Although agriculture is a top producer and exporter of several commodities, its path in India for further improvisation is blocked by numerous challenges, giving more reasons for deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI).

According to a study titled "Leveraging AI to Optimize India's Agriculture Production" by Nasscom Ernst & Young, AI is expected to play a key role in easing the sector's stress and catalyzing the move to data-driven farming, which will help it expand.

Despite its 16 percent contribution to India’s GDP that helps in shaping the national economy, a lot of factors affect its performance potential; however, with the increased surge of government support, growing AgriTech providers, start-up ecosystem and rising digital adoption among rural farming population is providing a strong transformation impetus to the Indian agriculture sector, as per Nasscom’s report.

“Through good data practices, the Indian agriculture sector will take advantage of AI's disruptive capabilities. The Netherlands is a shining example of how AI can be used effectively in agriculture. By leveraging technology and AI the country has grown to become the world's second largest exporter of agricultural products, despite having only a limited arable land,” said Debjani Ghosh, president of Nasscom.

To name a few data consolidation, lack of infrastructure awareness in data processing and its availability are some of the on-going technical challenges that the sector battles to this date. On the other hand, lack of awareness on agricultural inputs, access to quality seeds, inadequate irrigation facilities and scarcity of farmer capital are some of the aspects that stand as its barriers.

The study stressed that, “AI has the ability to alleviate much of the sector's stressful input conditions, catalyzing a transition toward data-driven farming. Using macro and farm-level data collected via sensors to maximize yields and optimize the use of available resources would help maximize yields and optimize the use of available resources”.

“A partnership of government, industries, and startups in providing appropriate infrastructure and policy support, enabling AI innovation across sectors, and mentoring and providing financial support to startups is imperative for India to realize the full potential of AI,” she added.

Also, revenue development, creativity, and farmer/end-customer experience are priority areas for AI in agriculture enterprises, according to the survey findings. In addition, businesses see a dedicated AI plan and budget as a crucial prerequisite for scaling AI projects across the enterprise after Covid-19.

Nasscom stated that it will continue its efforts to catalyze AI adoption in India by enabling co-innovation and co-creation with startups, developing platforms for ideation and building of creative solutions, promoting research, and collaborating with the government to develop AI policy framework.