AI for agriculture a major topic as Prime Minister and Google CEO meet virtually

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and discussed a host of topics, reported the Prime Minister’s office. The topics that were discussed included data security and concerns related to it like safety of private data.

One key issue that caught the eye was the use of technology to transform lives of farmers and helping them through online education and the use of artificial intelligence in it.

The government has been actively trying to attract private investment in the field of agriculture.

The reforms done last month to give farmers more options to sell their produce outside of APMC Mandis were a large step in this direction.

The scope of Artificial Intelligence has been increasing with the technology being used to forecast natural disasters like flood, earthquake which can have a very positive impact on Indian agriculture.

In the recent years farmers have been trying to grow new crops in order to increase their income and we have seen many stories where modern technologies are being used to grow crops irrespective of the geographical area, soil conditions or rainfall. However, not every farmer has the resources to be innovative and this is where Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to make farmers experience the fields and give them a more comprehensive idea about different aspects of agriculture.

The Google flood forecasting model uses real time data after which an Elevated Map is created which shows how high the water can elevate in a flood so evacuation process can be completed at the earliest.

But there are several problems as maps and proper surveys of every area is not available and it is where the government should partner with private companies to do a proper topological survey an area before applying these techniques. This is just one of the many things in which AI can be helpful.

Google has recently announced an investment of Rs. 75000 crore in the next 5-7 years and the government should make sure that its technology reaches across the country.