Farming to go smart, produce better yield

Kerala State IT Mission signs agreement with Cisco to equip farmers with latest technological tools

Farm workers preparing land for the season’s first paddy crop at a field, near Alathur, in Palakkad | File

The Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) is embarking on a project to equip farmers in the State with the latest technological tools and develop a smart, connected ecosystem for better agricultural output.

KSITM signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IT and networking company Cisco on Monday to bring the benefits of digital technology and data science to farmers in the State and encourage the development of digital skills in local communities.

Cisco will provide technical assistance for the project under its Country Digitization Acceleration (CDA) programme.

The first phase of the initiative will be rolled out in 15 panchayats across Kannur district.

Cisco will build an Agri-Digital Infrastructure (ADI) platform and set up Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) for knowledge delivery and provide access to e-learning and advisory services to the farming and fishing communities in the district.

Databank on farms

The ADI platform will provide access to a databank with data on paddy and prawn farms in the region along with land and farmer profile databases.

The databank will extract insights on crop yields, weather patterns, plant disease patterns, soil quality, moisture content, forecasting and other data, and make it available to farmers and government officials through the VKCs.

The ADI platform will be supplemented by a custom-built smart agricultural platform that uses IoT sensors, non-IoT databases and satellite/UAV images to gather and relay real-time information on soil content, moisture, weather conditions and other paramaters.

The system is designed to provide data-based recommendations and insights to improve agriculture planning, reduce the risk of crop failure and overall operational costs.

Information

Through the VKCs, farmers can access essential information on government policy updates, crop advisory services, market trends, rates and best practice videos.

They will also gain access to financial assistance from the government on a content management system through a mobile application and web portal.