The IT major has already tied-up with 70 startups and NITI Aayog to use technological inventions in finding certain solutions for the agricultural sector
New York based tech giant International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is eyeing to own Rs 5,000 crore business in the Indian agricultural sector by investing in technological inputs in the next five years.
Revenues from both business services and advisory for the entire agriculture ecosystem
Himanshu Goyal, India sales and alliances leader, The Weather Company, an IBM division, said, “IBM sees Rs 5,000-crore opportunity from agritech in India over the next five years.” He explained that the company plans to bring revenues from offering both business services and advisory for the entire agriculture ecosystem or agriculture value chain on weather data, Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) services.
The weather company that already works with 70 startups involved in agritech sector, has recently joined hands with NITI Aayog to start certain solutions for the farm sector using technological inventions. He stated that the project with Aayog is about creating crop-yield prediction model by implementing AI services to provide real-time advisories to farmers in less-developed districts. A total of 15 agriculture-favourable states are included in this project and IBM has developed such prediction ‘models’ for most of the key crops.
Reaching out to up to 35 lakh farmers in India
The farm sector is the largest employer in India with approximately 60 per cent (more than 1.3 billion) of the population depending on agriculture and its other areas. Even so, productivity is low and that clearly explains why farm sector contributes only 15 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. The government is now eyeing to double the farmer earnings by 2022 and IBM, along with its partners, is reaching out to 35 lakh farmers in India.
Goyal said that in the current scenario, only 6,000 developers are dedicated to the agricultural sector of the nation – only 1 per cent, of the total number of active developers. He added that with the support of its startups and NITI Aayog, IBM is investing in course-ware and other content with live projects to contribute in the enhancement of the agritech skills in more than 100 educational bodies, including engineering and management institutes and universities.
