Know How Farmers Can Maximize Potato Yields Using PepsiCo's App-Based Agri Solution

New Delhi: Global food and beverages major PepsiCo has launched Crop Intelligence Model for India with an aim to assist farmers in maximising potato yields and quality through useful dashboards and user-friendly mobile applications.

The initiative, jointly introduced with Cropin--a leading global agri-tech company, is a part of PepsiCo’s Precision Agriculture model in India for its Lay's brand of chips.

Employing practical dashboards on user-friendly mobile apps, a crop and plot-level predictive intelligence technology will assist farmers in maximising potato yields and quality. The initiatibe has been implemented as a pilot project in demo farms at Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Currently, the model covers 62 farms as a trial: 51 in Gujarat and 11 in Madhya Pradesh, said the company in a statement.

Field agronomists who are assisting the farmers in using the insights and the dashboard during the pilot stage are giving them the necessary instruction and support.

The majority of farmers in India have less than one hectare of land under cultivation, and they frequently experience difficulties because they lack the tools necessary to determine how much water, fertiliser, pesticide, and other agri-inputs should be used when growing crops. For instance, if the potato blight crop disease is not anticipated in advance, yield losses from the crop can reach 80%. Another significant problem for potato farmers, particularly in the country's north, is production loss due to ground frost, highlighted PepsiCo.

The FMCG major added that the new initiative under the PepsiCo-owned brand “Lay’s” has the potential to address these challenges by using satellite imagery correlated with remote sensing data to provide insights. 

"The system can generate a forecast up to 10 days in advance which can assist farmers in identifying different crop stages, and close monitoring of crop health, including a disease warning system that relies on weather forecasts and historical data" PepsiCo said in a statement.

The dashboards and related information would be accessed by the farmers through easy-to-use smartphone-based apps, namely “Cropin Grow” for farm data management and “Plot Risk” for crop intelligence. The apps can support multiple languages, and PepsiCo plans to offer the solutions in 14 regional languages

Anukool Joshi, Director - Agro at PepsiCo India, said, “Through our partnership with Cropin on this new initiative, our goal is to eventually roll-out this solution to PepsiCo farmers across India and empower them with real-time tracking of crop health to maximize yield and quality.”

Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, Cropin, said, "PepsiCo through its brand Lay’s has been leading the way to enable agriculture modernization and its impact at the grassroots level. Using Cropin's proven plot-level predictive intelligence solution, PepsiCo is mitigating business risks and forecast crop yield and health, water stress, pest and disease early warning signals for efficient business management."

In India, PepsiCo works directly and indirectly with over 27,000 farmers across 14 states and 100% of the potatoes for its “Lay’s” brand are sourced from farmers within the country.