Farmers using apps, developers helping farmers and corporations tapping AI beyond the glass and concrete they work in. A lot is changing as technology and sustainability climb together.
We may have known Wells Fargo as a big name to reckon with in the global financial industry but its people are doing more than growing and managing money – they are helping farmers grow through the same technology. Recently, they have been involved in improving the lives of farmers in Telangana and Karnataka by leveraging AI technology and providing sustained community support. This endeavor is in partnership with Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) and works to redesign the FarmPrecise app, incorporating AI-powered features like crop disease detection and organic solution recommendations, empowering over 70,000 farmers. Apart from the technology seeds, Wells Fargo is also working for supported soil testing for 5,255 hectares of degraded land and facilitated the harvesting of 586 million litres of water for 10,000 farmers.
Bandana Jha, Executive Director – Social Impact and Sustainability, Wells Fargo India & the Philippines digs into how the new furrows of technology are changing the contours of agriculture – from crop rotation, agroforestry, cover cropping, no-till farming area to robots, tracking farm emissions, precision agriculture and more. But she also confronts issues like ethics, dehumanisation, transparency and accountability that grow adjacent to the yields we are looking for by planting technology besides agriculture.
Tell us what spurred this idea at Wells Fargo?
At Wells Fargo we are committed to contributing to the communities we live and work in. This idea was about wanting to give back to our communities, to make a difference through the use of technology
What role can, and should, AI play in helping agriculture? Can it also balance productivity with disease-control, high output with bio-diversity, automation with farmer-in-the-loop systems?
AI can play a crucial role in promoting sustainable agriculture by optimizing resource use: Reducing water and fertilizer consumption; improving pest and disease control: Minimizing the use of pesticides; enhancing biodiversity – promoting crop diversification and integrated pest management. It can also help in monitoring farm emissions and reducing the environmental impact of agriculture.
Can we already think of regenerative agriculture, climate-resilient farming, Robots in farms, and tracking farm emissions?
Yes, absolutely. In regenerative agriculture, the focus is on rebuilding soil health, increasing biodiversity, improving ecosystem functions, etc. crop rotation, agroforestry, cover cropping, no-till farming area as part of regenerative practices – a significant amount of work is already being done in these areas across the world.
Robotics in farms is transforming the way farming has been done from millions of years – in terms of bringing in more efficiency by reducing manual labor requirements. They help in sowing, harvesting, weeding, and monitoring the health of crops.
Technologies like IoT sensors are playing a vital role in tracking farm emissions especially as we witness the ill-effects of global warming. These devices combined with the power of AI can help monitor, regulate, and report the emissions from agriculture and allied activities. This data can be aggregated at a country level to attract investments, as part of environment and sustainability goals.
How many developers/resource hours are committed to such community work? Any other examples like WOTR that you can share?
More than 36 developers have spent their personal time and were committed to this engagement. Another example apart from WOTR was the work done for NGO Anudip Foundation.
Anudip Foundation assists under privileged students with industry-ready skills and placement in corporates. They faced the challenge of manually reviewing and matching 12,000 job opportunities for 40,000 students. This was not just time-consuming, but also error prone as incorrect tagging of skill requirements was as high as 30 per cent.
Wells Fargo employee volunteers helped streamline this process by using Python based Fast APIs, and a pre-trained model SkillNer and spaCy was chosen as the open source library for NLP. This effort resulted in accurately delivering job skills categorization in seconds, saving a 72+ person effort. Additionally, our cybersecurity assessment fortified Anudip’s critical applications
What challenges and strides have been made in the area of soil testing? How does the app ensure the insights translate in a usable/swift way for farmers?
Some of the major challenges in the Indian context in the soil testing area are accessibility, cost and turnaround time. Laboratories may be far from farms, making testing inconvenient and expensive. In terms of cost, soil testing can be costly for smallholder farmers. As to turnaround time, results may take days or weeks to arrive, delaying crucial decision-making.
Apps can be built / tailored to address these challenges by integrating with mobile devices and help by allowing farmers to easily upload images or data. They also provide quick, localised insights -using AI to analyze data and provide immediate recommendations. Then there is the ability of connecting farmers with local labs – facilitating convenient and affordable testing.
Have you ever faced issues like weak digital literacy/high digital divide in India’s hinterland? Also challenges on upfront costs etc. encountered by small farmers?
Yes, insufficient digital literacy and the digital divide in rural India are significant barriers. Many smallholder farmers lack access to smartphones, internet, and the necessary skills to use AI-powered tools. The upfront costs of technology can also be prohibitive. Addressing these challenges requires targeted training programs, affordable technology solutions, sustainable pro bono solutions by tech volunteers resulting in quick wins and awareness and utilization of government subsidies, etc.
Insufficient digital literacy and the digital divide in rural India are significant barriers. Many smallholder farmers lack access to smartphones and the internet
Does automation dilute ethics, sensitivity, and human factors in agriculture? Like in cases on AI-assisted animal management (Ex: UK Better Origin’s X1 farm)?
Automation in agriculture raises ethical concerns, including job displacement and the potential for dehumanisation. It’s crucial to ensure that AI systems are designed to complement human labor. Transparency and accountability are also essential to enhance sensitivity and ethical farm management.
Automation in agriculture raises ethical concerns, including job displacement and the potential for dehumanisation.
Where is automation moving next in sustainability? Specially in carbon footprint measurement and control?
With respect to sustainability, AI and automation are helping big time, such as in optimising energy grids, like smart grids that manage electricity more efficiently. Also, automation in the manufacturing sector can reduce wastage. Precision agriculture using AI to minimise water and pesticide use are also other key areas contributing to sustainability. Sustainable transportation, traffic management systems and introduction of autonomous vehicles are other areas where heavy investments and research work is going on. But all these come with challenges like energy consumption of the data centres, environmental cost of manufacturing hardware and ethical issues such as e-waste, resource depletion.
Using devices such as IoT sensors, satellite imagery, supply chain tracking clubbed with AI and automation tools, has the propensity to precisely track, report, and monitor the carbon footprint emissions. This includes analysing vast sets of data to identify patterns. Using predictive models, it will be possible to estimate the amount of footprint imminently. These results could provide feedback to the system to make operations and activities more efficient, and completing the loop.
Since announcing our goal of deploying $500 billion in sustainable finance by 2030, we have taken meaningful steps forward.
Any thoughts on Green Finance, Carbon Markets and Offsets/taxes?
Since announcing our goal of deploying $500 billion in sustainable finance by 2030, we have taken meaningful steps forward. In 2021, we launched the Wells Fargo Institute for Sustainable Finance to help increase understanding of sustainable finance and highlight initiatives that support a low-carbon economy. From 2021 to 2023, Wells Fargo originated, committed, advised, or facilitated approximately $178 billion in sustainable finance activities, representing approximately 36 per cent of our $500 billion sustainable finance goal. Our second Inclusive Communities and Climate Bond, a $2 billion bond, supported sustainable finance efforts for projects and programs that contribute to housing affordability, economic opportunity, renewable energy, and clean transportation. We were recognized at the 8th Climate Bonds Awards for the Largest Financial Corporate Sustainability Bond of 2022 by the Climate Bonds Initiative.
By Pratima H
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