In a bid to empower farmers with advance information about the possible pink bollworm infestation in cotton fields so that they could take preventive and control measures, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Learning, Mumbai, for providing AI-based interventions.
As part of the agreement, the AI-based pest/insect management system developed by the Wadhwani Institute would identify the possibility of pink bollworm and other insect/pest infestation on cotton in advance and share the information to farmers in the areas identified for the programme so that farmers could take control measures early.
According to the university officials, the AI-based pest management system would be implemented for the benefit of cotton farmers in Khammam, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar and Nagarkurnool districts. Cotton was grown on nearly 20.88 lakh acres in these districts during the last kharif season out of 60.54 lakh acres cultivated in the State. This year, it is expected to go up further.
The Agriculture Department, Krishi Vignan Kedras of the agriculture university, Information Technology department and Wadhwani Institute would participate in the project. The agreement was signed virtually in the presence of Principal Secretary (IT) Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary (Agriculture) M. Raghunandan Rao and university Vice-Chancellor V. Praveen Rao and representatives of Wadhwani Institute.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Praveen Rao said although mechanisation had reduced dependency on manual labour, in paddy cultivation it was still high for cotton as it has to be picked from the plants at least three times. Mr. Ranjan said convergence of IT and agriculture had been giving good results over the past two years.
The university also signed agreements with Barrisons Agro India P. Ltd and Evergree Energy Enterprises P. Ltd for working together in areas such as soil testing, agriculture inputs, market linkage, use of drones and others. Emerging Technologies wing director Rama Devi, Raghu (Wadhwani Group), P. Prasad and University Registrar S. Sudheer Kumar participated.