UNIT-4

Advanced Agricultural
Technologies
Unit IV

Advanced Agricultural Technologies: Difference between traditional

and modern agricultural practices; Interne of Things (IoT), Online
Marketing of agro based products, Information and Communication
Technology (ICT), Mobile Technology, Agricultural Drones & Robotics,
Artificial Intelligence (AI) based farming.

Governance services in agriculture sector, Role of Electronics

Governance in Agricultural sector .

10+ 5 Hours
 Traditional farming Modern Farming

Advanced technology and modern methods of

Traditional methods of agriculture and age old farming are used in this kind of farming. For
equipments are used in this kind of farming. For example, in modern farming field is plowed by
example, the plowing in the field is done by a pair tractors. Further, many machines like harvesters,
of bullocks. seed drills, threshers are used in later stages of
production.

The production is low as low yield seeds are used The production is high as high yield varieties (HYV)
and manures and cow dung are used as fertilizers. of seeds are used. Chemical fertilizers, pesticides
and insecticides are used in large quantities.

It requires a great amount of labour and hence Since most of the work is carried out by large
many job opportunities are provided to the machines, the job opportunities to the agricultural
agricultural workers. workers are comparatively less.

Since the HYV seeds need to be irrigated

Since the traditional seeds need less irrigation, the extensively, the dependence on irrigational
dependence on irrigational facilities is less. facilities is far more. Hence more water resources
are required.
It is not environment friendly as extensive
Traditional farming is more environmental friendly irrigation leads to the lowering of water table in
as less water is required for irrigation and natural the areas located near by the field. Extensive use of
fertilizers are used. fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides affect the
quality of crops.
 Interne of Things (IoT)
• The Internet of Things (IoT) describes the network of
physical objects—“things”—that are embedded with
sensors, software, and other technologies for the
purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other
devices and systems over the internet.
• To accommodate a increasing population’s needs, the
agriculture industry will have to utilize innovative
technologies to attain a much-needed edge. Agricultural
applications of IoT (Internet of Things) will enable the
industry to enhance operational productivity, reduce
expenses, lessen waste, and increase their yield quality.
• Smart farming is a system built to monitor the
agricultural land with the help of sensors (soil
moisture, humidity, light, temperature, etc.)
and automate the irrigation practices. The
farmers can observe the field conditions from
anywhere.
• For example, it will alert the farmer when the
soil moisture level is low; the farmer can use
sensors to initiate irrigation.
• IoT-based smart farming is highly efficient in
contrast to traditional methods.
• Precision farming is the most common application of IoT in
farming.
• It makes the agricultural practices more precise and well-
planned by including processes like real-time crop and soil
condition monitoring, plant health tracking, and weather
prediction.
• The farmers can administer their fields based on the insights
obtained by this system.
• Moreover, by using mobile devices, high-speed internet, and
durable, low-cost satellites (for imagery and positioning), the
IoT-integrated Artificial Intelligence system can give up-to-
date alerts and data to optimize crop growth processes and to
reduce yield loss because of pests, detrimental soil moisture
level, or weather damages.
• This farming method assures precise usage of
resources and increases field productivity while
maintaining the sustainability of the process.
• IoT-equipped irrigation systems not only conserve
water but also ensure that crops are getting just
the right amount of water for their optimum
growth.
• This method of irrigation relies on the soil moisture
level rather than pre-determined interval-based
irrigation.
Application areas/use cases for IoT in agriculture:

• Agricultural sensors - Farmers today are using sensors,

smartphones, and drones to have a detailed analysis of
both the topography and resources in the desired area.
• Smart farming sensors located across the field collect data
around various environmental parameters and send it to
the cloud. This provides fine details of soil quality,
temperature, and other variables.
• Farming drones - Drones can assist farmers with crop
surveying, soil and land analysis, livestock tracking, and
monitoring. Farmers can also use pesticides for crops
accordingly and in the desired manner and quantity.
• Smart Greenhouses - They can automatically adjust various parameters
such as temperature, humidity, irrigation, or lighting.
• This can be done remotely using IoT and connected devices, which aids in
a hassle-free, predator-safe, efficient crop conducive environment.

• Monitoring climate conditions - This allows easier climate predictions and

weather patterns. With smartphones, farmers can conveniently monitor
crops, yield, livestock, and even equipment.

• Finer details around livestock health, feeding, and produce can also be
drawn through smart analysis using big data. Becoming climate-proof is
another important aspect the modern agriculturists are looking forward
to.

