| | DECEMBER 20208Consultants ReviewHOW IOT CAN IMPROVE INDIA'SAGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION &FOOD SECURITYAn established thought leader in the `Iot and Digital Space,' Rishi has consistently delivered sustainable revenue growth in the Smart City initiatives and other digital transformation programsBy Rishi Mohan Bhatnagar, President, Aeris Communicationsy 2050, the world's population is set to be a third larger than it is today, reach-ing 9.7 billion people, the United Nations World Population Prospects report sug-gests. To meet this growth and properly feed the growing population, global food production must increase by a whopping 70 percent. India too needs to step up its food pro-duction and processing practices to meet its own demand and for export needs. Part of the answer to the problem of how food producers become 'smarter, leaner and faster' could lie in new technology, and particularly IoT. IoT monitoring technol-ogy is already helping producers to meet very strict import regulations. The need of the hour is to expand use cases and build and deploy solutions that can help India move towards food security and sustainable development. IoT has been making deep inroads into sectors such as manufacturing, health-care and automotive. When it comes to food production, transport and storage, it of-fers a breadth of options that can improve India's per capita food availability. Sensors that offer informa-tion on soil nutrient status, pest infestation, moisture conditions which can be used to improve crop yields over time. Precision agriculture which reduces wastage of water and nutrients with accurate application is another area where IoT can help. Through sensors, just the right amount of water can be added to the roots and the right amount of organic inputs added to ensure desirable levels of crop growth without contami-nating the soil with excess concentration of nutrients. In a lab situation, precise micro-climatic conditions including parameters such as soil electrical conductivity can be created to measure the impact of each parameter on plant growth. It can also be used to alter vari-ous crop traits over a period of time. A shock-ing statistic reveals that in India, around 21 million MT of wheat rots each year. This is almost equal to what Australia produces in a year. When one factors in the amount of water used to grow these crops, the problem becomes even more a matter of concern. Thanks to cold chain monitoring techniques and im-proved storage monitoring, the amount of agriculture produce wasted can be reduced significantly. With sen-sors, storage and transport practices can be improved BIN MY OPINIONRishi Mohan Bhatnagar, President
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