In a bid to tackle the escalating crisis of global hunger and food insecurity, Cropin Technology, a leading Agtech innovator, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) India Private Limited have joined forces under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The collaboration aims to empower Cropin in creating a groundbreaking solution utilizing AWS AI technologies to address critical challenges in agriculture, including tracking crop cultivation, production patterns, and climate change impacts.
The initiative comes amidst alarming statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which indicate a distressing surge in global hunger, with between 691 and 783 million people suffering from food insecurity in 2022. This staggering figure represents an increase of 122 million people compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, highlighting the urgent need for innovative approaches to combat the crisis.
Recognizing the pivotal role of technology in strategic decision-making, the partnership aims to develop a comprehensive data-driven solution that can aggregate global farmland data and climate intelligence. By harnessing advanced analytics, modeling, and simulation capabilities, the solution seeks to provide decision intelligence to governments, development agencies, and agri-businesses, facilitating efforts to ensure food security for vulnerable populations worldwide.
Cropin's expertise in agriculture, combined with AWS's advanced computing capabilities, including High Performance Computing (HPC), internet of things (IoT), and generative artificial intelligence (AI), will drive the development of a Food Security Decision Intelligence solution. Initially focusing on key food crops such as rice, wheat, potato, and maize, the solution aims to deliver accurate and granular crop yield intelligence to support sustainable food systems.
Integrating satellite imagery, field data, and remote sensing technologies, the AI-powered solution will enhance agricultural analytics, providing both micro and macro insights into crop production and quality across global regions. AWS's suite of services, including Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q, will complement Cropin's AI capabilities, enabling scalable and actionable insights for stakeholders along the agricultural value chain.
Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO of Cropin, emphasized the importance of data-driven insights in policymaking, stating, "Our collaboration with AWS marks a significant step towards building a global real-time decision intelligence solution, which will provide insights into several aspects of food security - agriculture, climate, trade, and supply chain - in one dashboard."
Shalini Kapoor, Director and Chief Technologist at AWS India Private Limited, highlighted the potential of advanced computing on the cloud to drive social and environmental impact, stating, "Our work with Cropin showcases the power of advanced compute capabilities on the cloud to drive social and environmental impact."
With the world's population projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, the partnership between Cropin and AWS underscores a shared commitment to leveraging technology for sustainable development and combating global challenges such as food insecurity. Through collaborative efforts and innovative solutions, the two companies aim to make meaningful strides towards a more food-secure future for all.