15. CropIn: Addressing Farmer Poverty Through “Connected” Farming

CropIn is a SaaS-based agriculture-technology company that started in 2010 in India. This case study is the story of CropIn as told by its founder and CEO Krishna Kumar. CropIn provides SaaS-based services to agribusinesses in India and other developing nations; enabling clients to analyze and interpret data to derive real-time actionable insights on standing crop and projects spanning geographies. The company brings in cutting-edge technology like Big Data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Geo-tagging, and Satellite monitoring to interconnect all the stakeholders at different levels of the agriculture ecosystem. The case can offer interesting insights on technology adaptation to suit the needs of small farmers and the impact of digitization on farm productivity. This case is particularly useful as an example of how technology can intervene to prevent the agrarian crisis from worsening and as a way out of the indebtedness for rural and small farmers.