Nashik-based farmer producer company (FPC) Sahyadri Farms has joined hands with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to jointly develop technology for horticulture crops.
Under the collaboration, Sahyadri’s expertise in farming on the ground and agri-sensor technology developed by Sensartics, a start-up incubated at the FPC, will be combined with ISRO’s advanced satellite technology and data analytics.
Parag Narvekar, a former NASA scientist and founder of Sensartics, said they had been working with ISRO for the last year on a pilot project to develop a prototype for weather forecasting using satellite data and offering farm-level inputs that would be relevant to the farmer and specific crops. They are now working on scaling up and rolling it out to more farms and other crops.
“Soil moisture and irrigation play a critical role in quality and yield, but sensor technology isn’t enough, as there could be errors. When combined with satellite data from the entire farm, it enables better decision making. The satellite delivers a lot of data but it needs to be interpreted into information that is usable by farmers. This is where Sahyadri’s network and experience of thousands of farmers comes into play,” he added.
“Marginal farmers make agronomical decisions by monitoring diseases, pests and soil moisture through observations. However, there’s a limit to how much can be determined using traditional methods,” he said.
ISRO’s technology would help farmers come up with comprehensive solutions and make informed decisions regarding disease management and soil moisture variability.
The plug the gaps in ISRO’s technology, Sahyadri will use its own technology, which includes low-cost weather stations and extensively uses sensors and devices on the ground for monitoring oil, humidity, moisture, canopy and diseases and issues timely alerts to farmers.
The weather stations provide highly localised data on weather, soil condition, nutrients and transpiration for an individual farm or in a 5-km radius. The information is shared on a mobile app.
It helps monitor crop health, predict weather patterns and manage resources efficiently to help them make informed decisions and increase productivity.
“Climate change is also affecting farmers and they are faced with extreme weather events and shifting weather. So such an intervention will help farmers avoid future disasters,” Narvekar said.
“Sahyadri’s farmers have benefitted from using this technology in grapes. The ISRO-Sahyadri collaboration intends to expand in tomatoes and pomegranates too. They will also explore the climate compatibility of new grape varieties, which is essential for ensuring the sustainability and resilience of viticulture in the face of climate change,” he added.
A team of ISRO scientists will visiting the Sahyadri Farms in Nashik on February 23 to explore expansion of the scope of the collaboration.
Sahyadri Farms posted a revenue of Rs 1,007 cr in FY23.
It has 24,500 affiliated farmer members, with 40,000 acres cultivated land. It largely growing grapes, tomatoes, pomegranates, bananas, mangoes, oranges, sweet corn and cashews.