Farmers get smart with smart phones to save crops

By Nitin Jugran Bahuguna

Aug 21, 2020

Vadodra(Gujarat): Vagaries of weather and pest attacks are a vexing and recurring problem for farmers engaged in cotton cultivation. Like many cotton farmers, Nilesh Patel, 39, of Kurali village in Vadodara district has incurred heavy losses in recent years due to these factors.

“Due to heavy rains last year, there was water-logging on my farm as a result of which my cotton leaves turned red,” he says. But for once the young farmer did not feel helpless. He acted promptly, clicking pictures of the affected saplings and uploading them on his phone to a special App.
Within 24 hours he was given a solution on the App. “I was informed that the leaves had got fungus and advised to apply a nitrogen solution in the form of urea and a fungicide which cured the leaves,” he claims.

Similarly, Vishal Patel, 36, of Vemar village uploaded two pictures on his phone – one of a pest-infected plant and another showing a cotton leaf which had turned red. “I was advised to use a particular spray on the pest-infected saplings. Meanwhile, I learnt that the plants which had turned red were a result of magnesium deficiency and I was told to use a fertilizer spray containing magnesium sulfate. The results were most encouraging and my plants recovered,” he recalls.

Nilesh and Vishal are among a new generation of farmers who are availing of this unique digital aid to help them understand the environmental elements around them in order to boost production. The Android and web-based Decision Support System (DSS) , dubbed the ‘Cotton Doctor’, is an agri-tech tool that alerts farmers about weather vulnerabilities and assists them in making informed and effective decisions on cotton growing so they can derive the maximum benefits and returns from cotton cultivation.

In partnership with the Gujarat Green Revolution Company (GGRC), a public sector enterprise, World Wide Fund for Nature – India (WWF – India) and IKEA launched the DSS with registered cotton farmers in the state last year. The farmers can save their farm details in the Geographical Information System (GIS) of the DSS. The GIS enables accurate mapping and data analysis while in the field. Once received, the requisite information is generated through satellite images which are processed and subsequently broadcast in the form of agro advisories.

According to Mr Sumit Roy, Associate Director of WWF – India’s Sustainable Agriculture Programme (SAP), the salient features of the DSS include forecast advisories on weather and pest infestation and early warnings on disease so that cotton farmers can take proper measures to minimize losses, irrigation advisories consisting of periodic weather updates, soil moisture of farm plots and crop biomass monitoring to enable farmers to optimize water use, nutrient application advisories to monitor the soil nutrient throughout the growing stages of cotton crop using satellite images and alert advisories relating to adverse climatic conditions in which it would not be feasible to sow cotton.

Nilesh is all praise for the App. which, he says, provides truthful and useful technical knowledge. “Before this app. was made available to us, dealers of fertilizers and pesticides were misguiding farmers into buying expensive and local brands which may not be good for the cotton plants,” he points out. “The technical knowledge in the App. is very good for farmers in preventing pest infestation and diseases. I got the proper and precise knowledge on the different stages of cotton production”.

The weather alerts include prediction of wind speed and temperature. In case of high wind speed, farmers will refrain from applying pesticides as they will get blown away. Knowledge about temperature is also useful because pesticides are best applied during low temperatures.
For the season 2019-20, GGRC has provided agro and weather forecasting services to 95,000 cotton farmers. The DSS is currently covering 18,000 villages in Gujarat and a total of 2790 farmers have installed the App. so far. With regard to pest disease control, farmers can contact our experts through SMS, voice calling or video calling, says Mr P P Donga, GGRC Chief. “It is an encouraging factor that more and more farmers are uploading photos on the app. on pest damage to their plants and leaves,” he notes.

Observing that the objective of the project is to enable farmers to grow better cotton, both in quality and quantity, Mr Donga says they are constantly upgrading the App. based on the feedback from farmers in order to make it more farmer-friendly. Regular interactions with farmers are held during the pre-sowing in May-June and at the time of boll formation and flowering stage in August- September, he adds.
While the project has taken off to a good start, poor internet connectivity in some villages has hampered the effectiveness of the App. while lack of skills to understand the navigation and icons restrict its free use.

According to Mr Sujoy Ojha, Advisor, Agribusiness at Weather Risk Management Services (WRMS), which has customized the ‘Cotton Doctor’ web and mobile App., the optimal use of DSS will depend mainly on downloading the App. and using it.

Farmers using the App. are confident that it has a vital role in future agriculture. “I received information on different market rates and was able to sell my cotton at a mandi offering a better price,” states Nilesh. “As a result of consulting the App., I am using less chemical fertilizers and pesticides and saving money.” —-India News Stream