The current scenario of the agri-tech industry around the world due to the Covid-19 virus is extremely volatile. Lockdowns in major economies across the globe have caused delays and backlogs in supply chains. Currently, for instance, around half a million tonnes of Indian rice is locked up in the supply chains, while perishable crops are not being transported at all for fear of deterioration in delayed transit.
Global exports are facing transport and logistics problems, more stringent customs restrictions, as well as a shortage of containers and shipping vessels. India’s agricultural experts of nearly $40 billion are being severely affected in this scenario. The labour sector has taken a wide hit owing to contact based spreading of the pandemic.
These are difficult times, especially for the workers who depend on a daily wage or are self-employed. Farmers are one of the most affected in these times. CropIn understands this and has made various advancements in its solutions by introducing new and adaptive features in its innovations.
Usage of digital farming solutions will ensure less inaccuracies in data collection, ensure productivity is not compromised due to lack of manpower, act as a knowledge repository that farmers can refer to, and take timely action in times of unexpected agriculture-based distress.
Under the leadership of Kunal Prasad – Co-founder and COO of CropIn, the company is engaging with its clients to send climate smart advisories to farmers and engage with them through bulk SMS to be aware of the difficulties the farmers are facing.
CropIn also has turned to account management online, to provide training assistance to agri-extension teams online. The company also is tracking farmer health by keeping a connection with its clients regularly. These are crucial steps that CropIn is taking to ensure the betterment for farmers.
CropIn has empowered women farmers with technology and knowledge about good agricultural practises. CropIn believes that during these difficult times, efficient methods of farming will save resources and give the right and quick results for the farmer and save livelihoods.
Let us dive deep into the dynamics of CropIn through the given below interview by Kunal:
Please brief our readers about your organisation, its mission and vision.
CropIn Technology is a leading AI and data-led agritech organization that provides SaaS-based solutions to agribusinesses globally. With the mission to ‘maximize per acre value’​ and the vision to ‘make every farm traceable’​, CropIn adds value by increasing efficiency, scaling productivity, and strengthening sustainability across the board.
CropIn utilizes cutting-edge technologies like Big Data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Remote Sensing, to enable client partners to analyse and interpret data to derive real-time actionable insights on standing crops. The benefits of such platforms are realized when it directly connects the business strategy to the field operation through detailed analytics using field data and other data sources like IoT or drones.
CropIn was established with the vision of improving farmer livelihoods by harnessing the power of AI and Machine Learning through predictive analytics and modelling into agriculture. CropIn is today helping the agro-ecosystem to adopt and drive digital strategy and farm to fork traceability across their operations along with farmers.
It was observed that Agri-businesses used primitive technological methods in their fields and there was an opportunity to make effective and well-informed data-driven decisions. The usage of modern technology in farming was minimal at most of these businesses. There were information gaps at different levels of the agro-ecosystem, leading to information asymmetry throughout the chain. Also, with consumers keen to know about the origin of their food and how it was produced and processed, there was a need for transparency along the end-to-end agribusiness supply chain.
CropIn was established as an organisation that provides platform solutions that address the varied requirements of farmers and helps them improve their agricultural productivity for a better income. In a few years, CropIn has expanded to providing agribusinesses with a comprehensive digital solution that manages a large and diverse set of farmers locally and/or globally on a single platform and ensures predictability, visibility, and control of their supply chain, which is currently very broken and distributed when it comes to smallholder aggregation model.
What are the prominent services, products, or solutions that make your company a preferred choice among the competition?Â
CropIn caters to the entire agri value chain through its unique suite of products whose details are given below:
SmartFarm – SmartFarm is an end-to-end farm and agronomy data management solution that monitors all processes leading up to harvest. The solution leverages ground-truth data, weather advisory, and accurate insights based on satellite monitoring to enable data-driven farm and business operations. By tracking, managing, and monitoring every step — from input to execution: all in one place, SmartFarm helps achieve efficiency and improves traceability and output predictability.
SmartRisk – SmartRisk is a Predictive and Prescriptive Solution for Risk Monitoring, Mitigation, and Forecasting Intelligence. The AI and Machine-learning based platform detects cropping patterns and predicts the future of the crop, thus highlighting the associated risk and opportunity for agri-stakeholders.
SmartWare – SmartWare is a packhouse solution offered by CropIn that enables transparency and ensures adherence to quality compliance and certification. The platform empowers businesses to adhere to food safety standards, thus ensuring farm-to-fork traceability.
RootTrace – RootTrace is the Seed-to-Shelf traceability solution to preserve global food integrity. For agri-food producers seeking to preserve food integrity and authenticity, RootTrace provides a tamper-proof, anti-counterfeit traceability solution that increases the transparency of processes along the supply chain so that customers can be assured of the product’s origin, quality, and safety, and build unwavering brand loyalty.
AcreSquare – A two-way communication channel that empowers farmers with real-time advisory and information about agri-inputs, schemes and offers, and enables agribusinesses to receive updates and alerts from the farmers.
Using cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and remote sensing, CropIn creates an interconnected network of all the agri-stakeholders by enabling customers like Banks, Insurance Companies, Government, Development Agencies, Farming Companies, Agri-input companies, Farm Equipment Companies, Food Processors, and Retailers to analyse and interpret data to derive real-time actionable insights on standing crops.
CropIn has so far digitized 13 million acres of farmland and enriched the lives of nearly 4 million farmers, while gathering data on 388 crops and 9,500 crop varieties in over 52 countries. The SaaS solutions offered by CropIn are crop and location agnostic and are available on the web and for mobile devices.
Where do you envision your organisation to be in the long run and what are your future goals?
CropIn’s focus area is to expand globally and to continue to innovate on our machine learning-based predictive analytics platform, SmartRisk, to further strengthen its artificial intelligence capabilities.
We also have our newest technological brainchild launching this year, ready to take over the AgTech space. We are also working on integrating every kind of technology implemented on the farmland be it drones, sensors, IoT devices, and machines into a single, unified system and push our boundaries to newer fields of AgTech. Our European presence is set to expand with a new establishment and a strong team at Amsterdam.
CropIn plans to establish verticals such as Customer Success, Sales and Data Science at the new Amsterdam office, opening a plethora of opportunities in the European market. Along with the existing segments, CropIn aims to venture into newer pastures such as Telecom, Machinery, Plantations to strengthen AI and ML capabilities in those segments as well.
