“Sammy Selim strode through the dense, shiny green bushes on the slopes of his coffee farm in Sorwot village in Kericho, Kenya, accompanied by a younger farmer called Kennedy Kirui. They paused at each corner to send the farm’s coordinates to a WhatsApp conversation.

The conversation was with Virtual Agronomist, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to provide fertiliser application advice using chat prompts. The chatbot asked some further questions before producing a report saying that Selim should target a yield of 7.9 tonnes and use three types of fertiliser in specific quantities to achieve that goal.

‘My God!’ Selim said upon receipt of the report. He had planned to use much more fertiliser than Virtual Agronomist was recommending. ‘I could have wasted money.’

In Kericho and other parts of Kenya, AI-powered tools have become increasingly popular among small-scale farmers seeking to improve the quality and quantity of their produce.”

From The Guardian.

“Ten years ago, most western-style cheeses in India were imports, enjoyed by a small elite. Now, alongside tins of mozzarella, Parmesan and cream cheese from dairy behemoths Nestlé and Amul—the latter a large cooperative of Indian dairy farmers—the shelves are bright with Indian-made Edams, Emmentals, Goudas, goat cheeses and Indian takes on cheddar and brie, infused with cumin, chili or black pepper.

Even accounting for the changing tastes of globalized Indians, the scale of this transformation is astounding. Paneer, once the mainstay of Indian cheese, now seems passé. Instead, western-style cheese—golden, glamorous and finally within reach of a rapidly growing middle-class—has become an aspirational sign of progress.”

From Wall Street Journal.

“After almost a century of deploying a more-is-more approach to chemical herbicides, the global agricultural sector is rapidly rolling out advancements that promise to curb the use of weed-control sprays by as much as 90%. Using artificial-intelligence powered cameras, the new sprayers can identify and target invasive plants while avoiding the cash crops. If even a fraction of growers adopt the new tools, it could mean a big shift for crop-chemical majors like Bayer AG and BASF SE.”

From Bloomberg.

“According to the paper, the share of total household expenditure on food has declined substantially in rural and urban areas across all states and UTs.

‘It is the first time in modern India (post-independence) that average household spending on food is less than half the overall monthly spending of households and is a marker of significant progress,’ it said.

The paper is a comprehensive analysis of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022/23 and comparison with 2011/12.

‘Overall, there has been a significant increase in households’ average monthly per capita expenditure across rural and urban India across all states and UTs,’ the paper said, adding that the magnitude of the rise is substantial but varies across states and regions.”

From Business Standard.