Karnataka: State government working on AI-based app for farmers

Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy has announced plans to create an Artificial Intelligence based application which would serve farmer’s interests. The app’s purpose would be multifaceted in nature. Apart from providing constant weather updates, the application would also relay information pertaining to soil quality to the farmers. Apart from this the app would also provide insights on seeds, harvesting and other agriculture related data. 

This would bridge the knowledge gap between the agriculture department and the farmers and would also ensure that the information presented would be easy to follow for the farmers. For this purpose, the application would be designed in 14 different languages. 

Cheluvarayaswamy spoke about this as he inaugurated the centralised call centres also meant to assist farmers. He had decreed the previous system of helpline numbers as causing unnecessary confusion. Nevertheless, the estimate that 500 calls were made to these numbers has helped the government plan the scale of action for the call centres which is presently 30 for the first phase. This is however subject to modifications based on change in needs and the volume of calls that the centre would receive. An assistance number: 18004253553 has been provided for the farmers.