IIT Ropar's ANNAM.AI, the Centre of Excellence for AI in Agriculture, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) Punjab and the Punjab State Farmers' and Farm Workers' Commission (PSFC) to make agricultural information and advice easier for Punjab's farmers to reach, Rural Voice reports.
The MoU was signed by Dr Pushpendra P. Singh, project director of ANNAM.AI; Dr Sukhpal Singh, chairman of the PSFC; and Vivek Verma, state informatics officer and deputy director general of NIC Punjab. ANNAM.AI brings its AI-driven farm technologies, NIC Punjab its digital platforms and experience of AI in governance, and the commission its knowledge of the sector and of farmers' needs.
At the centre is ANNAM.AI's ANNAM Chat Engine (ACE), an AI-powered advisory data engine led by co-project director Dr Sudarshan Iyengar. It answers farmers' questions from an agriculture-specific knowledge base, in several languages, with information validated by experts. Under the MoU, ACE and the Kisan Call Centre solution will be integrated with the agriculture data and web portal that NIC and the PSFC are building together, possibly through voice interfaces, chatbots and mobile apps.
The collaboration also covers ANNAM.AI's AI-based crop-health tools, which identify pests and diseases, and its IoT-enabled weather monitoring systems, which track local conditions, to help farmers with day-to-day decisions. The aim is for farmers to get reliable answers through service channels they already use.
Dr Pushpendra P. Singh said the partners aimed to "advance practical, technology-led solutions that can strengthen agricultural advisory services and support farmers in making informed decisions for better productivity and yield."
Photo: CIAT / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Rural Voice
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