Mumbai, March 1: Global tech giant Google is constructing a digital agri-stack powered by satellite imagery, beginning with an innovative base layer designed to identify farm boundaries, according to Manish Gupta, Senior Director at Google DeepMind.
Speaking at the Mumbai Tech Week event on Saturday, Gupta explained that this foundational layer harnesses satellite data analysis to identify farm borders based on usage patterns and even determine the types of crops being cultivated. The digital agri-stack, inspired by UIDAI's Aadhaar model, assigns each farm a unique identifier, opening avenues for numerous agricultural applications.
Enhancing Agriculture through Technology
Highlighting its significance, Gupta mentioned that data derived from Google's agri-stack could substantially improve processes like subsidy disbursement, crop insurance, and agricultural lending. This initiative places crucial agricultural data into the hands of startups and agri-tech companies, empowering them to innovate and develop targeted solutions."Agriculture employs approximately 40% of India's population, and the annual farm lending market alone represents a massive USD 550 billion opportunity," Gupta remarked. He emphasized that a substantial share of this market is currently dominated by informal sector lenders.
Gupta's comments coincide with ongoing efforts by Indian banks to streamline agricultural lending practices. Recently, SBI Chairman C S Setty revealed that India's largest lender is contemplating using satellite imagery for enhanced efficiency in its agri-loan processes.
Addressing Language Barriers with Project Vaani
In a parallel initiative, Gupta highlighted Google's efforts to bridge the gap in digital content available in Indian languages. Despite Hindi being spoken by around 10% of the world's population, the language represents merely 0.1% of online content.To tackle this challenge, Google launched "Project Vaani," aiming to collect speech data through voice recordings from all of India's 700-plus districts. In the project's first phase, Google successfully gathered 14,000 hours of audio data covering 59 languages from 80 districts.
AI and the Future of Science
Gupta also expressed concern over the underestimation of Artificial Intelligence's potential in India, particularly its capability to push the boundaries of scientific discovery. He referenced DeepMind's groundbreaking contributions to AI, which played a significant role in winning a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.The introduction of Google's digital agri-stack could mark a transformative phase in India's agricultural sector, integrating technological innovation with real-world solutions to enhance productivity, transparency, and accessibility for millions of farmers.
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