Google-funded AI project aims to reduce crop losses in cotton farming

The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence on May 8 received a $2 million grant from Google to develop technologies to reduce crop losses in cotton farming.

This is a part of $25 million in grants from the tech giant. In addition, as a part of Google AI Impact Challenge, the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence will get credit and consulting from Google Cloud and coaching by Google’s AI experts, according to a press statement.

In Wadhwani AI’s project, AI technology, which runs on a basic smartphone, will be able to classify and count pests based on photos of pest traps taken by farmers and agriculture programme workers. This solution can be used to provide millions of farmers with timely, localised advice, thereby reducing crop loss and the over-use of pesticides by improving the timing of usage.

This is important given that more than a billion people live in smallholder farmer households worldwide, and many of these farmers struggle with avoidable pest damage that can wipe out up to 50 percent of annual crop yield.

For example, in India, for the 30 million people that depend on cotton farming for a living, their inability to manage pests effectively is one the biggest risks. This, despite the fact that cotton accounts for close to half of India’s pesticide usage.

For this project, the institute is partnering with the Government of Maharashtra and members of the Better Cotton Initiative. The project, the statement said, has the potential to develop a template that can be replicated in large-scale agriculture programs worldwide.

Raghu Dharmaraju, Wadhwani AI’s VP Products and Programs, said in the statement, “Small farmers worldwide depend heavily on government and nonprofit programs to figure out what to do at every step of the crop cycle. By using AI to augment human capabilities and overcome systemic challenges in these large-scale programs, we can help millions of farmers. Pest management is just the beginning.”

The Google AI Impact Challenge was an open call to nonprofits, social enterprises and research institutions from around the world to submit their ideas to use AI to help address societal challenges. The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence was one of the 20 institutions chosen from over 2,600 organizations.

The teams will join join Google AI experts, project managers and startup specialists from Google’s Launchpad Accelerator for a programme that will take place from May to November 2019.

Through the Launchpad programme, each of the 20 grantees will develop their own OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and set timelines for project completion. Each organisation will be paired with a Google expert who will meet with them regularly for coaching sessions, and will also have access to other Google resources and expert mentorship.