The AI Culture in Agriculture

Posted on October 11th, 2023

Predictive insights

As per reports, the number of data points gathered on an average farm will increase from 1,90,000 to 4.1 million in 2050. Using abundant data points helps in farming with precision methods. The data coupled with AI models can help in understanding minute details like the best time to sow. This might be a micro input to the farmer, yet it decides the yield and profitability. These models can help in understanding soil health and fertilizer recommendations and their usage. Crop yield predictions and price forecasts are very crucial inputs for farmers globally. Unpredictable climate changes and fluctuations in prices create uncertainty for farmers. Companies are using satellite imagery and weather data to assess the acreage and monitor crop health on a real-time basis. With the help of AI models coupled with big data, this can help in the prediction of pests and diseases more proactively. Yield predictions and demand planning can help farmers and governments map the supply and demand of the crop produce. AI models can help in predicting human resource planning for minimizing costs in labor-intensive tasks.

Crop and soil monitoring

Traditionally, soil health and crop health were left to human judgment, and this has its limitations and inaccuracies. Micro and macro nutrients in the soil are very critical for the health of the crop and have a direct impact on the quality and quantity of yield. In general, soil samples are brought to the lab and are analyzed to understand the soil health. Some imagery-based AI models proved to understand the sand content and SOM (Soil Organic Matter) estimates with almost lab accuracy. And once the crop is in the soil, monitoring the stages of the growth of the crop at various stages is very critical. Understanding different environmental conditions at each stage of crop growth are vital and this will help in adjustments to protect the crop’s health resulting in better yield. Advanced AI models can help in understanding both soil and crop conditions based on satellite or drone imagery accompanied by various data points and statistical models.

Automated irrigation

Water is one of the major inputs of agriculture that plays an important role in the development of the crop. The new AI models that support decision-making have now set water management on a new trajectory. These models coupled with IoT and big data can help in analyzing the crop stress due to scarce or excess water supply, as both these conditions are fatal to the crop produce. Ai models use statistical methods using critical factors like crop type, species, climatic data, temperature, soil moisture, soil type and source of irrigation to predict the water requirements. By using these AI models, we can also eliminate the human error of approximation. Advanced AI automated irrigation systems can help in understanding and providing water precisely. This helps in saving water and results in a high yield. These systems can help in saving time and money, and increase productivity.

Pest and disease prediction and detection

Crop growth in various climatic conditions are prone to various pests and diseases at every stage. In the ever-changing global climatic conditions, it is a very challenging task to predict the occurrence of pests and diseases. AI models coupled with IoT devices and sensors can help in getting real-time microclimatic data such as soil moisture, humidity, temperature etc. and are used by AI models to understand the favourable conditions for pest infestation and disease occurrence. Such advanced AI models can predict pests and diseases with the greatest accuracy, at least 15 to 20 days prior. This prediction can help the farmer to be equipped with all necessary precautions and minimize the risk of losing the yield.

In many cases of post occurrence of pests and diseases, it is a challenge to identify the stage and type of pest and diseases which affected the crop. Image-trained AI models can detect the stages and types of pests and diseases with the greatest accuracy and confidence. This detection can also help farmers to understand the precise health conditions of the crop and take necessary proactive and reactive measures.

Intelligent spraying

It is not just identifying the affected crops and spotting disorders in the crop, but also about preventing or mitigating the spread of damage. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) equipped with AI vision and imagery modules can help in automating the spraying of pesticides and fertilizers uniformly and precisely across the field. This technology helps in identifying the target areas and calculating the amount of chemicals to be sprayed, and execute the spraying with highest accuracy. This precision intelligent spraying helps reduce the risk of contaminating crops, humans, animals and water resources. These Ai models can help in identifying weeds and sprays with such accuracy that it mitigates the collateral damage to healthy crops.

Automatic weeding

Even though weed identification with intelligent spraying works quite efficiently, vision models with machine learning can help in building robots to perform automatic weeding. The robots are trained to distinguish between weeds and crops and eliminate them with the greatest precision and are not just highly productive but also environment friendly. By doing this, we are eliminating the usage of herbicides and thus making the whole operation more efficient and productive.

Smart harvesting

Understanding the growth stages of crop production is the greatest challenge, especially in highly perishable crops like a tomato. Observing and estimating the growth and maturity of a crop is highly labour-intensive work and economically inefficient for farmers. With image-based trained AI models, farmers can understand the maturity of crop production with the highest accuracy and can forecast and equip for efficient harvesting.

