CropIn Technology: Unraveling a Smarter and Safer Agri-Tech Network Date:   Sunday , November 23, 2014 Recently, the state of Andhra Pradesh recorded a death count of 3000 farmers who answered their final summons owing to the debt trap, drought and crop failure. Andhra Pradesh is just a mere prototype, but the larger picture unfolds a huge statistics. With these historically unprecedented events hitting epidemic proportions, Indian agriculture sector is turning to present-day models to retaliate the largest working group of the country. Enterprises consider that the key to aid these catastrophic disasters lies in injecting ICT into Agriculture realm, thus strengthening the sector. It was not long back when a business expert and tech-savvy engineer Krishna Kumar realized this potential. The current adversities not only made him to feel dreadful, but also fueled him to leave his cushy job at a branded corporate to bootstrap a start-up called CropIn Technology which now stands as a leading platform for inter-connecting Agri businesses with the technology and expertise while enabling a smarter and safer food supply for consumers around the world. \"The idea was to do something for a sector that desperately needs technology. We wanted to bring affordable state of the art technology in agriculture with vision to transform every farm into CropInSmartFarm, ensuring prosperity to farmers across the globe through Zero Crop Loss and Higher Productivity,\" says Krishna Kumar Founder & CEO, CropIn Technology. CropIn Technology was incepted in 2010 by Krishna along with Kunal Prasad as a new innovation that was designed to digitize agriculture. By knitting a network of ERP and Business Intelligence around agricultural domain, this strategic partner endeavors to work as a close-knit team with different value chain participants of the supply chain, supporting them to supervise farm produce status more closely. As a robust service provider, the company offers an in-built traceability system which does not only help in tracking the farm produce and consignment status in a real time basis and qualitative approach, but also revamps the farm into a certified-compliant-traceable pattern, thus elevating them to meet global market requirements. CropIn believes that mobility and real time decision making capabilities play a critical role in breaking the back of the beast that is hindering the growth of the sector. Backed with rich analytics, the technology at CropIn also allows extensive farm data collection. With a theme Digitize-Share-Collaborate, the company processes cloud and mobile-based mechanism which simplify and assist in bridging complex operational challenges in farm management, thus allowing companies to connect with all their farms to provide mobility to their farms. Succoring the Financial Predicaments Unlike in developed nations, agriculture is still the single largest contributor to the GDP in India. It is estimated that more than 60 percent of this agrarian country still consider agriculture as a sole source to live. Amidst of these criterions, financial crisis still remains as a bigger bane of the agriculturists. As a farming technology solutions start-up, CropIn offers a technological plethora where the farmers can connect with financial institution. CropIn helps banks to reach the farmer faster, collect the required information in real time and electrify the loan process, creating a faster access to the loans. Besides, CropIn also provides various applications to cater the predicaments of managing a farm through its advisory & extension activities. Bond without Boundaries While CropIn considers customers as the nucleus of its business strategy, it also employs a state-of-the-art and boundary-less work culture that empowers its young and vibrant employees to grow and excel. The heterogeneous background of the crew facilitates the company to innovate constantly. \"CropIn\'s mission is to organize the Agri-information into accessible and useful data. Our mission is one that has the potential to touch millions of lives and we make sure that all our employees feel connected to it and empowered to help achieve it,\" adds Krishna. The success mantra of CropIn has always been \'Grow more with the less\' and with it, the company envisions going those extra miles too to serve the purpose of its existence. Panel: Solutions/services: - Farm planning/management - Farmer-Plot-Crop Registration - Geo Tag& Traceability - Plot area Audit for correct Acreage measurement - Agri-Input distribution/Usage tracking - Farm level-Task management/monitoring - Advisory & Extension Activities Key Management: Krishna Kumar, Founder & CEO Krishna kicked off his business career from Information management leadership Program at GE and he has worked with best of breed technology and business processes in India & U.S. With business strategy, new business development & handled Post Merger & Acquisition activities as the core ingredients of his successful corporate life, Krishna has been supporting CropIn Technologies in filling life to its vision to transform agriculture through IT intervention. Kunal Prasad, Co-Founder & COO Kunal is an experienced business manager having worked extensively in Sales and Marketing division at Tata Motors. He has experience various domains viz. Planning and strategy , Project Management , Sales and Account management, Business Development, CRM and Supply chain Management. Chittaranjan Jena, CTO Chittaranjan is an experienced IT professional with over 14 years of experience in Project and Program Management , Service Delivery, people management, Consulting in Supply Chain and Finance domain. He held various technical leadership roles in companies like GE, Capgemini Ernst & Young& UTI. Achievements/Recognition: 1. Manthan South Asia & Asia Pacific Award (2013) 2. Power of Idea 3. Microsoft startup challenge 4. M billionth Awards Offices: Bangalore Clients: Godfrey Phillips India, Technico, Rallis (Tata Enterprise), McCain, FieldFresh( A Bharti Enterprise) ,Mahindra & Mahindra, Nuziveedu, Bhatti AgriTech, Pepsico ,IFB Agro, Green Earth Fresh Produce, Omniactive, Mapro, Satyajit Chemicals, Pointec, Srijan, Pradan, Jeypee Farms and Garden Valley Exports Investors: 1. Seeders 2. Ankur Capital 3. Invested Development CEO Speak: World agriculture will undergo far-reaching economic and physical change in the coming 50 years. Growing more with less is going to be the guiding principle, in-order to feed the world\'s growing population - projected to exceed 9 billion in 2050. Millions of small farmers in developing countries do not have a good resource and knowledge base, and this limits their capacity to pursue sustainability goals. This requires technology, access to inputs, extension services support, and remunerative links to markets. At Cropin we work on cutting edge solution to help global Agriculture to achieve sustainable growth by providing digital platform to collaborate-Interact-React.