AI to play a key role in India's growth in agriculture: Nasscom EY report

Despite being an agrarian economy, multiple challenges hold back the Indian agriculture sector from performing to its potential. "However, with increased government support, growing agritech providers, burgeoning startup ecosystem, and rising AI adoption among the rural farming population, a strong transformation impetus is underway," Nasscom said in a statement. Data consolidation, lack of infrastructure awareness in data processing, and its availability have been some of the key challenges faced by the sector today. In addition to this, lack of awareness on agricultural inputs, access to quality seeds, lack of adequate irrigation infrastructure, and scarcity of farmer capital, are some of the challenges faced by the sector. "AI has the potential to play a key role in relieving the sector from most of its stressful input conditions, catalyzing a shift towards data-driven farming. Leveraging macro as well as farm-level data collected through sensors will help maximize yields and optimize the use of available resources," Nasscom said.