Produce grading and sorting

The AI vision modules can help farmers even once the crops have been harvested. As these models are instrumental in understanding soil health, crop health, pests and diseases, they can also identify and sort quality produce and separate it from defective ones. AI vision models can inspect fruits and vegetables for size, shape, colour and volume, and can automate the sorting and grading process with greater accuracy compared to trained professionals. This will help farmers and traders to save money, and minimize human efforts and human errors in the sorting and grading process.

In conclusion, AI coupled with big data and IoT can help all the stakeholders in the agriculture sector including farmers, traders and governments to operate most efficiently and productively. This can also minimize and mitigate all possible risks while reducing losses and increasing the yield.

Creating Women Leaders to Upgrade Quality and Productivity

Posted on October 11th, 2023

The best solutions are sometimes found in unexpected places. For an excellent working example of lean tools, we had to look no further than how Indian women plan their work and execute it. Here are some of the real-time examples which we found in our kitchen.

All SKUs are kept in glass bottles and in order so that MSL, danger Level of inventory and EOQ is clearly visible. Replenishment happens as per need. The frequently used SKUs are kept near the stove (Poka Yoke) so that search time is eliminated and is ergonomically easier as well. Here, less search time means high productivity. We also see 5s at its best – proper sorting, place for everything, daily cleaning, standardization of the process and sustainable for years. A good example of cycle time reduction by SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) could be seen in how the meal preparation happens. While the rice is soaked, women plan the vegetable cutting; when sambar is on the stove, they prepare items for rasam and other sides. In forty-five minutes, meal preparation for the whole day is over. This is an effective utilization of time. Inventory and FIFO is maintained properly in the kitchen. To handle food waste, women teach their children not to waste food (dump) and handover responsibility by asking them to clean their own plates. In addition to this, women also plan all the activities for the children while cooking, and execute it to core perfection. When it comes to time management, line balancing is perfectly executed as per the demand and cooks with shorter lead time with n number of variety.

This unparalleled efficiency which women bring to the table is observed within WayCool too. We were no match with the grading efficiency of women in the packing line. Packing productivity is at its best – 450 packs/women per day considering 90 varieties of SKUs. The credit goes to women in executing the 1.7 lakh packets in less than a day from CC & DC. In fact, our packing line is completely run by women employees. The backend MIS works is also executed at its best by our backend women team.

We have created women entrepreneurs in garlic peeling units & few other areas. We observed that 5s was at its best where women are leaders for zones. In these teams, we noticed exemplary dedication in tasks like operating VPM, onion grading m/c, auto weighing on their own. When it comes to quality, the packing quality in wrapping and LDPE is at its best.

Rethinking Food Miles for Sustainable Supply Chains

Posted on October 11th, 2023

How much of the food you eat today is locally produced? How much will travel hundreds, if not thousands, of miles before it reaches your plate?

When it comes to food lifecycle, the distance it travels from farm to plate (commonly referred to as Food Miles) has a significant share of carbon footprint. The ‘Buy Local’ food movement, with the goal of consuming food produced and grown locally, has been gaining traction in recent years as a way of eating fresh and high-quality food and reducing one’s environmental impact at the same time.

The greater the distance the food travels, more is the energy spent on transportation resulting in more CO2 emissions. These emissions have a significant impact on air quality and contribute to global warming. Simply put, the more the food travels, the more greenhouse gases (GHGs) it contributes to, which directly impacts climate change.

The exact environmental impact also depends on the means of transport used. Cargo ships are the most efficient, followed by trains, then trucks, and lastly airplanes. That means a product flown from Chicago to San Francisco has a significantly larger carbon footprint than one shipped thousands of miles away from India to San Francisco.

Reducing Food Miles has its benefits:

Fresh produce contains more nutrients

The quality and nutritional value of Agri produce can be affected by maximized handling, storage at improper temperatures, and rough transport. So, the closer you are to the source of produce, the more nutritional it will be.

Less travel means a safer food supply

Less transportation and handling also means less chances of contamination throughout the supply chain ensuring safe and hygienic food.

Reduces food wastage

Food wastage is a tragic waste of resources, and has a large and damaging impact on climate change. Food wastage alone causes 10% of GHG emissions. Rotting food generates methane which over the long term has 28 times more global warming potential as compared to CO2.

India’s cold chain challenge

The United Nations (UN) estimates that more than 40% of food produced in India is wasted before it reaches the consumer. Keeping perishables fresh during transit is a challenge in India’s diverse weather.

One of the major reasons for food wastage is the lack of an efficient cold chain infrastructure that includes refrigerated transport, pack houses, collection centers, and cold storage.

