Why Grower Should Invest in Precision Agriculture

 

In India, the agriculture sector contributes more than 15% of GDP. With more than 50% of the country’s population dependent on agriculture, it is alarming that farmers are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the return on investment (ROI) they receive from farming.

 

Several factors result in losses if not managed wisely and thus results in diminishing ROI like Fertilizer and irrigation costs, Insufficient measures to protect seeds, Severe weather conditions affecting crops, Unpredictable costs of pest control, Harvesting expenses, Labor costs, Storage of products, Rental, and transportation costs of agricultural machinery, Lack of open data from other growers and agribusinesses on cultivation processes.

 

Thinking about and switching to the use of technology is no longer an option rather has become a necessity for farmers. The most significant benefit of precision agriculture is its potential to help farmers overcome the threat to global food security. The farmers no longer have to depend on guesswork. The use of technology in agriculture has empowered and enabled growers like never before.

 

 Precision Agriculture Benefits:

• Promises Increase in Yield
• Prevents soil degradation
• Reduction of chemical application in farming
• Optimized use of natural resources like Water
• Distribution of modern farm practices to improve the quality, quantity, and reduced cost of production.
• Smart Farming changing socio-economic of Growers.

 

Precision Farming optimizes each stage of agriculture, keeping yield high and cost low in the following areas: Soil sampling, Irrigating, Fertilizing, pest, weed, and disease control Planning harvesting and logistics, Post-season benchmarking, etc.

 

Precision Agriculture aims at managing variations in the field accurately to grow more food using fewer resources and reducing production costs. Smart farming techniques, IoT in agriculture are now available for the individual standing crop to maximize yields; it is ever more becoming possible to earn more from the same piece of land than it was before. Precision agriculture is one of the dependable farming management concepts based upon measuring and responding to inter-and intra-field variability in crops.

 

Precision agriculture helps optimize efforts and resources, reduce consumption and waste and boost land productivity. The farming becomes more profitable for farmers/growers/and for contract workers by processes more managed, more quickly, and effectively leading to fewer hourly costs.

 

Precision Agriculture offers not just economical advantages but also assure social and environmental advantages. The farmers should adapt to PA technologies as Reduces soil, water, and air pollution by decreasing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, Boosts, ROI, Reducing inputs use and increasing yield amounts and quality, Build up soil biodiversity, and supports wildlife outside farms, Makes farming sustainable by reducing dependence on resources and water, Reduces carbon emissions from the agriculture sector.

Precision Farming is not just limited to large farms but has been now effectively catering to the small family-size farms and mid-size farms as well. Smart Farms generates 80% of the world's food, so it is important to use these smart farming practices on a small scale as well. The use of small handheld devices smart sensors, mobile apps, etc. can bring the benefits of precision farming even to small farmers. Often the benefits to small farmers can mean using just 20% of the fertilizers or pesticides, decreasing costs, and improving profits significantly.

 

The smart farming devices provide real-time data on the conditions of crops, soil, etc along with other relevant information such as hyper-local weather predictions, etc. This data is processed to provide farmers with valuable insights on crop rotation, optimal planting times, harvesting times, and soil management. Sensor-based devices help measure soil moisture and temperature. Satellites and drones can capture images process them with the data from sensors to provide precise guidance on the most favorable application of water, fertilizers, and especially, pesticides. This helps farmers avoid wasting resources and prevent run-off reducing environmental impact.

 

Research shows, if growers/farmers adopt precision agriculture practices then it surely promises good and predictable profits and results. PA assures input cost reduced by 18-20%, increase in yield by 30%-100%. With Satellite imaging, one can locate the hotspots and can take preventive actions like pesticide spraying, which eliminates the possibility of crop destruction by pests/ disease, etc. With the use of Smart irrigation, the farmers can reduce water wastage by up to 40% and also can cut electricity wastage by around 10%. By reducing wastage farmers can significantly improve their returns on investment, as each penny saved is each penny earned!

 

 It is often argued and presumed, precision agriculture devices are costly, however considering a conventional estimate of 10-15% increase in yield and savings on the cost of resources such as labor,fertilizer, and pesticides, the benefits derived from Smart devices are

considerable and cannot be ruled out. In India lots of organizations, companies are enabling farmers with IoT-based agricultural devices that suit Indian agricultural needs. 

 

Yuktix provides Smart sensor-based devices like GreenSense, AnkiDB Cloud, GidaBit (Gida means Plants and bit means Information) have significantly improved the crop yield and have helped farmers eliminate natural resource wastage. Yuktix's sensor-based devices provide data for better decision-making across the agriculture value chain. Some of the testimony from the Clients prove that Precision farming gives promising ROIs. Yuktix Digital Assistant for Tea estate has been able to reduce the usage of pesticides by 15%, reduce the man-work hour approximately by 150 hours a month, able to reduce the residue on the tea leaves by 60-70%, Improve the data capturing process. Now the data is much organized and available at a click to the operations team and management team. The resource usage optimized to about 50% as compared to earlier. GidaBit gives soil moisture and other information about crops.Moisture sensors measure the status of moisture levels. On the App, the button turns dark blue if the soil is very wet, Red if it is really dry, and Green if the moisture is just right. By looking at the colors farmer can immediately visualize how much moisture is in the soil, does not have to look at the numbers and graphs. Easy to understand and massively saves under or over-irrigation of crops This all resulted ultimately in high ROI. 

 

 Equipping farmers with insights on particular fields leads to sustainable agricultural practices throughout farming operations. Field-oriented precision farming could be key to predictable business operations with more accurate planning and wiser resource use. It is

imperative to gradually move from only traditional ways of farming to Smart Farming. Precision agriculture surely is the future of agriculture, to support the ever-growing population and to ease pressure on resources, precision farming is an important resort. Indeed, India is still in the early stages of the precision agriculture revolution however with start-ups, agrotech giants, the government coming together there is a huge thrust to Smart agriculture. 

 

The mantra of precision agriculture is to deliver increased profits, promote a healthier environment, and foster sustainable farming.

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