The event, which runs from 10.30am -12.30pm GMT (2.30-4.30pm India Standard Time) on 31st March 2022, will focus on two Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Science and Innovation Network-funded projects. Led by CHAP, both projects worked with research groups and innovators across the UK and India. The online session will give both consortia the opportunity to showcase their project journeys and respective technologies.
CHAP International Business Development Manager, Dr Jenna Ross, said “We’re delighted to have been part of two multidisciplinary consortia to improve agriculture in India and look forward to sharing our work with the UK-India Smart Farm Club.”
The first featured project was carried out in collaboration with CABI, Knowmatics, and Ystumtec. It focused on trialling a new monitoring tool to assist the fight against the prolific crop pest fall armyworm in Tamil Nadu in India.
Dr Ross added: “Our aim was to develop an affordable, inclusive, and scalable technology. To date, there has been no co-ordinated sentinel network or strategy for monitoring current and future invasive alien species (IAS) in India, due to the lack of reliable and consistent tools, and capacity to establish such a network. Creating a sentinel network that alerts smallholders could bring significant economic benefits to the region through reduced crop damage.”
The second project, in collaboration with TerraPrima and Organic Solution, aimed to trial a cost-effective environmental sensor technology to help enhance crop productivity, reduce waste and increase profitability, across India.
Dr Ross said: “We worked to address the availability of affordable agronomic expertise in the country, which has large numbers of smallholdings where risks are high, margins are tight and there is little capital available for investment in new technology. Supporting an evolution towards uasing real-time field data, rather than historical or anecdotal experience, means more accurate decisions can be made and acted upon, even by the growers themselves.
“CHAP has brought our wealth of international project experience to provide solutions to both of these important issues and we look forward to sharing the results later this month.”
Register for this free online event to find out about our work in India by going to UK-India Smart Farm Club.
If you have any questions about CHAP’s work or would like to discuss a potential project, please send us an email using the enquiries form at the bottom of our homepage.
