The application of AI in agriculture has unlocked the untapped potential to create seasonal forecasting models that help various stakeholders improve accuracy and increase productivity for farm-based activities. On the one hand, it has laid the foundation for precision farming for crop producers and other agribusinesses, making it possible for them to optimize farm operations in a way that utilizes resources effectively and mitigates risks to generate optimal crop yields. On the other hand, it is facilitating efficient credit risk assessment and loan recovery assistance for financial and lending institutions.
If you are seeking a smart agritech solution to help you achieve either of the mentioned above, we present to you SmartRisk®, CropIn’s AI-data-led engine that delivers predictive and prescriptive solutions to agribusinesses globally. Designed to drive smarter decision-making within the agroecosystem, SmartRisk® combines AI and machine learning with satellite imagery to detect cropping patterns, predict the future of the crop, and establish the historical performance of every farm pixel.
Determining The Agri-worthiness Of A Farm Plot Using AI
A plot’s historical performance forms the bedrock of SmartRisk’s ‘agri-worthiness report’, which provides a detailed summary of the crop over the last five seasons for a specified plot. This report comes in handy for farming companies, to select farmers for a project based on the historical performance of their land, and for financial institutions, to underwrite loans or insurance by reviewing the farmer’s agri-income history for the past few seasons.
Users of SmartRisk’s Web application can extract this report specific to the geo-coordinates of the farm plot, or the survey number (or khasra as referred to in India) as registered in the government’s records in India. For each crop season, the report indicates whether the plot was a non-agriculture land or left fallow for that period, or if the farmer had used it for agriculture purposes. For agricultural lands, SmartRisk’s crop detection capabilities state the crop that the farmer cultivated along with its hectarage, an estimate of the yield, the crop’s relative growth index, and the water stress in the region.
SmartRisk’s Agri-worthiness Report provides a concise summary of the farm plot and the crop over the last five seasons
How Does It Benefit Contractual Farming Companies?
While the scope of AI in agriculture can extend to robotics, drones, IoT, and automated irrigation systems, the technology intervention provided by CropIn’s SaaS solutions streamlines several processes that farming companies otherwise perform manually. For instance, by leveraging SmartRisk’s alternate agri-data, these companies can audit the farm remotely, thus reducing weeks of manual work required to achieve the same. Using the agri-worthiness report, farming companies can make an informed decision about contracting a farmer based on historical crop production data and its yield over the period. The level of water stress could also indicate the feasibility of growing a particular crop in the plot for the company.
What About Financial Institutions?
In the past, banks and insurance providers have been reluctant about low-value, high-volume lending to smallholder farmers owing to the lack of adequate and accurate agri-intelligence. Lending institutions require this data to assess the credit-worthiness of farmers and manage NPAs better. Nonetheless, with SmartRisk’s applications of AI in agriculture lending, financial organisations can leverage alternate data derived using satellite-imaging to overcome this challenge. The agri-worthiness report makes it possible for lenders to screen and select loan applications based on the farmer’s estimated agri-income and also determine their repayment capacity, thereby effectively reducing the possibility of an NPA. Insurance providers can analyze near-real-time and historical data about crops, their health, and growth status for quick and hassle-free claims settlement.
By utilising SmartRisk’s AI capabilities to procure agri-data for a farmer, loan officers can avoid spending several weeks visiting farmers to gather data and audit farm plots for the loan application. As a result, banks can bring down the time required to complete this process to less than 30 minutes, without having to send anyone to the fields. Consequently, this also minimises the cost of processing one loan by at least 20%.
Explore New Possibilities With AI in Agriculture
Advancements in modern technology are constantly unearthing opportunities to achieve more each day. CropIn’s game-changing innovations empower stakeholders in the agroecosystem to explore new possibilities in realising higher levels of accuracy, efficiency, and agility in their day-to-day operations.
Give us a call today and discover how SmartRisk® could revolutionise your business!
