MUMBAI, Mar 1: Google, the global technology leader, is developing a digital agricultural framework using satellite imagery, starting with a foundational layer designed to map farm boundaries, according to a senior executive on Saturday.
Data derived from this foundational layer can improve subsidy disbursements, agricultural insurance, and farm loans, stated Manish Gupta, a senior director at Google DeepMind.
“We have created an initial model that utilizes satellite imagery to identify field boundaries and discern crop patterns,” Gupta remarked during the Mumbai Tech Week.
This model draws inspiration from UIDAI’s Aadhaar system by assigning a unique ID to each farm, serving as the foundational element of the “digital agriculture stack,” he added.
Gupta emphasized the role of startups and agri-tech companies to develop solutions for loan provisions, crop insurance, and subsidies based on the data generated by this platform.
Noting the significance of this initiative, he mentioned that 40% of India’s population is involved in agriculture, with an annual farming loan market valued at USD 550 billion, predominantly controlled by informal lenders.
These comments were made as India’s banking sector seeks to enhance its agricultural lending capabilities, with the State Bank of India’s chairman, C S Setty, discussing the potential for utilizing satellite imagery to make agricultural lending processes more efficient.
Additionally, Gupta expressed concern over the scarcity of content available in Indian languages and indicated Google’s commitment to addressing this through various initiatives.
He pointed out that while around 10% of the global population speaks Hindi, it constitutes just 0.1% of the content available online.
To bridge this gap, Google has launched the “Vaani” project, which aims to gather speech data via voice recordings from more than 700 districts. The initial phase has successfully collected 14,000 hours of audio data from 80 districts, capturing voices in 59 different languages, he noted.
Gupta also highlighted that Indians often undervalue the impact of artificial intelligence on scientific progress, referencing DeepMind’s contributions that earned a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (PTI)
