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Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd’s Farm Equipment Sector (FES) division has launched its ‘Farming as a Service’ business in Karnataka by rolling out the Krish-e centres in five locations across the State.
The Krish-e centres, set up in Jamkhandi, Mysore, Bijapur, Bidar and Gulbarga, provide a range of solutions to farmers including agronomy advisory, access to advanced farm equipment rentals and new age precision farming solutions, the company said in a press release.
Besides Karnataka, the Krish-e centres are now operational across all major States including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
“Krish-e is an innovative new business vertical conceived with the idea of ushering in a new digital age of farming in India. It aims to transform the lives of farmers, by helping them adopt better more effective farming techniques powered by Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and digital solutions that are affordable and accessible paving the way for increased productivity and profitability,” said Hemant Sikka, President, FES, M&M Ltd, in the release.
“Through Krish-e, we have already impacted over 1 lakh farmers, with solutions tailored to demonstrate impact on cultivation costs, crop health and productivity,” Ramesh Ramachandran, Senior VP, FES Strategy & FaaS, M&M.
“Krish-e currently has approximately 1,900 demo plots, where we work alongside farmers to showcase visible impact through a combination of agronomy inputs and advanced mechanisation solutions,” he said.
Tapping AI & IoT
M&M is leveraging its investments in entities such as Resson – a Canadian predictive analytics company, Gamaya – a Swiss hyperspectral image analytics company and Carnot – an Indian AI-enabled Agri IoT company to develop and offer farm solutions.
Krish-e Precision Farming solutions use a variety of sensors and cameras on the farm, on drones, on satellites and on farm equipment to collect soil, crop and machine data. AI algorithms transform this data into user friendly and insight rich field maps, enabling farmers and agronomists to run variable rate farming operations, using intelligent machines. Such operations are already helping potato, grape and sugarcane farmers reduce their costs of cultivation and improve their yields.
Krish-e has launched three apps to deliver advisory and rental services in a differentiated and farmer focused manner. Advisory services are crop specific and farm specific. They include a customised and dynamic crop calendar and real-time diagnosis and resolution of pest and diseases, the release said.
The rental app leverages an AI-powered IoT kit that tracks equipment and work performed. Targeted at rental entrepreneurs with a fleet of equipment, the kit is designed to be Plug and Play, intuitive to use and extremely affordable. Already used by almost 2,000 rental entrepreneurs, the kit increases the efficiency and profitability of rental operations.
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