In a new initiative, PepsiCo India’s “Lay’s” has announced a crop and plot-level predictive intelligence model that aims to help farmers maximize potato yields , along with increasing the quality of the produce.
This will be done through dashboards on mobile apps that will be easy to use.
The new project, launched in collaboration with Cropin — a leading global agri-tech company known for creating the first industry cloud for agriculture — is a part of PepsiCo’s ‘Precision Agriculture’ model.
The pilot project of the initiative is being implemented in demo farms at Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
As of now, the project has 62 farms as a trial, including 51 in Gujarat and 11 in Madhya Pradesh.
“The new initiative has the potential to address some of the challenges faced by farmers, by the use of satellite imagery correlated with remote sensing data to provide insights,” the company said in a press release.
“Most farmers in India own less than one hectare of farmland and face constant challenges due to lack of means to evaluate the optimum consumption of agri-inputs like water, fertilizers, and pesticides as well as actionable weather data. For example, potato yield losses caused through the blight crop disease can go up to 80% if not forecasted early,” PepsiCo said.
“Significant yield loss caused due to ground frost is another serious issue for potato farmers especially in the northern parts of the country,” the press release added.
According to the company, the new system can a 10-day forecast that will help farmers in identifying different crop stages as well as monitoring crop health. This would also include a disease warning system that relies on weather forecasts and historical data.
“In its pilot stage, the necessary training and handholding to the farmers is being provided through field agronomists who are helping them understand the dashboard and leverage the insights,” the company said.
“Being an Agri company at heart, we aim to bring in sustainable, resilient, and inclusive solutions that would address the diverse issues of farmers and help them improve their livelihoods,” Anukool Joshi, Director – Agro at PepsiCo India said.
“Through our partnership with Cropin on this new initiative, our goal is to eventually roll-out this solution to PepsiCo farmers across India and empower them with real-time tracking of crop health to maximize yield and quality,” Joshi added.
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