The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has launched a unique mission to develop region-specific smart agro-technologies for paddy in south India, besides for other crops, aiming to improve soil health and productivity and thereby enhance the farmers' income, a senior scientist said. This endeavour will help the Central government to introduce the use of automation, sensors, drones, and Artificial Intelligence gadgets for agriculture in the future. "This is one of the first of the mission mode projects that have been conceived and implemented on the ground," he said. The project envisages the use of Internet of Things (IoT) based sensors and drone-based hyper and multi-spectral imaging to generate a real-time precision database to develop knowledge on phenological and physiological indicators as influenced by micro-environment of various target crops being grown across different agro-climatic conditions of the country. A team of scientists and technologists from CS Read The Rest at :