Representative image.
(StockSnap/Pixabay/Via Canva)
Google has partnered in a research collaboration with the open digital agricultural technology platform nurture.farm to identify scalable and cost-effective solutions for measuring soil health, by measuring parameters such as soil organic carbon and soil organic carbon. other key nutrients.
Soil health is essential for crop yield and productivity. But poor land management and practices, amplified by climate change, have destroyed healthy soils.
To test soil health, farmers mainly rely on chemical analysis techniques where soil samples are collected and analyzed in the laboratory. However, limited testing facilities, low farmer awareness, and high logistical and operational costs make the approach challenging.
Google and nurture.farm have identified several research areas to accelerate the adoption of sustainable farming practices across the country.
The partnership will provide farmers with fast, affordable and scalable soil health measurement techniques, helping them optimize their crop, seed and nutrient choices across seasons. In addition to providing farmers with a better return on investment, it will also promote sustainable farming practices.
“We look forward to our collaboration with nurture.farm, using Google’s suite of AI and imaging technologies, the cloud, and advanced expertise in geospatial analytics and machine learning to help uncover solutions. term for sustainable agriculture,” said Manish Gupta, director of Google. Research, in a press release.
“At nurture.farm, our goal is to bring advanced and innovative technology solutions to facilitate the decision-making process and improve outcomes for farmers, with a focus on India’s smallholder farmers. With this collaboration with Google, we are working together to develop a scalable, real-time and cost-effective method to measure soil quality,” added Pranav Tiwari, CTO of nurture.farm.
Teams will focus on using hyperspectral image analysis combined with other remote sensing and data collection methods to accurately measure soil organic carbon (SOC) and other nutrients in the soil at across a range of soil types and characteristics that reflect the landscape of agricultural practices in India.
This soil testing method will help extend low-cost soil testing services to farmers across India, guiding them on ways to improve soil health, select crops, inputs and appropriate operating practices, which will result in higher yields and incomes.
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