Farming on autopilot: IoT to help horti farmers go remote

For decades, Indian agriculture has relied on farmers' intuition when it came to crop cycles, soil nutrients, climatic conditions, and other parameters.

But even experienced farmers have not always been able to escape the perils of climate change, losing their crops to unpredictable weather conditions, soil degradation, and unmitigated pest attacks.

This is what entrepreneur Ananda Verma, who hails from a farming family of UP's Azamgarh District, remembers of his father's trysts with agriculture. 

Despite seven decades of farming experience in the family, Ananda's father, who grew cauliflower seeds, would find his crops damaged due to unprecedented or unforeseen factors. 

"Even though agriculture is the primary source of income in Azamgarh, most farmers faced the same problems and were unable to prevent crop losses," Ananda tells YourStory.

Ananda Verma, Founder and CEO, Fasal

What led to Fasal

Initially reluctant to follow a career in farming, Ananda went on to pursue engineering at IIIT Bangalore and began working in the IT sector. But eventually, his genes started taking over. 

In 2017, along with fellow techie Shailendra Tiwari, Ananda bought a small farmland near Mysore to grow "coloured capsicum" (bell peppers) as a weekend getaway from their big-city life. "Shailendra also has a farming background. We had a shared interest, and started looking at the prerequisites of growing fruits and vegetables," he shares.

However, the two realised the struggles of growing horticulture crops — they are more high maintenance than paddy, wheat, and cereals. Sign up for our exclusive newsletters. Subscribe to check out our popular newsletters.

Ananda explains,

"Paddy is a low-input and low-output crop. But for capsicum and other vegetables, it is just the reverse. Horticulture crops require continuous monitoring and active management of soil nutrients, pests, and diseases. That is where most farmers face problems." 

Read more at Your Story

Header Photo: Fasal founders Ananda Verma (R) and Shailendra Tiwari

Source: Your Story