About
RT Analytics have created rtWork and rtHome; apps that can digitize anything with electronic forms, which substitute processes that farmers currently do with paper and pencils. Farmers can take images, videos, GPS coordinates, scan QR codes, search for inputs, etc.
While farmers can use the app free of charge, revenue is generated from agribusiness companies, who benefit from the data collected from smallholder farmers.
Capability and features
Farmers use a range of features, including the Farm E-diary, Cost Management, Hired Labors Management, Inventory Management, CRM and Messaging. These tools increase their productivity and revenues whilst also reducing costs.
Input Manufacturers benefit from clear information about their products and how to use instructions. rtWork tells the manufactures what products farmers are using and where their products are being forged.
NGOs use these tools to coordinate and support both Ag businesses and farmers, allowing them to strengthen value chains.
Progress to date
RT Analytics has worked with over 300 farmers to date, and are collaborating with CIAT Vietnam and AliSEA to implement pilot projects in Vietnam. Their apps are available for the web, iOS and Android.
About: Adatos provides analysis on key crop performance metrics using AI to interpret huge amounts of multispectral and SAR data from satellites.
Capability and features: Adatos uses advanced AI to provide analysis on any scale from 1 ha to 100,000,000 ha. We can measure foliar and soil macronutrients (N,P,K), moisture stress, yield estimation, pest and disease and other key indicators. This helps farmers optimise the use and type of fertiliser to where it is most needed based on 100% analysis of the crop.
For forestry we also measure biomass remotely.
Our technology can be applied to any crop in any location. We are keen to work with aggregators such as wholesale producers, buyers, fertiliser companies, equipment manufacturers, who can efficiently deliver this information to smallholders.
Progress to date
Achievements:
Custom disease detection models for specific crops.
Very large scale analysis to detect areas planted with oil palm and the biological age of the palm. Modelling of yield for crops based on large sets of high-dimensionality satellite and weather data.
About
Cropin is an AI and data-led agritech organization that provides digital solutions to key stakeholders of the agriculture value chain for both transaction and insights. SmartRisk is their 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, highlighting the risks and opportunities for agri-stakeholders. SmartFarm is their SaaS-based farm management platform to drive efficiency, achieve predictability and ensure sustainability.
Capability and features
SmartRisk is built on a powerful agri-AI engine with proprietary algorithms that enables accurate crop detection, land estimation, crop stage and health analysis, and yield forecast. Key actors in the agri-food value chain can make informed data-driven decisions that improve agricultural output by minimizing risks during the crop cultivation cycle, promote smarter and more efficient sourcing and procurement.
SmartRisk can also improve the loan collection process, optimize the loan disbursement process, preemptively assess non-performing assets, perform crop growth analysis to monitor risk in real- time, and expand lending portfolios to new regions with higher confidence. This is valuable for financial institutions, insurance companies, government bodies, commodity traders, and sourcing managers.
Lenders using SmartRisk can detect cropping patterns, monitor crop health, estimate crop yield, and also establish the historical performance of a farm or plot. SmartRisk makes loan disbursement processes more streamlined, in addition to providing lenders with event triggers on a farmer or plot level.
SmartRisk can be used by government bodies to efficiently predict crop yields in a given location for multiple types of crops to achieve varied objectives, including such studying analyzing crop productivity, nationwide yield estimation, policy planning and implementation of policies, and accurate payment of crop insurance claims, among others.
The SaaS platform, SmartFarm, is a complete farm management solution. SmartFarm enables digitizing, reporting, MIS and analytics on a single platform, alert logging and management, geo-tagging for area audits, satellite and weather input-based plot monitoring for risk mitigation and crop performance for yield predictability. SmartFarm is used by governments, development agencies, farmers, and other stakeholders.
Cropin operates on a B2B business model by catering to agri-businesses, governments, development agencies and NGOs at different levels of the ecosystem who engage with farmers. Cropin’s business model is a per acre, per user model.
Progress to date
In 2021, Cropin raised US$20 million in a Series C funding round led by ABC World Asia to advance SmartRisk and further strengthen its AI capabilities.
