An Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based sugarcane farming project will soon be launched on the premises of sugar factories and selected farms in Tamil Nadu. The Agricultural Development Trust (ADT), Baramati, will coordinate the implementation of this project.
The project was introduced during a seminar held in Chennai on Sunday (June 8), organized at the initiative of prominent sugar factories in Tamil Nadu. The session was attended by the managing directors and cane development officers of 11 sugar factories, according to Agrowon.
For the past four years, ADT has been running a project in Maharashtra in collaboration with Oxford University and Microsoft to integrate AI into sugarcane farming. Following its significant success in Maharashtra, the organization now plans to expand the initiative to other states, beginning with Tamil Nadu.
As part of this effort, ADT trustee Prataprao Pawar, scientists Dr. Vivek Bhoite and Dr. Yogesh Phatke from the Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Baramati, and representatives from “Map My Crop” Rajesh Shirole and Dr. Bhushan Gosavi presented details of the project during the Chennai seminar.
The discussion focused on key aspects of launching the project in Tamil Nadu, including increasing farmer participation, promoting the initiative through sugar factories, and scaling it up via government schemes in the future.
Sugarcane farmers in Tamil Nadu are currently facing several challenges, such as declining soil fertility, excessive use of water and fertilizers, adverse impacts of climate change on crop growth, and shrinking cultivation areas. Experts at the meeting expressed confidence that AI-based farming could offer viable solutions to many of these problems and help revitalize the sugar industry in the region.
