Introduction:
In today’s fast-paced digital era, every industry and all facets of life are touched by technology. Agriculture has traditionally been a silent observer far behind counterparts like the financial sector where everything is digital. But now, with the digitalization of agriculture, innovation is touching every grain of soil in our farmlands. And a quiet transformation is steadily rooting.
Here the simple act of sowing the seeds goes beyond fields and crops. This blog unravels a journey that began with the digitization of farms for seed production and is now set to advance into embracing AI/Ml-based intelligence.
The collaborative journey of East-West Seed and Cropin is fueled by the commitment to leverage technology to grow seeds. It spans India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam, but with a unique holistic view of the entire business in one place.
East-West seed: a trailblazer in seed production
East-West Seed, a privately owned Dutch company, is one of the world’s largest vegetable seed companies. Dominating the market for tropical vegetable seeds in Asia, it is now swiftly expanding into Africa and Latin America. Armed with over four decades of market expertise, East-West Seed employs advanced vegetable breeding techniques and is known for its hybrid and open-pollinated seeds.
The company envisioned a business transformation using digital technology as it was grappling with the challenges of –
Cost-inefficient and cumbersome data collection process by field officers with no access to real-time data
Absence of visibility into activities of field staff and their operations
Risk of losing data and inherent inaccuracy associated with manual data collection
Lack of accurate means to measure the performance of each seed variety
Challenge in monitoring the quantity of agrochemicals used by farmers
Inconsistent metrics on seed performance across the value chain
Digging into the soil – digital transformation of agriculture
The global seed market valued at $61.2 billion in 2021, is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% between 2022-2030 and touch $107.8 billion in 2030.
Yet, climate change, lack of traceability, and poor monitoring hinder agricultural productivity. Industry can bridge this gap by leveraging technology to improve and monitor agronomic practices.
Seeds of collaboration with Cropin
With a vision to seamlessly monitor the seed production process, East-West Seed forged a strategic partnership with Cropin. The goal was to find a dynamic solution capable of delivering real-time monitoring, farm-level traceability, and increased yield per acre.
Here, Cropin Grow from Cropin made the difference, not just as a tech solution but as a secure and scalable platform for change. In 2019, East-West Seed embarked on a pilot program in Indonesia using Cropin Grow. It captured the geospatial field data, all activities by farmers and field officers, quality parameters, and seed performance for East-West Seed’ operations.
Recognizing its potential, East-West Seed expanded the application to other key subsidiaries across India, Thailand, and the Philippines. The success story continued in the next phase, with the implementation of Cropin Grow reaching Myanmar and Vietnam.
How cropin empowered crop management for east-west seed
In response to East-West Seed’ specific needs, Cropin developed a range of customized business and operations management reports and dashboards. These tools empowered management with real-time insights at subsidiary and country levels, offering comprehensive details on crops sowed, their progress, yield predictions, and more. Cropin’s USP was the consolidated dashboard. It was customized for a holistic view of all six subsidiaries in one dashboard.
This partnership transcends mere data capture; it represents a commitment to data-driven, real-time crop production monitoring. The seamless, digitized workflows for farm data capturing and analysis offered by Cropin transformed East-West Seed’ decision-making processes. In contrast to the past’s labor-intensive and error-prone manual data capture, the Cropin solution ensures higher crop production accuracy, positively impacting supply chain processes.
Cropin Grow has enabled a remarkable 96% real-time data capture, a milestone that substantially improves production accuracy. The implementation phase was marked by exceptional support. Cropin trained the technical team of East-West Seed in the Philippines to handle minor troubleshooting raised by its subsidiaries independently. It closely collaborated when challenges proved more complex. Most importantly, the easy-to-use Cropin Grow solution helped accelerate adoption within the field team at East-West Seed.
