“Drone analytics has immense potential in confronting agri challenges”

In the face of climate change, farm risk management has taken several new turns. The increased implementation of technology in agriculture paved the way for several new avenues in risk management. The importance of drones came to light and farmers regained confidence in farming while these new avenues offered problem solving solutions. Naveneet Ravikar, Chairman & Managing Director, Leads Connect Services, expounds how risks in farming can be mitigated with technology, especially by using drones. Edited excerpts:

What is Leads Connect’s role in farm risk management?
Farm risk management has always been one of the most important components of services which we provide. The company has capabilities and experience of delivering end-to-end services
for farm risk management. There are various aspects of farm risk management beginning from crop health monitoring and stress estimation, claims settlement and risk assessment, disease
and pest identification to pre-harvest and post-harvest yield assessment.Our team uses advanced and cutting-edge technologies for assessing and quantifying risks associated with agritech spectrum. In addition, the focus has always been on timely assessment of risks with accuracy and precision. This helps in identifying pertinent measures for mitigating risks. We have presence in more than 100 districts across India for projects relating to the aspects of risk management. Moreover, the company has huge experience in delivering crop cutting experiments (CCE) and risk management projects/services.

The company is now fully equipped with cutting edge technologies, advanced frameworks such as machine learning and DeepTech, SpaceTech analytics and drones-as-a-service (DrAAS) for performing studies and delivering services on different dimensions of agritech. Besides association with nodal agencies of government, corporates and other organisations for addressing the challenges of the agricultural system; the team has performed numerous pilot studies on construing the dynamics of agri-risk management in different parts of India. These studies have helped us to develop robust and consistent frameworks for developing agritech solutions.

What risk management approach is best suited for Indian farmers when it comes to climate as a risk factor?
Climate change disasters are now a reality. This is now not anymore just a point of discussion. Regions across the globe are being hit and badly affected by different disasters. Impact of climate change disasters are far reaching and long term. Moreover, these paralyse the social, physical and natural system services. Besides adverse impact on the livelihoods and ecosystem, natural disasters threaten the sustainability of the economy. Agricultural sector has been the worst hit by climate change and is completely vulnerable to the perils of climate change. It is therefore absolutely necessary to implement climate resilient measures for strengthening the prospects of agricultural sustainability. As far as risk management is concerned for Indian farmers, steps can be taken in following directions:

• Crop management practices significantly vary in different parts of India. Thus, it is very important to adopt management practices according to the agro-ecological conditions of the region.

• Complexities are deep rooted and dynamic in Indian regions. Henceforth, implementation of smart technologies is an absolute necessity for deciphering the intricacies of agro-ecosystem.

• India is also now facing the heat of climate change. Considering its demographic dynamics and topographical complexities, it is very likely that the threat of climate change will only escalate in the near future. Therefore, it is necessary that Indian farmers must adopt climate resilient approaches such as climate resilient seeds, modern irrigation methods, etc.

• Adoption of climate smart technology is now a must in the agricultural sector.

• It is now absolutely necessary to use drones for accurate monitoring of farm health and for identification of crop stress / diseases / pests. Technology in agriculture, these days, is used extensively to mitigate risks.

Can you elaborate this with examples?
Technology is definitely a key in developing effective solutions for agricultural challenges. Specifically, there would be a huge role of technology in developing effective solutions for agriculture in following dimensions:
• Accurate and precise monitoring of farm health.

• Real time alerts and advisory.

• Crop yield simulation and prediction.

• Impact Time bound claim settlements.

• Assessment of advisories on increasing the
yield.

• Automation of crop cutting experiments.

• Crop disease identification.

• Fraud monitoring and mitigation.

• Seamless on-boarding of farmers into the digital system. This will help in increasing the transparency in the system.

• Enabling farmers through Fintech measures farmers in digital platforms. This will bring transparency in the system.

• Generating scenarios in the context of AgriValue chain analytics.

Drones are used extensively these days and data generated from their application is redefining agriculture. Can you justify this statement and share some facts about the use of
drones in risk management?
There is no ambiguity in the fact that drone analytics has potential in confronting the challenges of agriculture. Drones for risk management are instrumental in following dimensions:
• Availability of high-resolution data from drones helps in accurate and precise monitoring.

• Drone data can also be used to generate accurate thresholds. These thresholds can further be used for upscaling the agricultural studies.

• Drone analytics can be very important in fraud mitigation while settling the claims. • Drone data can be significant in identification of crop diseases and pests.

• UAV analytics can become a game changer for addressing the issues of irrigation monitoring. This can be a strong step towards precision farming.

• Drones can also be used for fertiliser and pesticides spraying.

Anusha Ashwin

In the face of climate change, farm