Microsoft lays AI sensors for smart farming, cutting-edge healthcare in India - Weekly Voice

The aim is clear: To help the community digitally record information to cut costs and increase yields -- with just a smartphone in their hands as AI leveraged Cloud computing to make sense of the data for farmers. India has now embarked on a journey to bring AI sensors into the fields. For Anant Maheshwari, the company's India President, Microsoft has begun empowering small-holder farmers in India to increase their income through higher crop yield and greater price control. "We are working with farmers, state governments, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to create an ecosystem for AI into farming," Maheshwari told IANS. In some villages in Telangana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, farmers are receiving automated voice calls that tell them whether their cotton crops are at risk of a pest attack, based on weather conditions and crop stage.