PepsiCo India, through its label Lay’s today revealed a plot and crop-level predictive intelligence system that can assist farmers keep track of the health of their potato crops.

In collaboration with Cropin, a global company in agri-tech Cropin The prediction and plot intelligence models can be fine-tuned according to crops, soil conditions, and sites, according to the company in a press release.

This initiative is part of the Precision Agriculture model to India which is implemented as a trial project on demonstration farms in Gujarat as well as Madhya Pradesh. According to PepsiCo that the vast majority of farmers in India possess less than one hectare land and are constantly faced with challenges because of the lack of resources to determine the optimal use of agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, water, pesticides, as well as accurate weather information.

In the case of potatoes, for instance, yield losses due to Blight crop disease could be up to 80 percent If not caught in time. A significant loss in yield from frost in the ground is also a major issue facing farmers of potatoes, particularly in northern areas of the country, the report stated. “The technology can provide an estimate of up to 10 days prior to the date of forecast, that can aid farmers in finding different stage of their crop as well as a close watch on conditions of the crop, such as an alert system for diseases that is based on forecasts of weather and data from the past,” the report said.

PepsiCo intends to provide options in 14 regional languages. Within India, PepsiCo works directly in indirect ways with nearly 27,000 farmers from 14 states.

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