Data Analytics for
Agriculture
Santanu Chaudhury
IIT Delhi

Data: Open Data ++
• Agricultural Data
• Structure & Unstructured
• Public & Private
• Gross and Precision
• Numerical, Categorical, Textual, Spatial
• Images
• Variety and Velocity
• Climate/Weather, Soil
• Produce
• Crop, horticulture, livestock, fisheries
• Disease, Stress factors, fertiliser/chemical usage
• Mechanisation, Power, Irrigation
• Market Prices (available as open data)

Challenges
• Data to Actionable Outcome
• Actionable outcome:
• Bridge between Service Providers and Service Consumers
• Apps to provide link
• Big data analytics
• Algorithms as Service
• Structured between Cloud and End-user delivery platform like
mobile
• Service on demand
• Predictive Analytics
• Example -Market Intelligence
• Diagnostic Analytics
• Example- Process Intelligence

DeliveryModalities:AStudy
Gaps Identified Way Forward
Mobile Based Initiatives
Text SMS
Generic Information Delivered Requirement for farmer’s specific information
Language / Literacy Barrier Requirement for voice & Image based
information Exchange
Limited records of the farmers & their farming
details
Requirement for Updated info
No direct interaction with expert (for push
based services)
Requirement for Personalized Advisory
Voice Calls
Largely Push based services and information
delivery at undesired time
Requirement of right information at right time
as time desired by farmer
No direct interaction with the expert (for push
based services)
Requirement for Personalized Advisory
Call Centre / IVRS
Information provided (at both ends) on voice
alone is not always complete
Requirement for other modes of information
exchange for better understanding
Limited records / database of the farmers Requirement for complete & updated database
- Farm & Farmers
No / very limited follow up of services Requirement for Experts field visit and other
feedback mechanisms

Example Scenarios

Agri-business
• Collection of data on supply, demand and price trends of
selected agricultural products in green market, wholesale
markets, livestock markets, slaughterhouses and silos
• Analysis of the collected data and dissemination of market
information on selected agricultural products (fruits,
vegetables, livestock, cereals, feed and inputs)
• Enable farmers, creators of the agrarian policy, enterprises
and other participants in making sound business decisions
regarding production and marketing of agricultural
products

Agro-Advisory
• Information need for farmer
• Information requirement for input provider
• Forecast demand correctly, to forecast crop
yielding, to determine land area and usage
• Real time online input for problems and difficulty
• Sharing of mechanised appliances
• Farmers can plan, run and analyse their entire
farming operation through the entire farming
cycle as efficiently as possible
• Input providers can devise adaptive strategy for
profitability and marketing
• Responsible & Clean technology

Integrated Services
Customised agricultural
advice
access to credit and
insurance products
access agricultural inputs
and a channel for selling their
final produce –
all on an integrated
platform
8/11/2013
8
Requirement Driven Model
Data
Anaalytics
Service
Knowledge
Service

IASP – Proposed Structure

Interactive Information Dissemination System for farmers :
Pull and Push based system : Data can be transmitted through voice, text,
images and videos from both end (farmers to expert and back).
Multi-platform: Web, Mobile & IVRS
Multilingual Web Portal and IVRS : Currently available in Hindi, Telugu &
English
Personalized Agro Advisory Based on 'Farm & Farmer Profile’
Integrated Multi-platform
Data Analytics Delivery