As of 2021, SmartRisk AI has processed more than 160 million hectares of land and reached over 7 million farmers globally, with the potential to impact 70 million farmers in the next 3-5 years.
SmartRisk’s proprietary ML algorithms enabled one of the world’s largest retailers to source high-quality grapes from farms at close proximity, thereby effectively cutting down expenses incurred in logistics and operational hassles.
A globally renowned beverage company leveraged SmartRisk’s intelligent crop detection capabilities to detect high-growth sorghum farms in order to set-up warehousing and processing centers in Nigeria.
Upcoming initiatives include identification of stress and crop stages, expansion of Cropin’s reach in Southeast Asia, accurate detection of more crops, along with their health & yield estimates.
Awards
About
HUB is a digital platform that collects, manages and shares data on smallholder farmers to expand their access to the agricultural value chain, by leveraging satellite data and AI. HUB’s software solutions are designed to be ‘plug and play’; they can be connected to customer’s management information systems through APIs (application program interface). Once clients have the software, which includes mobile data collection, credit risk scoring and farmland monitoring, they can also access the remote sensing data which provides information on the crop activity of individual farms.
Capability and features
The HUB Digital Platform includes an Agri-Lending Suite which has a mobile data collection app, credit scoring system and farmland monitoring dashboard which all incorporate Harvesting’s remote sensing and AI technology to deliver actionable insight on smallholder farmers. By using the Agri-Lending Suite, lenders can expand their market to include borrowers without a credit history while improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their lending operations.
Cooperatives and other aggregators of smallholder farmers can use different aspects of the HUB including farmland monitoring, credit assessment farmer management, training management, communication with farmers, and buyer and supplier management.
By digitizing and improving the data and farmer management capabilities of cooperatives, HUB can help cooperatives become more productive and efficient, helping to assure their sustainability as well as that of their members and other providers in the value chain.
Input manufacturers that provide credit to smallholder farmers can use HUB’s agri-lending suite, farmer management, and farmer communication features to better identify, assess and monitor customers purchasing inputs on credit. They can expand their market by cost-effectively identifying, assessing and monitoring potential customers who need financing to purchase supplies.
Progress to date
Harvesting and the HUB Digital Platform has empowered over 5,000 farmers, giving them actionable insight on crop activity and connecting them to other providers in the agriculture value chain.
Harvesting are working with CGAP (WorldBank) on a funded pilot project with Pride Uganda that resulted in the country’s first credit risk scoring system. FMO, the Dutch development bank, is helping to fund a pilot project with Maha MFI in Myanmar. ILO funded a pilot study in India. Mercy Corps Social Ventures recently became an investor to help the development and deployment of the HUB worldwide.
About
MimosaTEK is a sustainable agricultural trading business connecting smallholder farmers and wholesales buyers, helping farmers increase revenues by up to 20% and wholesales buyers save costs by up to 10%. MimosaTEK vegetable cultivation areas are operated by data-driven farming practices powered by internet of things technology and machine learning. MimosaTEK’s Internet of Things (IoT) precision agriculture solution helps farmers maximize productivity and minimize crop production risks through better irrigation and farming practices. MimosaTEK provides technology for both agricultural companies and smallholder farmers.
Capability and features
MimosaTEK is working with farmers to develop vegetable cultivation areas to sell produce directly to wholesales buyers. MimosaTEK helps to improve productivity and quality of produce to help farmers increase income and wholesale buyers purchase produce at required specification at better price.
Farmers can apply the solution to optimize irrigation and fertigation activities on farms. This allows them to optimize water, electricity and fertilizer usage, achieve optimum crop yields and provide full traceability to their commercial partners.
Traders can use traceability data of farmers using the technology to manage the supply chain and to inform the end consumers.
Governments can sponsor technology for farmers, which improves their supply chain management and improves farming quality in their region. Governments can also make use of data from weather stations to help farmers in the region manage their crops more efficiently.
Progress to date
As of early 2022, over 873 farmers have been assisted so far and the team is currently working with more farmers to develop vegetable cultivation areas as well as apply agricultural technology and data-driven farming practice in their farms.
