Indian Americans develop AI-based app for farmers in Caribbean nations

A group of Indian Americans has developed an app that provides AI-driven insight to farmers for making better farming decisions.

Launched at the InvestSmart Caribbean Summit in Washington DC last week, the LetZFarm App is being put to use in the Caribbean Island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It has been developed by Massachusetts-based Abris Inc in collaboration with the Carbon Zero Institute of Trinidad and Tobago.

It is a smart agricultural farmer's companion app that helps the farmer through AI-driven insights to make better farming decisions. It helps them from a food security perspective, and also it helps them to combat climate change. That means to adapt to the changing environmental conditions, Priya Samant, CEO and co-founder of Abris Inc, told PTI.

Our goal is now to go to different Caribbean nations. We are already in talks with Guyana and other nations, she said. It's a very scalable app. Our roadmap is to make this a one-stop solution for the farmers. This is what we have done in the first phase: help them grow better, get them the weather alerts, get them the market prices for the crops they are with the pesticide stuff, she said.

Bringing AI to the farming and agriculture sector will help both the rural development and agricultural sector a lot, said Hemang Jani, senior advisor to the executive director of the World Bank on India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.

It'll help in bringing the productivity in the agriculture products, reducing the prices, bringing farmers to the right markets at the right price, at the right place, at the right time, said Jani, who formally launched the app at the InvestSmart Caribbean Summit.

The LetZfarm application, he said, is a very good example of India and Indians expanding their knowledge worldwide and helping regions like the Caribbean and Latin America.

Whatever we do in India is a lesson for everywhere and whatever we can bring in terms of knowledge and collaboration with the Latin American region is very welcome, Jani said.