Indian farming is modernising fast, but many (small) farmers are unaware what precision farming can do for them. Prices are also a bottleneck.
the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme (PM-KISAN).
South India leads Farmers of Southern states Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, are adopting vari- ous precision agricultural methods to boost crop yields. With precision agriculture farmers can increase their revenue by 35% to 60% per acre. It can also counter water pollution from agriculture, Accenture Interactive India’s Achal Sharma said on the sidelines of the World AgTech Congress in Delhi recently. Sharma also said that precision digital agriculture is cur- rently very much in demand. It presents signif- icant potential in enhancing food productivity while at the same time providing sustainable management of resources. According to a TechSci Research 2018 report, India’s precision agriculture market is growing at an average of 10% and was valued at $ USD 85 million. The report states that increasing demand for data related to the condition of crops, local weather predictions and soil will further boost precision agriculture. However, high cost and lack of
awareness about technologies and their ad- vantages present a major challenge. Speaking about the challenges in Northern and Western India, Sharma said that the varying level of mobile connectivity is a major concern.
Agri in numbers
Small and marginal holdings (less than 2 ha) account for 85% of the total opera- tional holdings, farming 157.35 million ha or 44% of the total operated area. The aver- age size of holdings for all operational classes (small & marginal, medium and large) has declined over the years: down to 1.16 ha in 2010-11 from 2.82 ha in 1970-71. In 2018-19 India’s tractor sales went up 10.24% at 878,476 units, compared to 796,873 in 2017-18. The largest arable crop is rice (44 million ha), followed by wheat (29.65 million ha). India’s wheat yield rose annually by 1.8% from 1983 to 2013, for rice this was 1.71% annually. This is slow compared to China.
Other than the government, many private players are already operating in India’s preci- sion agriculture market, including John Deere, Trimble, SatSure, Fasal, Aibono, AgCode, Cro- pin, Intello Labs, Tech Mahindra Limited, Jain Irrigation Systems Limited, etc. These compa- nies are providing weather tracking and fore- casting, crop scouting, field mapping and yield monitoring, among others services.
Opportunities With Indian agriculture and allied sectors on the verge of adopting new technologies from IoT and agri drones, foreign companies can play a very important role in supplying these new gadget to farmers. Though there are many India companies active, close to 267 mil- lion farmers need to be catered for. This ena- bles private and foreign entities to expand their footprint in this part of the globe. Howev- er, their technologies also need to be afforda- ble. To cater for them, government, industry, and research institutions have to form a con- sortium, so that agritech start-ups can flourish and meet the demands of Indian farmers.
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