Digital agri platform launches Kannada app for farmers

Bengaluru: BigHaat launched a mobile application in Kannada, on Wednesday, to empower the farming community in the State. The app was launched by Shivayogi C Kalasad, Secretary to Government, Agriculture Department, in the presence of Sateesh Nukala, CEO & Co-Founder, BigHaat at the Press Club here. This app will enable farmers to interact in their native language and have access to knowledge and solutions, in a simplified manner, for their farming needs.

Shivayogi C Kalasad said, "Agriculture in Karnataka provides livelihood to over 13 million farmers (as per a report by Population Census 2011). The State has a total of 114.54 lakh hectares of land available for cultivation, which constitutes 64.6% of the State's total geographical area. While farming and agriculture are still practiced by most of the population, high-quality solutions have always been a challenge. With BigHaat's app in Kannada, farmers can have access to a life-changing platform.

This app will ensure technology is at the farmer's fingertips enabling them to make informed decisions on cultivation." "Since 86% of India's farmers belong to the small and marginal farmer category, communicating to the farmers for their localized needs in their own language helps them in faster decision making. The app in Kannada was developed to empower the farmers in the state with enriched data thus fulfilling their pre-harvest to post-harvest needs. It is our endeavour to provide a wholesome digital ecosystem for farmers by personalizing accessible solutions." said Sateesh Nukala.

The application also serves as a 'farmer's community platform' to interact among themselves to democratize knowledge. The user interaction has been kept simple and helps farmers by enabling crop configuration and profiling based on acreage, geolocation, and soil type. It also offers end-to-end crop advisory in Kannada and an AI-based real-time solution with a high impact on risk mitigation.

Further, the app also gives product recommendations based on transactional and behavioural data.