AgSpert — an agri-tech start-up co-founded by students of Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IIT-G) and the alumni of NIT Silchar and Dibrugarh University — has developed AgSpeak, a multi-lingual smartphone application for farmers.Developed with the goal of optimising the in-farm productivity through artificial intelligence (AI), the application will help farmers making decisions and managing farm activities by the click of a single button on their smartphone or computer.

KEY POINTS:

=> AgSpeak considers up to 20 local crop parameters, which are key indicators of their health such as temperature, rainfall, sunlight hours, soil health status, among others, to alert farmers about probable crop threats in advance and suggest best practices to tackle the incoming threat, which would, in turn, help optimise resources used and maximise productivity.

=> The developed application is multi-lingual and has an option in Assamese as well. This feature is a first among agri-tech applications in the market

=> The app, along with the IoT hardware, has been tested for the past three months with 500 farmers and two tea estates. Major commercial users of the product include commercial plantation farms covering tea, lemon orchards and grape vineyards. IoTs collect information related to weather, among other things, which are necessary for farming.

=> 250 farmers have been provided hands-on training in utilising the full potential of the app. However, the user friendliness and multilingual features of the app make it extremely easy for farmers to use and seldom require training.

=> There are an in-app purchases such as soil testing and agri-doctor consultation. Besides this, the IoT devices can be rented on monthly and yearly purposes by commercial farms to further enhance precision farm management.

=> The drone monitoring system is currently in the R&D stage. AgSpert is testing the product in collaboration with Assam Agricultural University and Tocklai Tea Research Institute, Assam.