Haryana government will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) along with drone images for assessing crop yield and crop losses.

Pest, weed and diseases surveillance is also planned using satellite or drone images to be acquired at different intervals.

Additional chief secretary, agriculture and farmers’ welfare department, Sumita Misra said the department has initiated pilot projects on the applications of digital technologies in agriculture.

If these pilots are found successful, use of digital technologies will be up-scaled and operationalised at a wider scale so that the farmers can get the benefit of these technologies.

To boost agriculture in the state, the department is looking into the increasing use of emerging technologies like Remote Sensing (RS), Geographical Information Technology (GIS), Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Block Chain and Internet of Things (IoT) etc. in agriculture.

Misra said the concept of precision farming will also be implemented in Haryana with the use of drones for spray of insecticides, pesticides and chemical fertilisers.

She said drones will require less time in spray and the chemicals would be uniformly sprayed without human touch.

Yet another study will be done for source tracking of food grains using Block Chain Technology, which may help in branding, marketing and better price discovery of agricultural produce, the ACS added.

Out of the total project cost of Rs 15.80 Crore, the Union ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare has initially sanctioned a sum of Rs 8.29 Crore under National e-Governance Plan for Agriculture (NeGP-A) for promoting the use of digital technologies in agriculture in the state. The project cost is to be borne by Centre and state governments in a 60:40 pattern.

The following  new projects have been specifically approved using Artificial Intelligence and digital technologies etc namely Crop Yield estimation using satellite or drone imaging, crop damage (kharaba) assessment using satellite or drone data, Crop insect or pest assessment, supply chain monitoring using block chain and precision farming.

“Haryana is the first State to take up five projects covering these aspects. These initiatives taken by the Haryana government are likely to bring about a paradigm shift in agriculture in the state in the near future,” an official spokesperson said.