Drone operators and satellite map experts are some of the 2 million jobs in Indian farms that automation will open up

• India’s agriculture sector is expected to create 2.1 million jobs in the next 10 years.
  
• The advent of 5G technology will also accelerate the pace of job creation by 2022.
  
• The agro-industry employed nearly 42% of the working population in India.
  
• The sector can create job roles such as drone flyer, warehouse manager, and data analysts.

The agriculture sector in India might get a long-pending technological overhaul. As this sector deploys artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) to bring in efficiencies, it might also create 2.1 million jobs in rural areas.

This is according to a recent study titled ‘The Impact of IoT on Jobs in Rural India’ put out by the Broadband India Forum(BIF).

Technologies like agriculture drones, satellite mapping, electronic marketplace, livestock traceability, climate sensing stations, and product traceability will create jobs like — drone flyer, warehouse manager, and data analysts.

And the country is already making strides in this area. The Indian government recently signed a pact with IBM India to study the use of artificial intelligence and other technology solutions for Kharif crop in three states.

Going further, the advent of 5G technology will also accelerate the pace of job creation in the given sectors by 2022, the report noted.

Smart Farms

With the advent of machine learning tools, data driven implementation can refine traditional farming processes — by live-tracking of weather and environmental changes, monitoring crop-health, water content and nutrition in the fields.

The idea is to ramp up agricultural output with advanced farmer practices. Mobile-based applications can also help them implement ‘smart farms,’ thereby improving farm incomes.

Several agricultural startups such as CropIn, eKutir and NaPanta have come up with solutions to agricultural practices. For instance, eKutir bridges the gap between farmers and potential suppliers of fertilizers and seeds through a web-based and mobile application.

"Enabling use of next-generation technologies such as AI and advanced weather data for better insights to make faster and more informed agricultural decisions is a testament to our commitment," Mint reported citing Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.

However, India might fall short of skilled employees for this emerging job opportunity. It is estimated that India has less than 10% of data scientists available globally. According to a survey by Analytics Vidhya and ed-tech platform Great Learnings, India has 50,000 vacancies in data and analytics sector. In fact, the country is expected to create 39,000 new analytics jobs by 2020.

See also:
Study in India program to turn the country into an education hub for foreign students

Indian is trying out IBM's artificial intelligence platform to offer weather forecast and soil moisture information to the country's farmers

IIT students are choosing AI over computer science as job prospects change