Vi CSR deploys Nokia WING solution to improve Indian farmers' productivity

The Smart Agriculture project is being implemented in 100 locations in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and it will include soil probes, weather stations, insect traps and crop cameras to help drive the productivity of soy and cotton crops.

Vodafone India Foundation, the CSR arm of Vi, has deployed a smart agriculture-as-a-service solution that utilizes Nokia's Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) solution to equip 50,000 farmers in India with precise and practical data to help them enhance productivity as well as income.

"Vi CSR is committed to leveraging technology strengths to create social impact through sustainable solutions. Smart crop management using Smart IoT and AI-based solutions is transforming the prevalent agricultural practices into more intelligent ones enabling farmers with smart decision making and helping them improve production and crop quality through better utilization of resources," said P. Balaji, Chief Regulatory & Corporate Affairs Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited.

The Smart Agriculture project is being implemented in 100 locations in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and it will include soil probes, weather stations, insect traps and crop cameras to help drive the productivity of soy and cotton crops.

According to Nokia, more than 400 sensors have been deployed over 100,000 hectares of farmland to collect various data points which are then analyzed by a cloud-based and localized Smart Agriculture app that provides local language support as well as weather forecast and irrigation management information.

The Nokia WING solution is supported by deep domain expertise and an agriculture partner eco-system which will help Vi CSR improve agricultural practices by introducing IoT-based solutions.

Commenting on this development, Ankur Bhan, Head of Nokia WING Business at Nokia, said, "Our mission for WING is to shape the future of agriculture and other industries, to create a smarter and more connected world. Together with the Vodafone Foundation, our managed service offering will help an initial 50,000 farmers and their families, with the aim of rolling out the solution across India."