Spotlight | Precision Agriculture Launches a Tea Transformation

Three of the biggest challenges tea growers worldwide face are climate change-accelerated pest attacks and the rapid spread of diseases that lower yields and impact quality. Heavy use of chemicals and mitigation efforts are compounded by acute labor shortages. India alone is experiencing crop loss estimated at 147 million kilos annually, costing growers billions of rupees.

Tea sustainability and environment consultant Ashok Batra joins Tea Biz in a conversation with Pinaaki Aggarwal, co-founder of Agravity Systems, a deep-tech precision agriculture startup focused on tea, building and employing a system of autonomous drones and imaging sensors to monitor, analyze, and diagnose plant health problems on the fly and then treat them with precision using advanced AI, sensors, and robotics.

“The solution that we bring to the table will minimize the use of chemicals and maximize the productivity and quality of tea by providing an end-to-end solution,” says Aggarwal. “Using AI and drones, we scan the tea field and identify the issues. Then, using another set of drones, we target and treat those issues. Overall, the yield increases, the chemical usage decreases, and crop loss significantly declines to nearly zero,” he says.

SEGMENT BIO

Pinaaki Aggarwal holds an MBA from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Previously, he co-founded Brainworks, a management consulting firm primarily geared towards global startups. He is now the principal officer at AGRAVITY Systems, a startup with a vision to transform agriculture by empowering farmers with AI-driven solutions to manage crop health.

Ashok Batra is a respected broker, former Chair of J. Thomas, a thought leader, and was a long-time Rainforest Alliance, India consultant.

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