• With the climatic conditions getting haywire and increasing population, it

is important to adopt vertical farming techniques. This can be achieved
even with space constraints in controlled environments powered by data
provided by smart IoT sensors.
• Crop management - Crop rotation, management, and
monitoring can be made easier with insights provided by
data around crop growth, anomalies, crop health,
precipitation levels, humidity, and climatic conditions. Crop
management devices can change the game for farmers and
make their decision-making more aligned to profitability.

• Water management - Using too much or too little irrigation

may prove to be hazardous to crops. This makes appropriate
watering or, to say, water management critical.

• IoT-connected sensors can help in deciding the need based

on land's moisture content, crop requirement, and climate
conditions. Farmers can use this data to act accordingly then.
• Cattle monitoring and management - IoT
agriculture sensors can be attached to the
farm animals to get details around their
health, temperature, grazing pattern, activity,
and nutritional levels.
 Online Marketing of agro based products
• The internet has changed the world. In line with other
sectors, retail business have taken up e-marketing or
internet marketing, expanding outreach to customers
beyond their conventional shopping places. Farmers can
use internet on many possible ways to sell their products.
Using internet as a way of selling agricultural products is
changing marketing channels in the agribusiness industry.
• Agricultural markets are characterized by poor
competitiveness, fragmentation, inefficiency, presence of
executive middlemen and frequent price manipulations.
E-Marketing of Agricultural Products is an electronic
trading portal for agricultural products through which
many of the farmer’s problems will be solved
• We can’t even imagine our lives without the
agriculture industry, let alone living it. From
providing the food on our tables to being the
primary source of livelihood for many, the
agriculture industry forms an indispensable
part of India’s economy.
Digital marketing of Agricultural products

1.Website
2.Social Media Marketing
3.Email Marketing
4.Paid Digital Advertising
5.SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
6.Mobile Optimization
7.Video Marketing
8.Content Marketing
Benefits of the aforementioned digital marketing channels
for your agribusiness:

• Allows you to explore new markets and reach a global

marketplace
• Requires less money than traditional marketing methods
• Enables you to track and measure your marketing efforts
• Improves conversion rates
• Helps you build a relationship with your customers which
in turn helps in building customer loyalty
• Allows you to personalize your website with offers and
coupons with the help of your customer database
• Provides access to modern farming methods and
techniques
• The website is where your clients will visit and
build a brand in the digital space to attract
more clients.
• Build a modern website to market your
agricultural products with clean and focused
content because people visit your site to take
action and not see your web art, but yes, the
design does matter but not extravagantly
design-focused.
• A site that is easy to use will have more website
traffic than a site which doesn’t attract a visitor.
Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) for Agriculture
• Information and communication technologies (ICTs) in
modern agricultural technology comprise those
networks, mobiles, devices, services, and applications
that aid the processing, management, and exchange of
data, information, or knowledge with a target audience.
• They include a broad range of converging technologies,
including traditional telecommunications, television and
video, radio, CD-ROMs, cell phones and smart devices,
and several modern technologies such as computers
and the internet, sensors, Geographic Information
Systems, satellites, and the like.
• Essentially, the purpose of ICT is to transfer information
from one point to another.
• ADVANTAGES OF IT IN AGRICULTURE

• The benefits of IT for the improvement and strengthening of Agricultural sector in India include timely
information on weather forecasts and calamities.  Better and spontaneous agricultural practices.  Better
marketing exposure and pricing and reduction of agricultural risks and enhanced incomes.  Facility of
online trading.  E-agriculture can play a major role in food production and productivity in India.
• Weather forecasting Weather forecasting find out the....  Weather  Climate  Water Stresses
• DIGITAL MANDI A mobile application developed by IIT Kanpur and BSNL, AIMS to provide current rates of
crops to farmers so they can choose suitable time and market to sell their crops for maximum profit.
• Agro-advisory system uses mobile phones and sensor technology to let farmers send queries, receive
information on micro climate, local Mandi prices, seek expert advice and other information relevant to
them on their local language;supports text, voice,

