Farming in India is a brutal business. mKrishi makes it a little easier, by giving farmers predictive data about how to save their farms–and their lives.

The farmers are given mobile phones with built-in cameras and specialized software to send photos of their crops and queries to experts. Sensor networks and a weather station in the village provide relevant data that’s sent to a database. Experts can access farmer’s queries through a web application, factoring in the weather and sensor data and send replies through the expert console software, which the farmer receives as either a text or voice message

The system also employs innovative predictive crop disease forecasting. Data from the sensors powers disease prediction models; if the risk index exceeds a certain threshold, it triggers the farmer’s phone automatically, warning them to take preventative measures. It’s an approach that won the team the MIT Technology Review Grand Challenge…