~Dear all,

Thanks to the organisers of this forum! Let me start by mentioning that, Worldwide- India is a top producer of fruits and vegetables, second only to China.  However, as demand for fruits and vegetables increase in India and beyond India,  mainly due to a change in  eating habits , there is a need to sustainably produce more fruits and  vegetables with less harm to the already depleted environment, if we are to  meet the required quantities without jeopardizing the future generation in doing the same. This discussion will indeed allow the exchange of the practices, tools and innovative technologies used in different places for intensifying production, as we embrace ICTs into sustainable intensification of crop production. Find below some of the cases, which have been done in India in an attempt to embrace ICTs into horticulture production.

A) BIG DATA FOR IMPROVING FARM PRODUCTIVITY

Farm productivity in India is one third to one half less than the world average. This is in part due to poor soil health. Soil analyses show the NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) ratio of Indian soils is significantly skewed in favour of N due to high usage of Urea. Developing farm-specific, data-driven diagnostics to determine soil health is a big opportunity area as well as biotechnological solutions to help improve soil health like soil amendments even in horticulture crop based systems. There are also a growing number of big data technologies aimed at improving the efficiency of farming and in supply chain such as drones, sensors, and other IoT technology, and data analytics to provide decision support to farmers and other players in the supply chain. CropIn (http://cropin.co.in) , AgRisk, AgNext , Skymet  www.skymetweather.com , Stellaps http://www.stellapps.com/ , and Airwood http://www.airwood.in/  are some of the examples that are working on this theme.

b) Market linkage models for Horticultural farmers
Indian agriculture is supply driven and less market-driven compared to other markets. This is the primary reason for seasonal food inflation as well as significant food waste and value loss along the supply chain. Though demand is becoming more predictable in India given the homogenization of consumption trends, supply is less predictable.

A farmer’s decision on which crop to plant each year is often driven by the price of that crop the previous year. Government policy in supporting the price for certain crops also plays a role in that decision. This presents an opportunity for developing market linkage models for farmers. This in turn could require innovations to help farmers with the timely and accurate estimation of sowing and harvesting in the context of patterns in consumer demand. The way forward will probably be hybrid models involving Big Data and Aggregation. Sabziwala, MeraKisan, Dehaat are some of the start-ups who have demonstrated successful aggregation in horticulture.