Digital pest diagnostic and management “doctors” that talk directly to Indian farmers

(Photo: IRRI India)

Agricultural digital technologies are transforming food systems and offering farmers new opportunities to improve their crop management, productivity, and income.  Through “digital doctor” apps, farmers can now access important information in real time through their smartphones so they can make science-based decisions.  These mobile apps can help farmers even in very remote areas maximize their irrigation schedules and identify pests and diseases.

Agricultural digital technologies are transforming food systems and offering farmers new opportunities to improve their crop management, productivity, and income. As such, the suite of available digital technologies— the Internet, mobile devices and smartphones, data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and digitally delivered services—are playing a pivotal and prominent role in modern-day and sustainable agriculture.

In India, where a vast majority of phone users do not use a landline, information and communication technology (ICT) tools help disseminate agricultural research outputs to farmer’s fields quickly and easily.

Mobile phones are transforming the agricultural landscape by democratizing access to information and technology, Michael Gomez Selvaraj, a digital agriculture scientist at Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, said in Nature India’s podcast on enabling precision agriculture through wireless technologies.