MimosaTEK was the first Vietnamese organization to win the Securing Water for Food Challenge 2017 organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Government of South Africa (DST), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (MFA-NL). MimosaTEK was also the winner of Seedstars World Vietnam 2016 and Venture Cup Vietnam 2015.
About
Ricult improves the lives of smallholder farmers in Thailand through a data-driven mobile platform that helps farmers improve farming productivity and reduce cost, resulting in higher income. Leveraging machine learning to model weather forecast, soil data, and satellite imagery, Ricult provides data-driven recommendations and insights to farmers to make the best possible farming decision to increase their income. Ricult technology has been shown to
increase the farmers’ income by over 50% in Thailand. Their model is sustainable and impactful, making the app free for farmers, while using the data to empower different stakeholders such as banks to create farmers credit score and agricultural mills for supply chain monitoring.
Capability and features
Through a smartphone app, farmers can get access to key farming information such as rainfall, temperature, humidity, and sunlight forecasts. Satellite imagery to helps farmers scout for problem in the field , while social forums/chat allows farmers to ask farming/pricing questions of agronomists and other farmers.
Extension workers use the Ricult dashboard and management system to manage and monitor farmers and keep track of farmers’ data. They also receive agronomic tips & weather forecast that can be passed on to farmers.
Lenders benefit from the risk monitoring and credit score features, based on the data that farmers input and weather forecast that can have huge effect on potential crop yield. This helps lenders identify a farmers’ ability to repay a loan, as well as seeing an aggregated overview of the farmers in the portfolio. Once high risk farmers are identified, field agents can be sent to offer assistance.
Progress to date
Ricult has been awarded the best Agricultural Tech in Thailand by the Royal Thai Government,
been named the best Social Enterprise in Southeast Asia and Oceania in the Global Social Venture Competition, won the Fintech Disrupt Challenge organized by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and awarded Innovative Agribusiness by United Nations Industrial Developmental Organization.
Over 10,000 farmers have used the platform, and Ricult has partnerships with large banks, telecommunications companies, and a range of large agricultural institutions.
Ricult’s next step is to open the platform to all of Thailand and Pakistan.
About
SourceTrace software solutions provide complete visibility from field to market and tracks the value chain at the source – even in remote, low bandwidth environments. eService Everywhere (ESE™) helps to capture all interactions at the touchpoints of the smallholder farmers at the field level for enhanced traceability and improved accountability of the value chain. SourceTrace Systems ESE™ platform sets the industry standard for mobile applications in remote and low-bandwidth environments.
Capability and features
SourceTrace is a SaaS solution targeted for organizations such as farmer cooperatives, Farmer Producer Organizations, Agribusinesses, Financial Institutions, Government and development organizations – all of whom are working with a group of farmers. The field staff, extension workers or lead farmers of these organizations use the mobile application in the field to conduct transactions, collect data and disseminate data. The data is aggregated in the server to assist the operational and senior managers for reporting and aid in their decision making to improve the overall value chain efficiency including the farmer productivity.
For example, SourceTrace has provided the traceability solution fororganic cotton value chain all the way from farm to the brands. This traceability has helped the farmers to fetch premium price and thus increased their profits. ESETM Aqua solution is deployed for shrimp farming along with traceability, which again fetches premium price for the farmers.
Progress to date
SourceTrace was the winner of the mBillionth Awards SouthAsia 2018, the Gold Winner of the App Design Awards Asia-2015 as well as the Agri Startup Winner in 2018.
To date, SourceTrace solutions have impacted nearly one million farmers in 24 countries..
SourceTrace started developing blockchain-based solutions for agriculture value chain traceability and financial transactions These solutions will be shortly deployed for Fruit and Vegetable Value Chain Management in Haiti supported by Worldbank.
About
FairChain aims to create a shared value chain with positive externalities for all involved. FairChain implements blockchain technology in cocoa, coffee and tea supply chains. All actors in the chain become players in the same ecosystem, enabling those who traditionally have the least power to become a CEO of their own product. Farmers earn living income, while B2B and B2C customers decide how much they pay the producer and what they pay a premium for. The blockchain platform is developed by a FairChain IT team icw UNDP, KrypC, using the Stellar platform, with features including tokenization, farmer digital payments and precision agriculture.
