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Gaurav Raghuvanshi

Off to a good start: Two farmers from Maharashtra are using software to boost yields of sugarcane and other crops.

THEIR father used to get 90-100 quintals of sugarcane per acre.

Ten years later, the Deshmukh brothers in Sangamner in Maharashtra were at a loss to explain how the per acre yield had fallen to just 30 quintals when they took over.

They needed to know what exactly was lacking in their approach, especially when they were largely going by the book on sugarcane farming.

All the literature on agriculture gives only general information about the best practices regarding growing crops. The farmer himself is the best judge of what is good for his field.

Working on the principle that the key to successful farming is having an exact database on one's own farm, Pramod and Sanjay Deshmukh developed software that would let them tabulate the minutest detail about their land and crop.

Thus was born dbSoftAgro, software based on Visual Basic, that lets individual farmers record the impact of every small intervention on their yield.

"The starting point is a systematic tabulation of records of each plot of land an individual farmer has. The farmer only needs to enter four parameters each day. The software will then do all the number crunching and continuously prompt the farmer on what he has done or needs to do in order to maintain his crop on course," says Sanjay Deshmukh, a successful grapes and sugarcane farmer in Sangamner.

The four daily inputs include weather data such as temperature and humidity, the purchases made, a brief description of the day's activity at the farm, and the price of inputs. The farmer can have an exact picture of his inventory and have a better idea of costing.

But the real payback comes after three-four years, by when the software has enough data about the farm and can make predictions.

For instance, if a certain inter-play of weather factors had led to an infection in the crop, the software will alert the farmer of the possibility.

After enough data is available, the software will even analyse the peaks and troughs of production and suggest what measures need to be taken to optimise the yield.

The software can be used for any crop and the Deshmukh brothers are also working on regional- language versions.

The idea behind the software is not only to increase the yield, but also ensure that all quality parameters are met and costs are kept in check. This is especially important for farmers like the Deshmukh brothers looking at a global market for their grapes and pomegranate crops.

"As farmers seek to tap the international markets, there will be a greater need for such software so that they can meet the quality norms that are increasingly becoming more stringent. European norms are already very strict. Other countries are also expected to adopt them in future," Deshmukh says.

In European markets, the farmer has to provide a lot of specific information if he wants remunerative prices. Prices are determined on the basis of several attributes that include the size and even the colour of the fruit. Plus, the grower has to tell the buyer what fertilisers and pest control agents were added to the crop and their exact timing, says Deshmukh.

For every specific input, there are cut-off time limits before harvest and even the quantities are prescribed. It will be very difficult for a farmer to keep track of such information if he did not have a very scientific way of doing it, he says.

And, you thought farming was simply tossing some seeds and fertiliser into the ground and watering the plants occasionally.

eworld@thehindu.co.in

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