This techie delivers AI/ML-based solutions to boost yields of small farmers

Krishna Kumar's solutions help in deriving real time insights on standing crop and estimating yields, and soften the blow of unpredictability in farming operations

It’s quite common for an engineer to start a technology venture in India, but to pick up agriculture as a sector for using such technological applications is a bit unusual.

In a country where farmers make the headlines only during elections or in distress situations like floods, drought or suicides, Krishna Kumar, a techie who worked with global major GE before taking the entrepreneurial plunge, is trying to revolutionise this primary sector of the economy using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and big data, amomg others.

"The whole idea is to increase producers' value. We know that most small and marginal farmers need the help and that's what we are trying to do through partners like NGOs and state governments," says Kumar, founder & CEO at CropIn Technology. "So, our first target is to serve government, then to serve B2B (business to business) clients."

In 2010, when Kumar decided to set up CropIn, the motivation was to build something new with a larger social impact. His opting for agriculture was driven by the hundreds of farmer suicides every year in India due to crop losses, high loan burden and other such issues. And through his research, Kumar found out that no viable technology solutions were then available for farmers to prepare themselves to tide over unpredictable weather conditions. He was soon joined by Kunal Prasad, a former marketing manager at Tata Motors, and Chittaranjan Jena, a former colleague from GE, to launch the company. While Prasad is currently the COO of the company, Jena heads the technology operations.

CropIn provides SaaS-based services to agri-businesses globally. while for farmers in India it offers solutions through non-government organisations and government agencies. Using these solutions, one can analyse, interpret and derive real time insights on a standing crop, apart from getting yield-related estimations. Through this, the impact of unpredictability in agricultural operations is reduced, helping the farmers increase their incomes in the process.

"As the first step, we do the geo-tagging of the farmland and then collect data related to the farm, such as health of soil and water. After capturing all the details, the test results are fed into our app, which triggers the package of practices for that farmland," Kumar says. "Since, the land is geo-tagged, it gives real-time satellite imagery and weather information."

Once this process is completed and the crop is sown, a report is sent to the user in every five days, giving details about the part of the farm that is not doing well and requires attention. Kumar says a lot of ML and AI go in the background for extracting such data points.

CropIn also uses predictive analytics to give the crop estimates before the harvesting. "We are using predictive analytics though which Cropin assesses the health and yield of the crop much before the harvest. This is useful for banks, insurance companies and commodity trading," Kumar says. According to the company, it has seen 12 per cent increase in crop yield apart from 18 per cent savings in crop losses post use of its technology platform.

While CropIn counts companies like ITC, McCain, BigBasket, Sahyadri Farms as its marquee clients, it is also working with state governments in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Karnataka for providing solutions to small and marginal farmers. "We are working on a Smart Agriculture project, 'Jeevika' in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, through which CropIn is supporting farmers to adopt better practices. Currently, we are touching a farmer base of 20,000 in these two states," he says. The Bengaluru-based firm is also advising the Karnataka government on improving the crop productivity of farmers.

One of the well-funded companies in agri-tech space, CropIn has raised around $12 million in venture funding so far, with premier investors like Chiratae Ventures, Ankur Capital, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

With a mission statement of making every farmland traceable, CropIn currently operates in 29 countries.