India eyes Israeli tech for precision agriculture

Israel is well known the world over for its leadership in drip irrigation. It has expertise in precision agriculture and has revolutionized the concept of irrigation by developing a unique artificial intelligence system that enables farmers to know when plants are thirsty thus helping in water conservation. A farm visit had been arranged for PM Narendra Modi during his trip to Israel. Israel is a dry country and its water conservation methods and drip irrigation has been of great help to many countries of the world including India. In this new method, sensors are put on select plants in the field. Data generated from crops is analyzed through sensors and translated into irrigation commands. It interprets the actual water needs of the plants in the fields and sends real-time alerts to farmers. This technology will be of immense help to water-starved regions of Maharashtra (Marathwada), UP, Madhya Pradesh (Bundelkhand) and Rajasthan. Last month, farm visits were organized by the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute for international journalists who were given demonstrations on how this technology has been successfully used to grow fruits, flowers and vegetables in farms. Agro Web Lab (AWL) has developed this technology which uses plant, soil and environment sensors to gauge the stress levels in the plant and relays actionable feedback to farmers indicating the best time for applying agricultural inputs, including water, for irrigation. It showed an average increase of 5%-10% in yields and 20%-30% savings in irrigation water.