Today I woke up to the news that Google has lanched an Artificial Intelligence based agricultural Platform to provide data driven insights and improve farming based practices, for use in region like India.

"Generating agricultural insights at an individual field level is critical to a meaningful change in the agri ecosystem," the company revealed through agri with google website https://agri.withgoogle.com/#ourvision

According to the website, diversity of landscape and crops lead to very different requirements between two fields which are close to each other.

"Currently insights are available at an aggregate level but interventions and advisory is required at individual farm level," it said.

Landscape understanding leverages satellite imagery and machine learning to draw boundaries between fields. With field segments established, the model can determine the acreage of farm fields, forest and woodland areas, and can identify irrigation structures like farm wells and dug ponds to build tools for drought preparedness.

The company is planning to launch agricultural monitoring and event detection feature soon. The feature will allow the platform to explore details of an individual field and review agricultural practice throughout different periods to better understand individual needs. This feature will allow agriculturists to identify

• Details crop type, field size, distance to water, distance to road. Future capabilities to include distance to cold storage and distance to market.

• Track agricultural practices over 3-years period

• Explore specific activities like sowing, harvest, or tillage for a specific field.

The company is partnering with state governments, agricultural enterprises and educational institutions. I feel this is a good move by the IT conglomerate and help the Indian agricultural sector to leap frog into the next decade.