Drones and Internet of Things (IoT) technology are revolutionizing agriculture, providing farmers with data that can significantly improve yields. However, in countries with many small farmers with less than 2 hectares of land, these technologies can be prohibitively expensive. Bengaluru-based Satyukt hopes to solve that problem using open source satellite data, machine learning and his mobile app.
Satyukt leverages open source satellite data from organizations such as NASA, European Space Agency, ISRO, and other space agencies to provide farmers with the critical information they need to improve yields. The company uses advanced analytics and machine learning to process large amounts of raw data and deliver information directly to your smartphone.
“Our service has many features, but it addresses three main pain points that farmers face. One is knowing how much fertilizer to use and when to use it. Two. The second is the solution of pests and diseases. The third is the management of water resources: how much water do we need to use and how often do we have to irrigate the crops,” says Satyukt's founder. Sat Kumar Tomer, CEO and Chief Executive Officer, told indianexpress.com.
Tomer is well qualified to make such a statement as he holds a PhD in Hydrology and Water Resources Science from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and comes from a farming family.
Satyukt has a mobile app that allows farmers or their service partners to define the boundaries of their land and retrieve information. The cost of this service is approximately Rs 100 per acre per month. But how does the company get soil quality, moisture, and other data from satellite data?
According to Tomer, the Earth observation satellites used by Satyukt typically collect data in 11 bands. This includes data mapped to the visible spectrum, such as red and blue. However, it also includes infrared spectral data and thermal data. Satyukt collects soil samples from different regions of the country and collects spectroscopic data, which is then used to train and validate machine learning algorithms to derive soil quality details from the data.
This means that algorithms can use satellite data of the soil in a particular area and extrapolate it to find out things like soil quality and moisture content. Soil quality data is used to inform farmers about fertilizer usage. Soil moisture content data is combined with meteorological data to provide information about crop irrigation. Tomer claims that the accuracy of his fertilizer recommendations is over 95%.
Satyukt currently has more than 55,000 users, but Tomer said the actual number of users is nearly twice that because multiple farmers may be pulling data from the same account. It is said that there is a possibility. The company takes a “B2B2C” approach and uses over 300 channel partners to reach out to farmers. His partners in these channels include a variety of companies, from agricultural supply stores to equipment rental companies to large corporations that source agricultural products.
India's Ministry of Commerce estimates that the value of the country's space industry will reach $9.6 billion in 2020 and grow to $13 billion by 2024. India currently contributes to 2-3% of the global space industry, and the Ministry of Commerce expects this to grow further. Up to 10 percent of that could be captured by 2030. This is a great job for startups to tackle.
Much of the industry's attention may turn to startups like AgniKul Cosmos and Skyroot, which are developing rockets capable of launching satellites. Their work is critical, but building advanced hardware isn't the only way to build a space tech startup. Satyukt is a good example. Some open source data, some private data, machine learning, and field expertise are brought together to solve real-world problems.
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Originally uploaded to: March 14, 2024 13:52 IST