This next phase in agritech, using artificial intelligence, could change the game for the industry in India
AgNext has innovated multiple sensor-based devices to capture data that its AI algorithms crunch to determine quality
Illustration: Sameer Pawar
For founder and CEO of AgNext Technologies Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, the raison d’être for the Chandigarh startup was to build data-driven solutions to tackle various problems in agriculture. And one of the important aims was to eliminate the subjectivity around the quality of food, be it at the farm gate or at a warehouse or a factory.
To this end, AgNext has innovated multiple sensor-based devices that use everything from optical cameras to infrared imaging to even sound to capture data that its AI algorithms crunch to determine quality. The company also worked for years to develop ‘AI-on-the-edge’ technologies so that users don’t have to send data back to a cloud-based programme.
One of the first things AgNext did was to use computer vision to determine the quality of foodgrain “on the spot”. A simple example is how AgNext’s sensors and AI algorithms combine to differentiate between a natural white coating on a grain of maize and a white coat of fungus.
The startup built devices to check for quality based on the chemical composition of products like honey or spices or fat content in milk. It reduced the time needed for quality checks from three days at a lab to 30 seconds on the spot.
(This story appears in the 13 August, 2021 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)