Capability and features
Retail customers will receive a physical BLT token in their product packages and will be able to scan the token (that represents a monetary value of €0.50 cents). This takes them to the FairChain website, where the customer can choose to either Redeem the token (use it as a discount for their next purchase) or Share the token with to one of our three impact projects on Ecological, Economical or Healthcare level.
With a web app, all players in the value chain log data, e.g. coffee volume, price, processing/transaction costs, date, time, location, handler. This creates transparency and traceability as well as supply chain efficiency. FairChain redistributes value in the chain, e.g. enabling customers to pay a premium to a farmer for producing high quality, or for achieving an impact target like education.
Farmers are able to et online with their own digital identity, managing harvest forecast and results, eventually negotiating directly with customers, and receiving price premium for quality and impact targets.
NGOs receive full insight in real coffee value chain, giving them an opportunity to implement a ‘beyond certification’ solution on a large scale. In the future there will be an application where NGO’s can upload specific impact projects, for example “X amount of BP measurements in Ethiopia”, and customers can gift their token to that specific project and receive performance based confirmation of the project they supported. NGO’s will have to first perform before the smart contract will deposit the tokens in their wallet. The received tokens can then be exchanged to Fiat currency.
Progress to date
To date, over 3,000 farmers have been impacted by FairChain.
FairChain has partnerships with UNDP, FAO, RVO (NL) Dutch Embassy Ethiopia and KrypC
The team are currently replicating the Limu, Ethiopia pilot large scale Ecuador cocoa sector, chain-wide deployment.
About
Tanijoy is a sharia agriculture investment platform that empowers local smallholder farmers through investments, end-to-end technical assistance. This creates easier access to the market, enhancing farmers’ livelihoods. Lenders receive frequent investment updates, and farmers receive easy access to capital and support.
Capability and features
Investors uses the technology to maintain their investment project regularly. Tanijoy provides them a dashboard to see their project make progress and communicate with the farmer.
Tanijoy have a dedicated field manager in each area, who assists farmers with their daily activities.
Tanijoy generates revenue from a platform fee (3% of profit), and shares profit with the investor and farmer after selling the crops.
Progress to date
Tanijoy currently has USD210k investment under management, and 640 farmers benefitting from the program. Tanijoy plans to canalize more than USD 100M funds from investors to more than 50,000 creditworthy farmers in 2022.
About
Harvesto is one of the India’s most trusted brands of innovative agriculture technology products and instruments. Harvesto manufacture the Digital Soil Testing Mini Lab, helping organisations to start their own soil testing labs, generating employment and making soil testing facility reach farmers. These agri-entrepreneurs are able to earn well with the technology while giving soil testing reports to farmers, who with these soil testing reports are able to know the nutrient value of their soil and get fertiliser recommendation for the crops, further helping them in saving input cost, increasing yields, increasing overall profits, maintaining soil health and ecological balance
Capability and features
Harvesto’s main customers are government departments and agribusinesses who are establishing labs, and farmers in need of soil tests. Revenue is generated by selling the digital soil testing machine (product) and further supplying chemicals for soil testing.
The lab tests 14 parameters of soil & recommends fertilizer dose for 100 crops, and can be connected to a mobile phone or computer. It has 6 hours battery back-up & solar charging facility. Other solutions in the market mostly cost around 20-50 times more than Harvesto’s solution and some of them do not do the quantitative analysis of soil and are difficult to use.
The system can be handled by an under graduate level or less educated person after training, is affordable, and produces fast results. This helps farmers to save money by optimizing fertilizer use, whilst increasing crop yields and therefore farmer income.
Progress to date
Harvesto has helped over 3 million Indian farmers through rural entrepreneurs, enterprising farmers, NGOs and private agriculture companies who use our technology to give out soil testing report to farmers.
Harvesto is India’s largest soil testing technology company, selected as “Top 5 Agro Startups” in India in 2016 and appreciated by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.
The Digital Soil Testing Mini Lab is powering the Soil Health Card mission of the Government of India which has impacted over 100 million farmers according to government data.
In next three years, Harvesto aim to make their products available in the majority of agriculture countries around the globe.
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