The Sagri-Leaf consortium has partnered with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in a project designed to improve the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers in India.
Sagri, a Japan-based satellite technology services provider, formed a strategic partnership with Indian agricultural services company Lawrencedale Agro Processing India (Leaf) in July 2021.
The Sagri-Leaf consortium, to start with, will deploy agri-tech solutions for digital transformation of the small and marginal farmers in the north-Indian state of Himachal Pradesh as part of the bilateral aid agency’s programme. Initially, the programme will target a small area as a pilot before it is rolled-out to wider regions in Himachal Pradesh.
“JICA is actively supporting the development of the agriculture ecosystem in India. We are delighted to work with JICA and Leaf to harness the vast amount of data beamed from satellites. Since satellite data can be obtained over a wide area and in a homogeneous manner, its usefulness is expected,” said Satoshi Nagata, chief executive of Sagri India.
“However, on the other hand, it is difficult for end users to directly utilise satellite data. It is this gap that Sagri-Leaf partnership will address and provide information appropriately.”
The Sagri-LEAF consortium will engage with the Himachal Pradesh government to provide actionable data which can predict the quality and yield of the produce. Palat Vijayaraghavan, founder and chief executive of Leaf said this would be invaluable in a state where agriculture provides direct employment to about 71 per cent of the total population.
“We have positively impacted millions of small and marginal farmers with relevant and impact-led technology solutions. The Sagri-Leaf partnership, by leveraging the strategic funding by JICA, will deploy satellite big data, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning solutions to predict harvest yields, improve nutrition content and work on diversification of crops to mitigate the risks,” said Vijayaraghavan.
“The proprietary platform builds on analysing satellite data using AI technology and by letting AI learn the characteristics of satellite data of various states on the ground, it will create a state in which AI can make predictions.
“When we can leverage technology and bring in such transparency, our teams can intervene to walk with the farmers to improve quality and the quantity of the harvest. This solves multiple challenges for the agriculture ecosystem offering them confidence and transparency enabling multiple services such as access to organised farm credit and farm insurance.”
