As temperatures keep varying year-on-year, it has become the top conversation topics among the agriculturists. Notwithstanding which part of the discussion you are on, specialists have given enough proof to propose that climate change influences everything — directly from the economy to the ventures. Be that as it may, mostly, the greatest danger of environmental change happens discreetly in the agricultural foundation.
It has radically affected the makers of raw food materials. Truth be told, worldwide harvest creation is anticipated to diminish in a few regions in the 21st century, inferable from climate changes. Among other atmosphere related dangers, higher reliance on ground and rainstorm water for the irrigation system is the most critical hazard factor for farmers.
The answer to agricultural risks needs an all-encompassing and coordinated methodology through approach mediation, development, and venture. Here is a gander at a part of the Agritech advancements created over the most recent couple of years that are attempting to help agro-organizations address climate change risks.
Climate-Predictive Data-Driven Models
It’s been long since we have witnessed the usage of satellites and weather stations in forecasting weather events. And this same innovation has changed over the years with improved technology, hardware, processors, cloud storage, and deep learning models. Today, the field-level data assembled using IoT devices, smartphones, and sensors communicate with satellites, weather stations, and drones to provide high accuracy for building predictive models.
This sophisticated modeling requires the combined expertise of meteorologists, engineers, hydrologists, data scientists, and agronomists. Some Indian Agritech startups like CropIn, Farmguide, SatSure, and Skymet have built such models for large tracts of farmland with the help of satellite imagery and weather stations.
Similarly, some other organizations like AgSmartic, Senseitout, Cultyvate, BharatAgri, Fasal, and Krishitantra have gone more in-depth with the use of IoT, sensors, and smartphones. Their primary objective was to produce real-time farm advice on the usage of fertilizers, water, crop health monitoring, and preventive measures. The convergence of these data models is proven to help the farmers and other value chain players by offering accurate climate risk predictions.
Asset Conservation
The water preservation strategies like a drip and microsystems have existed for quite a while over the globe. However, it’s not just water, but soil conservation also needs immediate attention in today’s climate risk environment. With the decline in soil fertility and humus stock, one can see tremendous scope for a quantum enhancement in soil fertility through a tailored fertilizer model to rectify the NPK ratio.
This preservation of both the water and soil can be supplemented by improving pesticide utilization with drone applications, information-driven models, and bio-pesticides. Some of such Agritech developments are as per the following:
- EF Polymer has fabricated a polymer from bio-waste extracts for higher water maintenance in the foundation of yields.
- BoreCharger is one of the low-cost models designed for borewell recharge that enhances yield production from deeper aquifers.
- Distinct Horizon is a profound placement Urea machine worked to decrease the utilization of urea by 40% and GHG outflows with a 10 to 60% expansion in the yield.
- aQysta has delivered the Barsha siphon to use the hydro vitality from streams and waterways to siphon water without requiring power and fuel.
Many such Agritech innovations help the farmers to make their production mainstream.
Reduced Carbon Footprint
Most of the Agritech innovations have contributed to reducing carbon footprints. Some of the farm-to-fork startups like WayCool, Ninjacart, SuperZop, ShopKirana, DeHaat, and Kamatan have already brought energy efficiency through its storage, route optimization, and demand aggregation in the supply chain.
Similarly, the post-harvest interventions using a cold chain, logistics solutions, dehydration, and farm-level processing such as Agrigator, Ourfood, Ecozen, Inficold, S4S Technologies, Tessol, Promethean, and Tan90 have significantly lessened the usage of energy and fossil fuels.
The indoor cultivating, greenhouse arrangements, and controlled farming alongside hydroponics are helping the agro-businesses in improving efficiency per unit of water and vitality, and in this way, lessening food miles given the closeness of providers to significant utilization communities.
Efficient and Optimized Fields
A dynamic and optimized farming method, also known as smart farming, works on analysis and research to achieve an intelligent farm ecosystem. Below are some of such techniques to build this ecosystem:
- Precision Farming: With the use of data collected by satellites, sensors, and drones, the agricultural industry can precisely judge various kinds of crops and tracts.
- Hydroponics: This method involves growing plants without the addition of soil, but by providing the mineral nutrients via water in the right amount. This method guarantees an all-year-round production while protecting the yields from climate change.
- Automated Irrigation: This is an automatic and adaptive irrigation service known to increase crop yield, and save both the water and energy cost while preserving the environment.
- Vertical Farming: Here, the crops are grown in vertical layers with the help of lighting supplements, water irrigation systems, oxygen, and other gases. Vertical farming is an easy and efficient approach in dense urban spaces.
- Weather Forecasts: This is used to optimize the planting and harvesting of crops to produce higher yields.
Farm Maintenance Technology
The robotics and automated machinery in the agricultural organization result in increased efficiency of agricultural production. The automatic mechanism can help farmers in the following ways:
- Identifying the right produce precisely.
- Picking the ripe produce for harvesting.
- Optimizing water usage for crop growth.
The processes mentioned above consumes a lot of time and resources when done manually, however automating them can speed up the operations on the farm and help them against climate conditions.
Agricultural Logistics
In several cases, customers are unaware of the origin of the vegetables and fruits sold in the market. To help them out, Agritech companies have utilized big-data and blockchain technologies. Big data helps the farmers and agro-businesses in:
- Planning and managing the food supply chain at both regional and national levels.
- It helps them with metrics like weather conditions, crop efficiency, and soil structure changes that can be utilized to make future decisions with outstanding precision.
Similarly, blockchain is revolutionizing this sector by assisting the businesses to connect with end-users directly. With the help of blockchain,
- Farmers can reduce the dependence on fiat currency and interact directly with the customers without any middlemen.
- This reduction of steps results in the reduced prices of the goods.
- Customers can also monitor when, where, and how the fruits or vegetables are originated.
Conclusion
Agritech innovations are transforming the farming sector across the globe. This is a fast-growing segment that has shown no signs of slowing down in the future. While the established players in this industry focus on refining the existing methods and technologies, their investments in Agritech have also proliferated. In short, there is a lot of potential for Agritech in the years to come.