To reduce food loss, strengthen food security, and improve rural livelihoods, India must close the logistical gap between farm and fork. Cold chain inefficiencies are responsible for up to half of post-harvest food losses in the country. A more effective cold chain would bring farmers closer to consumers, assuring them of fairer prices and access to new markets. Moreover, the optimization of the supply chain of perishables can ensure the reduction in food wastage and better utilization of the food stock.

Making sustainable cold chains a reality in India was envisaged in the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) that highlights the missing elements of the cold chain, which would be key to reducing food loss. The missing elements include ripening chambers, refrigerated transport, and rural packhouses – organized facilities where farmers’ produce is aggregated, pre-cooled, and packed. According to ICAP, India needs over 125,000 rural packhouses against 500 packhouses that we have today.

There is an urgent need for improving supply chain efficiency and an innovative analytics-led platform to intelligently connect farmers to consumers with reduced Food Miles, minimum wastage, and better returns.

Rethinking Food Miles for a cold chain deficit India

Realizing that India still has a long way to go to achieve a cohesive cold chain infrastructure, WayCool has taken the initiative of rethinking Food Miles by infusing new-age technologies like AI, ML, and Advanced Robotics at multiple stages of the Agri supply chain.

From identifying and recreating environments to grow exotic produce closer to its collection and distribution centers, to electrifying its delivery fleet, WayCool has succeeded in reducing greenhouse gas emissions of over 35 tonnes per vehicle per year. Add to it our automated distribution centers that minimize human handling, and thereby reduce food wastage, and you get food that is not only fresh but also hygienic and safe.

Here’s a short video of how we are reducing Food Miles, the WayCool way.

Sustaining Sustainability is the Way of the Future!

Posted on October 11th, 2023

Irrespective of who we are, where we live and what we do, we have a moral obligation to one another, to our future generations and to every other species in order to sustain the planet. The choices we make today have huge long-term implications on our future generations. Thus, consciously practicing sustainability ensures that we make responsible choices that promise a safe and liveable future to everyone. It improves the quality of our lives, protects our ecosystem and preserves natural resources for future generations.

Today, as we strive to recover from the pandemic and rebuild, it has become the need of the hour to direct our focus and resources towards sustainability. In the corporate world, sustainability is associated with an organization’s holistic approach, considering everything right from manufacturing to logistics to customer service. Just relying on professional communications and good intentions are no longer enough. Leading business houses are boldly committing to protect and support the planet for the future, while simultaneously achieving their current business goals.

Being actively involved in such efforts is creating a remarkable difference in terms of not just growth and risk management but also in achieving significant return on capital, thus creating a value based environment.

For us, at WayCool, this has been the mantra since day one. We strongly believe that our focus should be more than just profits, or the “bottom-line” and we ought to measure the environmental and social impact that we leave behind.

There are multiple benefits of incorporating sustainability in business:

• Brand is protected and possible risks are mitigated
• Being purpose-driven is a competitive advantage in today’s world
• There is an ever growing market for sustainable goods
• Co-operative action can drive change
• Most importantly, and unlike popular belief, technologies that bring sustainability also improve the bottomline, given how cost curves stack up in emerging markets such as India, for resources such as energy and water.

The long-term growth approach at WayCool comes from the choices that we make. The strategic pillars of our Environmental Social Governance (ESG) structure namely Sustainable Operations, Climate Action, Social Value, Enriching Workplace are designed not only to bring efficiencies but also to deliver both quantitative and qualitative impact.

Energy Efficiency

• Through energy efficient systems and technologies

Climate Action

• Use of renewable energy power
• Clean and Green logistics
• Carbon removal and sequestration

Water Security

• Offset operational water use through recycling and
• reuse measures
• Harvest rainwater and recharge groundwater

Minimize Food Waste

• Reduce food dump generation
• Avoid landfill of food waste

Reduce Food Travel

• Better planning, storage and transport practices

Social Value Creation

People, in general, are only interested in sustainability if they are educated about it, and if its overall importance is effectively communicated. After all, human well-being and the well-being of society is part of what sustainability stands for. This is precisely why WayCool delivers social value through our engagement programs with the farmers and vulnerable communities in the country. Our agricultural extension program ‘Outgrow’ is designed to empower farmers with additional farming income by adopting sustainable and regenerative agriculture practices. Further, our entrepreneurial program designed for women has delivered significant change in their level of confidence and sustainable income source. That’s not all, through our co-partnering and developing rural livelihood programs, we have developed several rural entrepreneurs by providing mechanized garlic peeling and spices packaging technology and necessary training on Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).

To sum it all up, sustainability is a major challenge, one that matters beyond individual companies. But reassuringly a number of large companies are developing forward-thinking sustainability policies. It is really becoming clear that sustainability is a megatrend that isn’t going away, and we at WayCool are proud to be a part of it.