• Challenges

The lake of reliable connectivity in rural areas  Poor literacy level.  Farmers benefit more from simple
technology, which communicates information, which is relevant and easy to understand.  Door delivery of
information is limited by the fact that there are a very large number of farm households and many families may
not own radios or television sets and may not access to a daily newspaper.
Some of the key areas where ICT in agriculture
plays a vital role are:
1. Regulatory policy and governance
2. Agricultural extension and advisory services
3. Enhanced market access
4. Environmentally sustainable agriculture
5. Early warning system (EWS) for disaster
management
6. Food safety & traceability
7. Financial inclusion and risk management
8. Capacity building and empowerment
• Regulatory policy and governance
• The widespread adoption of digital technologies by agriculturists is resulting
in an exponential increase in the availability of a wide range of big data that
can aid better policy-making and monitoring, as well as help transform the
agriculture sector.
• Agricultural extension and advisory services
• ICT in the form of innovative media platforms bridges the gap between
farmers on one end and agricultural researchers and extension agents on
the other. It is a more cost-efficient method to improve smallholders’
knowledge of current agricultural practices and markets.
• Enhanced market access
• ICT-enabled market information services enhance farmers’ access to nearby
markets and their awareness of current consumer demands through the
transfer of information from the traders. ICTs also foster networking among
the agri-stakeholders, which facilitates increased market access for inputs
and product marketing and trade.
• Environmentally sustainable agriculture
• Budget-friendly mobile phones, internet, and other services to
disseminate information, in addition to providing rural farmers with
improved access to climate-smart solutions and the appropriate
knowledge to use them.
• Early warning system (EWS) for disaster management
• ICTs provide actionable and real-time information to governments
and communities on disaster prevention and management. They also
increase the efficiency of responding efforts during emergency
situations and drive more effective communication by providing the
people with timely advice on risk mitigation procedures.
• Food safety & traceability
• A combination of simple and sophisticated technologies, such as
mobile phones, software solutions, RFID tags, data input websites,
and sensors using GPS technology, among others, enable producers
to capture and monitor reliable data and also comply with
international traceability and food
• Financial inclusion and risk management
• ICTs strengthen rural and smallholder farmers’ access
to financial services, enable them to find affordable
insurance schemes and tools to better manage risk,
and empower them with information regarding
financial services that are available to them.
• Capacity building and empowerment
• ICTs serve as vital education tools for the
development of local communities. They broaden the
reach of women, youth, and other beneficiaries and
open the doors for newer business opportunities to
enhance livelihoods and incomes.
 Mobile Technology
• Mobile technology is increasingly becoming a hot favorite for anyone and
everyone involved with farming. The use of such technology has
enabled farmers.

• Mobile Agriculture (mAgri) supports actors along the agriculture value chain
through the use of mobile technology. Mobile technology covers a broad range
of devices and the sub-categories include voice, data, network and connectivity
technologies. mAgri is a subset of e-agriculture.

• The introduction of mobile technology and portable, wireless devices has led to
the creation of innovative services and applications that are used within the
agricultural value chain in developed and developing countries.

• In developed markets where mechanization is more advanced and the

agricultural labour force is significantly smaller than that of many developing
countries, mobile agriculture applications tend to be implemented further up the
value chain, for example with processors or consumers. In developing countries
where a large proportion of the workforce is employed in agriculture, mobile
technology is more commonly used to deliver services for producers and traders.
• There are mobile applications that provide
latest agricultural information about trends,
equipment, technologies and methods being
used, help identify pests and diseases,
provide real-time data about weather, early
warnings about storms, local markets offering
best prices, seeds, fertilizers etc.
 Uses of Mobile technology
• Cell phone services employ SMS text
messaging to quickly transfer accurate
information about wholesale and retail prices
of crops, ensuring farmers can negotiate deals
with traders and improve their timing of
getting crops to the market.
 Agricultural Drones & Robotics
• Robots that kill weeds, deliver fertiliser and
harvest crops are ushering in the next
agricultural revolution. Trundling across
uneven soil, a machine about the size of a
small dog picks its way through rows of young
plants.
 Robots are used in agriculture
• From nursery planting to guiding and steering,
here are some of the robots already in agriculture.
• Eco-robotix.
• Naio Technologies.
• Energid Citrus Picking System.
• Agrobot E-Series.
• Blue River LettuceBot2.
• Agribotix.
• Vision Robotics.
• RoBoPlant.
 Drones are used for agriculture
• Over the years, farmers have found innovative ways to
answer these questions as much as possible with new
technologies. Agriculture drones are the next step in this
process.
• Agriculture drones can be used to do anything from
precision agriculture, to efficiently dispersing weed control
or fertilizers, to optimizing field management. The results
include reduced operation costs, improved crop quality,
and increased yield rate.
• Drones can be used on nearly any kind of crop, including
rice, wheat, corn, citrus trees, cotton, and much more. In
addition to covering more land at a lower price, drone
spraying can offer major environmental benefits.
Spraying a field with a UAV drones
The Agras line of spraying drones from DJI can help precisely deliver the following:

Fertilizer
Herbicide
Fungicide
Pesticide
Seeds
Desiccants

The efficient application of the above is a persistent challenge

for any grower. If you spray too much concentrated in one place
you run up extra costs and potentially decrease the quality of
your produce. Too low a concentration, however, and
leave your crops vulnerable to being overgrown with weeds,
malnourished, or eaten by insects and other predators —
potentially decreasing the yield rate.
• However, the right farming drones and spraying
payloads can distribute chemicals evenly and
efficiently.
• The results are Improved crop quality and a higher yield
rate without intense manual labor. DJI drones can be
used on nearly any kind of crop, including rice, wheat,
corn, citrus trees, cotton, and much more.
• Using drones to gather data for precision agriculture
• Smart spraying and seeding aren’t the only ways to
increase overall agricultural efficiency, cut costs, or
increase yields.
• Drones can also be used to map out an area and create
new insights — taking the guesswork out of much of
the growing process.
 Two key types of maps that can be created with this
kind of agricultural drone include:
• RGB maps: A birds-eye view but even better, even a basic
Red Green Blue (RGB) map can offer fresh information.
These maps allow you to see exactly how much land you
have to grow on to the centimeter and assist with crop
monitoring over an extended period of time, helping you
adjust from season to season.

• NDVI maps: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)

takes the insights of an RGB map one step further. The map
shows the amount of infrared light reflected in an area,
which is an indicator of malnourishment and drought.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) based farming
• Using AI for intelligent spraying of chemicals –
Brings in cost savings
• Every day, farms produce thousands of data
points on temperature, soil, usage of water,
weather condition, etc.
• With the help of artificial intelligence and
machine learning models, this data is
leveraged in real-time for obtaining useful
insights like choosing the right time to sow
seeds, determining the crop choices, hybrid
seed choices to generate more yields and the
like.
• AI systems are helping to improve the overall harvest quality
and accuracy – known as precision agriculture. AI technology
helps in detecting disease in plants, pests and poor nutrition of
farms. AI sensors can detect and target weeds and then decide
which herbicide to apply within the region. This helps in
reduced usage of herbicides and cost savings.
• Many technological companies developed robots, which use
computer vision and artificial intelligence to monitor and
precisely spray on weeds. These robots are able to eliminate
80% of the volume of the chemicals normally sprayed on the
crops and bring down the expenditure of herbicide by 90%.
• These intelligent AI sprayers can drastically reduce the number
of chemicals used in the fields and thus improve the quality of
agricultural produce, and bring in cost efficiency.
• Using AI for predictive analytics – Enables right
decision-making
• Predicting the best time to sow
The difference between a profitable year and a failed
harvest is just the timely information on a simple
data point of timing of sowing the seed. To combat
this, scientists of ICRISAT used a predictive analytics
tool to arrive at a precise date for sowing the seeds
to obtain maximum yield. It even gives insights on
soil health and fertilizer recommendations in
addition to a 7-day weather forecast.
Crop yield predictions and price forecasts
For many farmers, the biggest worry is the price fluctuation
of the crop. Due to unstable prices, farmers are never able to
plan a definite production pattern. This problem is highly
prevalent in crops like tomatoes that have very limited shelf
time. Companies are using satellite imagery and weather
data to assess the acreage and monitor crop health on a real-
time basis. With the help of technologies like big data, AI and
machine learning, companies can detect pest and disease
infestations, estimate the tomato output and yield, and
forecast prices. They can guide the farmers and governments
on the future price patterns, demand level, type of crop to
sow for maximum benefit, pesticide usage etc.
• Innovative startups are using AI in the field of agriculture.
A Berlin-based agricultural tech startup developed a
multi-lingual plant disease and pest diagnostic app,
which uses various images of the plant to detect
diseases; a smartphone collects the image that is
matched with a server image and then a diagnosis of
that particular disease is provided and applied to the
crop using intelligent spraying technique.

• In this way, the application uses AI and ML to solve plant

diseases. Over seven million farmers have downloaded
this app and it has helped identify over 385 crop diseases
among field crops, fruits, and vegetables.