India, Aug. 23 -- With the state's farmers getting increasingly worried about the dipping value of major cash crops, the government has decided to focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to increase productivity in these. This was discussed in a meeting held by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday.

Nilesh Nalawade, CEO of the Agricultural Development Trust, Baramati, spoke at the meeting about a successful AI-based sugarcane farming project undertaken in Baramati. He pointed out that based on 164 valid records from 200 farmers, the average production of sugarcane here had increased from 65.45 tonnes to 73.12 tonnes per acre. AI-based irrigation management also recorded an average water saving of 42%.

Buoyed by these encouraging resu...