Advances in agricultural technology have made tremendous inroads into the agricultural sector, enhancing production manifold and creating innovative solutions to modern farming challenges, experts at a webinar have said.

They were speaking on the topic ‘Agriculture Technology Revolution’, jointly organised by SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST) and The Hindu as part of their Future Career Conversations series.

Devinder Dhingra, Principal Scientist (Process Engineering), Agricultural Engineering Division, Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), said that 47% of farm work was now mechanised, and that the introduction of scientific methods has led to surplus production, which has resulted in agricultural produce being exported. While mechanisation of harvesting horticulture crops continued to pose a challenge, harvest of field crops has been largely mechanised, and farmers were using precision equipment for the same.

“Drones are being actively used for crop management and spraying of pesticides,” Dr. Dhingra said, adding that crop storage mechanisms have undergone tremendous changes as well.

Poorna Pushkala, CEO, Samunnati Foundation, said the sector has been bolstered by multiple decentralised energy systems and various ad-tech innovations. “We have highly customised solutions available for climatic and geographical conditions now. Several post-harvest technologies are also available in the market created by students or professionals with less than five years of experience,” she noted. Anybody with a passion to solve problems innovatively would have a space in agriculture, she added.

Leenus Jesu Martin M., Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, SRMIST, said that agriculture, initially a stand-alone discipline, was now a multi-disciplinary field with mechanical, automation, and computing engineers all playing a big role in the mechanisation process. “Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning,” he said, “formed the basis of smart agriculture and the Internet of Things played a role in connecting various farm jobs”.

Jawaharlal M., Dean, SRM College of Agriculture Sciences, said that almost all branches of engineering and technology could be linked to agriculture. While collective and cooperative farming systems benefit workers, high-value crops could be produced in low volume if technology was linked to farming, he added.

A.M. Jigeesh, Senior Deputy Editor ofThe Hindu, moderated the webinar, which can be accessed below: