News in brief:
– Cropin launched an AI tool named Sage that creates a grid-based digital map of global agricultural land.
– Using Google’s language model, Gemini, it provides insights and predictions into crop yield to improve decision making.
Cropin has announced the launch of an artificial intelligence-powered tool, called Sage, that is expected to give users advantage in primary agricultural production.
The company’s CEO, Krishna Kumar, was on hand at the Indian Google Regional I/0 Connect, held in Bengaluru, to discuss what he and his team were attempting.
Sage would convert the world’s agricultural landscape into a grid-based map that makes it easier to visualise data, pinpoint exact locations, organise and arrange information systematically. It is powered by Google’s Gemini, a large language model.
Speaking to ET at the event, Kumar said that the tool is a great addition to the Cropin Cloud platform, which already allows agri-ecosystem stakeholders to digitise farm operations and take advantage of predictive intelligence to make decisions on efficiency, productivity, risk management, climate changes and enhance sustainability.
Sage will take what Cropin offers to the next level by enhancing future-proofing for its over 250 B2B customers, and new additions. The tool has a crop knowledge graph that covers 350 crops and 10,000 varieties in more than 100 countries. Merging this tool with its digitised 30 million acres of farmlands gives it an edge in terms of accuracy and usefulness.
Kumar adds that it will be using advanced crop models to improve crop planning production. Already, its target customer base includes consumer packaged goods players, seed manufacturers, food processors, multilateral organisations, financial institutions and governments. All of these groups will benefit from being able to forecast future yields accurately.
The company’s enterprise customers can use Sage across geographical locations, although, it is still building it and deploying it in phases as customers require. Wheat, rice, potato and maize are some of the 13 major crops that the tool can provide intelligence on.
Attempting worldwide coverage
Compared to the 4.8 billion hectares of agricultural land worldwide, Cropin’s 30 million hectares is still a long way from being global.
The company raised $13.7 million in January 2023 in a Series D round from new investors like Google and JSR Corporation, while existing investors such as ABC Impact and Chiratae Ventures also participated. In 2022, it closed a Series C funding round of $20 million with contributions from UK’s CDC Group and Pratithi Investment Trust.
According to Crunchbase, Cropin has raised a total of $46.4 million and already counts multinational fast-moving consumer goods giant, Unilever, as part of its customers. The company is targeting worldwide coverage with each new funding and has moved past its home continent into digitising lands in the United States and Europe.