The impact of convergence of Ag and tech
Cropin Grow helped effectively record and manage the activities of field officers and growers, which resulted in:
Visibility of seed variety
- Established grades of seed varieties by analyzing various metrics
- Measured the performance of each seed variety in different soil and agro-climatic conditions
Production accuracy
- Maintained production growth rate and grower efficiencies
- Pre-emptive protocols were set and tracked for insights into seed performance
Other notable benefits
- Multilingual support to enable user adoption
- Offline mode of data collection
- Weather Advisory based on satellite data
- End-to-end farm data management and traceability
- High level of data encryption and user role-based access controls to ensure security and privacy
Empowering east-west seed with real-time insights across southeast asia
Seeds, the foundation of the world’s food supply chain, hold the key to thriving agricultural productivity. East-West Seed shared its rich seed experience with Cropin, catalyzing its farmers’ adoption of Cropin Grow. More than just a tool, it became a lifeline, enhancing visibility, accuracy, and productivity across their farming operations and field staff.
Today, Cropin Grow diligently monitors the activities of 15,000 farmers and 350 staff of East-West Seed across India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
Harnessing the power of choice
Cropin’s centralized management and operations dashboards proved to be a game-changer for East-West Seed, improving monitoring and aiding better decision-making.
East-West Seed now wanted to do more than data collection. It pondered over what to do next. Cropin, ready for the challenge, extended its power of choice, shaping the journey forward.
Cropin unveiled its advanced data management and intelligence layers, opening up a new range of possibilities. It elevated the partnership to a realm that can transform data into intelligence.
From fields to algorithms
Armed with data covering GPS locations, sowing dates, and crop details, East-West Seed looked at the next frontier in agricultural innovation – Artificial Intelligence (AI).
East-West Seed is now in the nascent stages of harnessing data for intelligence. This journey exemplifies a fruitful partnership committed to leveraging technology for continuous improvement and innovation.
Innovation recognized: east-west seed to go beyond accolades
Recognized with the Thailand Technology Excellence Award for Digital Agriculture, East-West Seed is a beacon of innovation. Their journey doesn’t end with the accolades; it propels them further into agri-intelligence. The collaborative effort started with Cropin now pioneers the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the soil that sustains us.
Michel Devarrewaere, VP Production & Projects, East-West Seed, says, “With this technology we are trying to produce better seeds, this means better income for our farmers and our staff is motivated to push to the next level, which is AI. Everyone has been very supportive of this project from the beginning, as it is simplifying their lives.”
The socio-economic impact transcending borders
Zooming out from the digital fields to the real ones, the impact is significant. For the 15,000 farmers connected through Cropin Grow, the technology means more than streamlined operations. The socio-economic impact on the lives of farmers is crystal clear – better livelihoods with tangible improvements in productivity and income.
Enhanced visibility into seed varieties, farmer engagement through PoPs, accurate production metrics, advisories, and AI-driven insights for decision-making paint a narrative of prosperity being cultivated at the grassroots.
The Award is a recognition of the potential of technology to bridge gaps and create a ripple effect of progress across borders.
Growing futures: a transformation for the dynamic agricultural landscape
In the vast expanse of global agriculture, where tradition meets innovation, East-West Seed emerges as a beacon of change. The challenges they faced — the cumbersome manual processes, lack of visibility, and inconsistent metrics — are not isolated woes but resonate with the broader struggles of agri-industry worldwide.
As the agricultural landscape grapples with the effects of climate change, resource depletion, and population growth, the demand for sustainable agriculture and digital farming practices is more pronounced than ever.
To address these challenges, Cropin didn’t just provide a solution; they pioneered it. Cropin Grow, the real-time digital monitoring tool, is the first step in the long-term journey towards intelligence for an industry that is at the intersection of tradition and progress. The tool’s adaptability, flexibility, and ability to capture GPS locations, monitor activities and packages of practices, and assess seed quality aren’t merely about efficiency — they’re about resilience in the face of evolving agricultural challenges.
Conclusion
In the big picture of farming worldwide, East-West Seed’ journey is not just about changing how we grow seeds; it’s a call for innovating in the fields. And Cropin, with its smart technology, is right there, making a big difference.
Cropin, with over 13 years of experience in digitizing over 16 million acres of farmland, as a true strategic partner, collaborates to see more, do more, and earn more – all by turning data to drive smart decisions for farmers. Cropin’s journey is about a big idea – making farming lucrative for everyone, everywhere. And it is making sure that this idea grows big, just like the dynamic crops it helps to grow.
