Agriculture is one of the most important sectors of the Indian Economy. The agriculture industry contributes to 18% of India’s GDP and responsible for 50% of employment. Data science has the potential to deliver humongous benefits and bring in best practices by deploying smart farming techniques. One can analyze buyer behavior, customer behavior, cropping patterns, demand forecasting, Product testing from the real-time data, past data. It helps in deriving meaningful insights towards efficient functioning and gaining profit.
Farmers faces challenges starting from the selection of crops, weather, soil quality, availability of resources. They have to take care of specialized techniques to take care of crops, soil, weather to make sure high yield will be attained. Enabling smart farming will be the best practice for optimized yields. Smart farming for instance will help to detect the disease in crops at an earlier stage and helps to monitor and keep track of soil moisture levels. IoT helps in monitoring relevant parameters thus assisting the farmers in smart farming. IoT-enabled solutions may also assist in various activities related to the rejuvenation of soil, pesticide spraying, Irrigating. It helps farmers to automate and optimize processes accordingly.
Financing is a big challenge in farming where the majority of the farmers depend on external sources. Getting loans from banks or financial institutions is an arduous task because of apprehension or lack of proper evidence towards farming. Applications of data science are not limited to farming activities it also assists in financial purposes. Data science solutions related to farmlands and trends in cultivation can give a clear idea about farming and tends to financial company’s interests in agriculture-related financing.
In this new era, the weather patterns are studied and cultivation process are fine tuned using weather data and satellite imagery. These solutions create a image on the minds of the financial institutions to support farmers. Thus vanishing the hindrance for availing loans. The feasibility of using data in agriculture has been proven by various business models and been adopted by various companies to overcome agricultural challenges. Certain companies are more prone to digital agriculture and helping farmers in decision-making processes. Climate Corp, acquired by Monsanto, is one such digital company that analyses various parameters soil, field data, weather and helps farmers in making optimal farming decisions.
