AI-Genix International Ltd, a Mumbai-based start-up, has developed artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled pest management devices that can trap and exterminate over 2,000 types of insect pests including the dreaded white stem borer in coffee, while repelling beneficial pests such as bees and pollinating weevils in the surrounding ecosystem.

Shahanaz Shaikh, Founder and CEO of the company, said the two types of solar-powered devices developed by the firm are eco-friendly, non-toxic and leverage AI for agri-insect-pest management and make farming sustainable.

The BraveHawk series device offers broad spectrum crop protection solution which can attract and kill over 2,000 species of insects, while the eBionic Series offers protection against pests that are difficult to control using pesticides such as fruit fly, fruit piercing moth, serpentine leaf miners and tea mosquito bug among others. The company has developed the technology indigenously and has been working on it since 2001.

Residue-free material

“Our technology helps make soil, air, water, and food free from toxic chemical contamination, enabling farmers to produce residue-free food,” Shaikh said. The company has sold some 4,500 devices both in India and overseas, so far, and is now targetting corporates, plantations and farmer producer organisations.

Explaining the mechanism, Khalil Shaikh, Co-Founder and CTO, said the core of the device listens to sounds in the surroundings, analyses it, comprehends the different insects in the area and then releases the call signals for the harmful insects and threat signals for the beneficial insects. “The harmful insects are attracted to the device by the call signal and once they reach the device, they get electrocuted, while beneficial insects are pushed away at least five feet from the device,” he said. The electrocution grid in the device is similar to the fly catching machines placed in the hotels and restaurants.

Covers an acre of farm

A single device can offer crop protection for an acre of farmland. Each device including the solar panel costs ₹1.69 lakh and it goes up to ₹2.29 lakh and has a life of seven years, Shaikh said, adding that the company has partnered with some NBFCs to help farmers finance the purchase of the devices. Despite being expensive, the devices help farmers reduce their costs on crop protection compared to the conventional solutions as it does not require maintenance, she said.

Shaikh said the semiconductor chip makes the device expensive as the company has been importing them and the cost of such chips have doubled in the recent months due to the global shortage. “If the semiconductor prices come down in the international market, we can bring down the prices of the device,” he added.

Vikas Singh Tomar, Director, Ozone Farmer Producer Company Ltd in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, said he has distributed a few devices to members of the FPC, who have been using it for past two-and-a-half years to tackle the pests in their farms, where they grow vegetables such as cucurbits and tomatoes among others. He said these device have helped reduce the pesticide sprays by over 55 per cent and more farmers are showing interest in using them. “We are exploring options to offer these devices to more farmers on a rental basis,” Tomar said.

Shaikh also claimed that the device is effective in controlling the white stem borer, the dreaded pest in coffee. One of the 246 insects and pests found in coffee plantation, the spread of white stem borer has posed a biggest challenge for the coffee grower as there is no effective solution to control the pest, so far.

“It is good to hear that the AI-enabled device helps control white stem borer. We have offered them to conduct some trials by installing the devices in our plantations,” said Bose Mandanna, a large coffee grower in Kodagu.

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