Now, help for farmers just a phone call away
Mumbai: Just as patients can take customised advice from a doctor using telemedicine services, farmers will now be able to consult experts to improve farm produce and profits from their fields in any part of the country.
All that the farmer has to do is hook up to the Mobile-Based Agro Advisory System (MBAAS) launched by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The system, with 22 sensors at four locations across the country, is directly linked to a data logger and a server at the TCS innovation lab at Thane, which in turn is connected to the agricultural market and commodity experts.
In Maharashtra, it is used by grape growers at Borgaon near Sangli, cotton and soyabean growers at Waisad, Ganori/Mendla in Vidarbha and by potato farmers at Bichaula in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.
This system as a whole gives local weather information and prediction, inputs on fertilizer and pesticides, and market pricesall on a mobile phone call, said Arun Pande, who heads the TCS innovation lab.
The farmer need not go anywhere, all he has to do is make use of his mobile phone to connect to the expert. He has to click and send pictures of his farmland and plants using his Tata Indicom mobile phone, equipped with a two megapixel camera.
Photographs of the farmers land helps the experts directly view the health of the plants, Pande said.
Since last October till March this year, this system was placed in the fields with a coverage of over 100 sq km mainly to show the farmers that they can increase the yield, reduce farm cost by improving efficiency.
We have proved that this is a feasible network and farmers can benefit from real time data and real time advice from experts, Pande said.
The agro system has 22 sensors to measure temperature of air, soil and canopy, soil moisture, leaf wetness, humidity, evaporation, radiation, dew and wind direction.
There are four sensors for soil tests at different depths like 3 ft, 2.5 ft, 2 ft and 1.5 ft while to measure leaf wetness six sensors are used, said Subash Arve, an enthusiastic grape growing farmer who is satisfied with MBAAS.
There are four sensors for soil tests at different depths like 3 ft, 2.5 ft, 2 ft and 1.5 ft while to measure leaf wetness six sensors are used, said Subash Arve, an enthusiastic grape growing farmer who is satisfied with MBAAS.
Powered by solar panels, the system also has a rain guage, GPS modem and all these are linked with TCS innovation lab for continuous monitoring, analysis and consultation.
Since the system has not been tested in the field during the rainy season, the coming monsoon months will help strengthen the online consultation process, Pande said.
We will be distributing handsets to farmers and will train them how to use them to take advantage of the MBAAS for their benefit, he said, adding that TCS would be operationalising the system in other parts of the country this month for which some modifications in the software would be done based on the results obtained from the current field trials. AGENCIES