Maharashtra : Bhandara boy’s AI revolution with sugarcane lauded by Nadela & Musk on X
Nagpur-based AgriPilot.ai, founded by Prashant Mishra, developed AI-driven farming techniques that helped Baramati farmers grow 22-foot-tall sugarcane. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Tesla’s Elon Musk praised the innovation on X. The AI system optimizes soil, climate, and crop management, benefiting 3,000 farmers. The technology is now expanding to other regions like Uttar Pradesh.
Nagpur: An agricultural marvel with Artificial Intelligence (AI), developed by a Nagpur-based IT company and founded by a Bhandara farmer’s son, Prashant Mishra, received effusive praise on Monday from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Tesla chief Elon Musk on X (formerly twitter). A group of farmers in Baramati successfully used the algorithm derived by Mishra’s firm — AgriPilot.ai — to grow 22-foot-tall sugarcane. Normally, the crop does not grow higher than 10 to 12 feet.Nadella took to X, posting a video, which also features Mishra, saying how an AI-based farming practice changed lives of sugarcane growers in the west Maharashtra’s sugar bowl, Baramati.Mishra initially started with an IT company — Click2Cloud in Nagpur’s IT Park, later shifting to Mihan-SEZ. Eventually, Agri Pilot, an agritech company, was carved out of the parent company, which now has units abroad. Talking to TOI, Mishra said, “The technology drawing best agricultural practices with AI was jointly developed by AgriPilot.ai and Microsoft Research.””Six months ago, we were successful in growing 22-foot-tall sugarcane on the fields, which can grow up to 40 feet. We gathered details of the seed, vaccination, soil and climate management with the help of AI. The solution, followed by micro-management of the crop, ensured sugarcane stood 22 feet tall,” Mishra told TOI.
He said this has helped 3,000 farmers so far, and the technology is being taken forward to other sugarcane-growing areas like Uttar Pradesh. In the same way, exotic vegetables, which were imported, were grown in a polyhouse also in Baramati. This led to farmers netting as much as Rs 15 lakh for the produce, he said.Commenting on X, Nadella called it a ‘fantastic example of AI’s impact on agriculture’. “This is one example I wish to highlight where you can see the impact of power technology. The numbers they shared in terms of reduction of chemicals, water usage, and ultimate yield were phenomenal,” he said.Nadella went on further to say that it used geospatial data, sensor fusion, spatial-temporal data from drone satellites, all connected to real-time, applying AI to translate this into easy knowhow for a farmer, who asked questions in Marathi.Before this, entrepreneur Mishra tried to dabble in politics, when he fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Bhandara against Congress’ Nana Patole and lost.
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Source : The Times Of India
