Kerala ropes in Cisco to build smart farming ecosystem

Networking giant Cisco on Monday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) to bring the benefits of digital technology and data science to the farming communities in the state.

The first phase of this initiative will be rolled out in 15 Panchayats across Kannur district, Cisco said.

Pursuant to the MOU, Cisco will build an Agri-Digital Infrastructure (ADI) platform and set up village knowledge centres (VKCs) for knowledge delivery and provide access to e-learning and advisory services to the farming and fishing communities in Kannur.

"The impact of technology can be transformational for those who need it most, elevating standards of living and foster economic development," Harish Krishnan, Managing Director, Public Affairs and Strategic Engagements, Cisco, said in a statement.

The ADI platform will provide access to a data store with farming data of paddy and prawn farms in the region along with land and farmer profile databases.

This data store will run Cisco's analytics and compute engines to extract insights on crop yields, weather patterns, plant disease patterns, soil quality, moisture content, forecasting and other data, and make it available to farmers and government officials through the village knowledge centres.

This Cisco ADI Platform will be supplemented by a custom-built smart agricultural platform that uses Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, non-IoT databases, satellite/unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images to gather and relay real-time intelligence on soil content, moisture, weather conditions and other parameters, the company said.

Through the village knowledge centres, farmers would also be able to access essential information on government policy updates, crop advisory services, market trends, rates and best practice videos.

Farmers will also gain accessibility to government provisioned financing on a content management system through a mobile application and web portal, Cisco said.