles and smart farming bots are used for efficient harvesting, while automation in farming can lead to significant savings on waste, labor costs, and operational speed. Moreover, Artificial Intelligence can be utilized to reduce pesticide use in fields with autonomous seeding and weeding vehicles.
2. An IoT application in irrigation: Based on IoT technology, the automatic irrigation structure regulates the pump to supply groundwater to the farmer’s field and monitors soil humidity, pressure, and temperature. IoT-enabled soil and weather sensors can be used in irrigation systems such as SDI (Subsurface Drip Irrigation) to detect moisture and deliver water directly to the crop roots. By using these systems, water consumption is significantly reduced, and efficiency is significantly improved.
3. Livestock management using IoT: Infrared devices can be used to scan livestock feed to send nutrition reports directly to farmers’ mobiles using IoT-enabled sensors. These devices enable farmers to monitor temperature and humidity levels at their farms to maintain the health of their livestock.
4. Field monitoring with drones: Modernization of the agricultural sector becomes the need of the hour due to the ever-growing population. With the world population expected to reach 9.6 billion by the year 2050, food demand will be more which can be met only by enhanced crop yield. In this regard, drones can provide farmers with efficient monitoring and analytics regarding damage in their fields and soil conditions. This will help the farmers to take appropriate decisions and actions faster and at a reduced cost.

Enhancing Agricultural Resilience

Agricultural supply chains are becoming more uncertain and volatile due to climate change. However, there is no denying the fact that despite these barriers, digital technologies can help reduce uncertainty and increase resiliency.

1. Processing of Data: Data from historical harvests stored in the cloud can be analyzed to help make optimal decisions for the future.
2. Providing cloud solutions: As agriculture companies use farm management systems and share data across the value chain, cloud applications can provide strong processing power.
3. Analytics of Big Data: In the agricultural supply chain, big data analytics can be used to analyze weather patterns, consumer demands, and inventory levels to balance supply and demand.
4. The role of E-commerce in agriculture: By implementing e-commerce platforms, farmers can better control the supply chain and get up-to-date pricing information. Online sales also allow farmers to bypass intermediaries, which increases their income, reduces waste, and improves the quality of their products.

Sustainability of agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is based on the principle of meeting the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Thus, long-term stewardship of natural &resources as well as human resources is as important as short-term economic gains. That being said, digital technologies can help improve sustainability across the agricultural supply chain –

1. The Smart Cattle Farms: A farm’s carbon emissions can be monitored accurately using IoT-enabled sensors and analyzed using advanced analytics.
2. Transparency in agriculture: Block chain technology can have a variety of implications for improving agricultural sustainability. It allows transparency and trust in the supply chain by providing unaltered information about ethical practices and carbon emissions. Indeed, Blockchain technology is expected to have a significant impact on agriculture in the future.
3. Enhance efficiency, sustainability, and regulatory compliance: Farmer efficiency, sustainability, and cost reduction can be improved by digital transformation in the Agri-input supply chain. Due to the increasing number of environmental regulations, documentation, and compliance requirements, farmers are faced with a high regulatory burden. By using digital technologies in the Agri-input supply chain, crucial information can be retrieved quickly, and extensive archived data can be accessed to improve compliance with regulations.

Why transform agriculture digitally

Technology will be crucial to increasing agriculture’s productivity, revenue, and profitability in the future. Getting a digital infrastructure for your agriculture business is no longer a choice, but a necessity. In fact, leveraging the right technology facilitates safe and sustainable food production within the marketplace.

Get a free consultation now to choose the right digital solution for your business to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.

Ref: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/agricultural-robot-market-173601759.html
Ref: https://www.ibef.org/industry/agriculture-india
Ref: https://www.oecd.org/agriculture/topics/technology-and-digital-agriculture/
Ref: https://dford.co.in/3-ways-of-digital-transformation-to-improve-agriculture/