The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) is all set to launch an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based crop-specific weather forecast for farmers to reduce the crop failure risk. TNAU is the first in India to develop weather-based automated agro advisories with zero human intervention.

TNAU Vice-Chancellor V Geethalakshmi said, "It is a mobile application-based service.

Farmers have to download the application and register with their mobile phone number and location. They have to feed information like the crop being cultivated and the sowing date. Based on this, Al will calculate the advisory based on previous and upcoming weeks' weather information from the database and send it to farmers."

Previously, she said, a general weather-based advisory was sent to farmers as an SMS. "We have spent a huge amount on SMS. To cut down on the cost and provide accurate information, we developed a web-cum-mobile app that is now functioning. Its database has advisories for 54 weather scenarios, 108 crops and 6 growth stages."

The TNAU VC said they were now going to add an AI feature to that app and launch the same soon.

"We intend extend this service to eight lakh farmers this year. Location, time and crop-specific micro-level advisory will help farmers reduce the risk of crop failure and harvest the potential from the crop. We will provide crop management, plant protection-related advisories and extreme weather events through the app," another source with the TNAU said.

According to the source, a team comprising associate professor Dheebakaran, Agro climate Research Centre, is working on the project. "We have done two to three years of work to execute this project."

Source - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com