At the 64TH ISO Council meeting, a riveting panel discussion took place on “Digitization of sugar sector: Bringing Synergy among stakeholders”. The session was moderated by Suresh Srinivasan, MD, EID Parry Limited. He emphasised that digital tools and applications need to be more cost-effective to reach the intended target.
Ruchika Gupta, Advisor, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare shared her perspective highlighting how digital tools enhance monitoring, planning & intervention strategies. She said that various initiatives have been taken to digitise the sugar sector in digital public infrastructure in agriculture like Agri Stack, Remote Data Sensing and Krishi Decision Support System.
Mr. Prateep Basu, CEO, Sat Sure Analytics India Private Limited said that the company is trying to solve the problems of the domestic sugar industry and improve the supply chain. AI and other tools should be seen as assisting tools only.
Dr. Anusha Kothandaraman, Vice President & Head – FES, Strategy and Precision Farming Mahindra Tractors reflected upon designing digital harvesting plan, maximizing sugarcane production through area planning with availability of comprehensive satellite data.
Mr. Deepak Ballani, DG, said that Agristack will revolutionise the whole Indian agri ecosystem. He said that soil sensors to measure soil moisture would be crucial for cane management teams at sugar mills. “We need a dashboard for real time data management which will become helpful to the Government for policy intervention”, he concluded.
