Don’t Relate GenZ to Agriculture? Their Ideas for Solve for Tomorrow Will Change Your Mind

It’s hard to juxtapose Gen Z and agriculture. Easy to imagine Gen Z ordering food from apps, not so much them worrying about the origins of the food they are ordering.

A few of the top 50 teams selected in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow education and innovation competition are out to change that perception with their ideas that look to help improve the lives of farmers. They want to make agriculture more sustainable and bring in a lot of tech into it.

Six of the top 50 shortlisted teams have suggested ways to solve the challenges related to agriculture.

These are youngsters are working on automation that can significantly help farmers increase yield, make the most of their resources and lessen the use of harmful chemicals.

Let’s look at three teams that are working on crop protection techniques for farmers.

Team Agriwheel

Durga, Dhanush and Lakshmi from Andhra Pradesh built want to help farmers with an automated irrigation system, a crop disease detection system as well as identifying the best crops to grow on their land.

Durga, Dhanush and Lakshmi from Andhra Pradesh

Most farmers in developing and under-developed nations still use conventional agricultural practices.

The trio spoke to over 100 farmers across India to understand their requirements and applied design thinking concepts to come up with a solution.

The proposed prototype strictly based on AI and the process of design thinking is already deployed in farming sites going through extensive testing phase. The model will be utilizing advanced machine learning concepts in disease prediction, crop recommendation techniques with focus on efficiency.

Voice based recommendations is also a unique feature in this model which helps farmers who are not familiar with smart devices.

Team Tech Phantoms

Shiva Kiran, Nithish Kumar and Vivekananda from Telangana are designing an automatic weed digger system that will enable farmers to reduce dependence on chemical weedicides. Use of robotic technology to identify and get rid of weeds from farmlands ultimately maximizes the production and add to their profits.

Shiva Kiran, Nithish Kumar and Vivekananda from Telangana

The teams is using their knowledge of hardware and programming to help farmers. As part of their idea for Solve for Tomorrow, they are creating a portable device which can be produced in many variants. Farmers will be provided training on how to use the device effectively and the team plans to provide one year of on-site services free.

Team Pack of Wolves

Malayaj, Diksha and Nyaasha from Odisha call themselves a pack of wolves. In their words, they hunt together and chill together.

Nyaasha, Malayaj, Diksha and from Odisha

The team wants to solve a very old problem that farmers have been facing – loss of crop because of birds, reptiles and other animals. These rodents damage at least 20-30% of food grains and horticultural crops, affecting farmer economically.

Their idea is inspired by the traditional Scare Crow. They are designing a scarecrow that uses sound frequencies to deter animals, birds and insects from infesting crops.