Sachin Shende- Co-founder and CEO of KisanHub.Graduated from Loughborough University (UK), PhD in computational hydraulics. Has extensive experience in IT, data analysis and investment management. In 2012, he led the development of the bond trading and research analytics platform for Barclays and BlackRock.
Kisanubis a cloud platform that helpsagriculture to become more predictable and profitable by optimizing the supply chain of agricultural products. The program provides complete data on each link in the product supply chain. The company works at the intersection of precision agriculture, big data, cloud computing, machine learning and mobile technologies. Thus, the supply chain in agriculture is optimized: from seed to cucumber on supermarket shelves or to raw materials for food and drink production. KisanHub is headed by Sachin Shende, and Dmitry Filatov, president of the Sistema_VC fund, is on its Board of Directors.
What is it for
- Why do farmers need IT in general?
— There is a global problem of data collection.Their reliability largely depends on who provides the data. In the future, we will connect the farmer and the entrepreneur. It is important to collect data in a single information center - after all, some data comes from the farmer, some from the agronomist, the requests of the product supplier and even the consumer are important, which also need to be taken into account. During data collection, you are faced with problems of reliability and limited time - data may be collected either at the wrong time, or when collecting data is too time-consuming and expensive. There is a problem of data visualization that is more complex than the problems of verification and reliability.
Most often, our task is to unitevarious data sources. Let me give you an example. When the sowing is completed, we begin the automatic collection of satellite images and data from the soil probe in a specific field. This gives us an additional way to control whether certain actions were actually performed: for example, whether a field was cultivated and a crop was sown. Or harvesting: if satellite imagery shows that the crop is on the field, then reports on harvesting from the field are clearly incorrect. And this is the area where we use machine learning to understand or detect some events automatically using satellite photos, mobile phone images or sensor data. It is necessary to correlate the information provided by people with satellite images and sensor data from the fields. There are a lot of such checkpoints (recheck points - “High Tech”). In addition, it is necessary to provide access to them for our customers and make sure that they receive this data.
- Can your project affect the prices of agricultural products in almost real time?
- This is a difficult question. First, agriculture is very heterogeneous in geographic distribution. Markets are very volatile, prices are constantly changing, there are many factors that affect the final price, for example, weather. Secondly, there is a dependence on large players. Imagine that in Russia there were big problems with the production of wheat. Since Russia is a major player in the market, prices will rise.
Sachin Shende. Photo: AGRO & TECH
Potentially Automate Forecastswhat will happen in the global consumer goods market. We need to understand what is happening in other countries - in Australia or the United States, including geopolitical factors. For example, if Donald Trump decides to raise tariffs for China, this will negatively affect the sale of American soybeans, since China is its largest consumer. This means that other countries will have to fill the empty niche. As you can see, geopolitical decisions affect the global market for crops.
To avoid this, it is necessary to create a global and detailed data collection and analysis platform. And this is our task, mission, what we call
Large Scale Agri Intelligence "The introduction of AI in agricultural on a large scale" - "Hi-Tech"). In the short term, we want to make sure that we have established a supply chain and help farmers, agronomists and entrepreneurs to quickly make effective decisions verified by technologies.
- Compare the development of agricultural technologies in your country, where you work so fruitfully, and in Russia. What are the distinguishing features?
— The main difference is the size of the farms and methodscultivation. In the UK and Europe generally, the farms we work with are much smaller. The average farm size in Great Britain is 500 hectares, and in Russia it is 10–15 thousand hectares. The same way of interacting with farms of such different sizes is not possible. Doing something on 500 hectares or 10 thousand hectares are fundamentally different things. On small farms, processes are usually optimized, but on large farms, the farmer says he could simply increase the acreage to increase production.
This is a key difference in agricultural technology.Great Britain and Russia. You also need to understand that the Russian market is more open to future changes. In Russia, one should definitely expect the digitalization of farming. It does not matter for the computer whether the farm will have a surface area of 500 hectares or 10 thousand hectares: technology simply collects data and recommends solutions, you only need the skill to operate technologies of the appropriate level. I believe that digitalization in the agricultural sector will happen very soon and will happen in the Russian Federation and the CIS quite quickly ..
How it works
- What role do technologies play in the development of the agricultural sector? Why is it so important to create and use data collection?
- I look at technology in terms of realproblems and challenges. One of the main challenges of our time is sustainable food production, and it inspires me the most. Within the agricultural sector, we want to play a significant role in optimizing the supply system.
Sachin Shende. Photo: AGRO & TECH
Over the past 50-60 years, the agricultural sectorhas undergone many changes in plant growing and genetics. Wheat, which was used for sowing in the 1980s, yielded far less yield than now. Today, the main point of agribusiness is to increase productivity per unit area. Crop production and genetics are areas that are actively developing now.
The second area is agriculturalmechanical engineering, i.e. tractors and combines. This can further increase efficiency, a person will begin to independently manage from 3-4 thousand hectares using these machines.
Big changes have occurred in the supply chain. The consumer wants to see strawberries on the shelves of the supermarket all year round. But strawberries are a seasonal product, and are grown in a specific climate zone. Most consumers do not know this: they are just used to the fact that there is strawberry on the shelf in the supermarket. This happened only because of changes in the supply chain; supermarkets work with agricultural producers in numerous places of the globe and are supplied with products all year round. This is an area where major changes have occurred, and technology has helped us in this. From the same area, the use of agricultural chemicals, fertilizers and other means of increasing productivity. I think that now it is time for digitalization. Previously, technology focused on fertilizer application and improved fruiting, while modern developments allow us to redefine the entire food supply chain. And that is what is our task. You cannot optimize something big here and something big there and work out a suitable solution without reassessing the entire system and supply chain. Technologies enable data to be collected from multiple supply chain sources, and allows many companies to work together.
You go to an electronics store and buyPrinter. You buy a printer for your home or office, but no matter what operating system you have, Windows, Linux or Mac OS, you know you can plug in the printer and print. This is roughly how technology in agriculture will work. Satellite and sensor data will complement each other, and data and information will begin to be exchanged between many companies working together. This prospect takes my breath away!
The future of agricultural technology
- Will the farmer in this food chain turn into a super-loafer in the near future?
- The farmer is the most important element orthe actor in the supply chain. He will continue to grow crops on earth. I think what we are trying to do is help the farmer, agronomist and food companies constantly grow crops. And technology will not replace them completely. Certain changes will occur, for example, at the moment, the farmer, on the recommendation of the agronomist, spray pesticides or fungicides to stop the invasion of pests on the fields. This happens in Europe and in most countries. Over time, the following will happen: artificial systems built on our cloud platform will make decisions. These cloud platforms will be synchronized with standalone sprinklers. They will report not only when it is necessary to spray, but also what parts of the field need processing. We will not see this level of involvement in information exchange today, not in the next two years, but, in any case, it will be realized in the next five to ten years. Because it is not only modifications of the infrastructure and sprinklers, it is primarily autonomous systems that are able to collect information and interpret it. Equipment is not our concern; we work with hardware companies.
Sachin Shende. Photo: AGRO & TECH
But there is also a consumer side, right? We must not forget that the consumer is an important part of the supply chain, because he requires a certain type of food in the market - with a given quality, price and delivery time. I will give you such a striking example: today a farmer and an agronomist are the most invisible links in the supply chain. And when you are going to buy a box of cereal, you see a multi-billion dollar company. You, as a consumer, do not really see the farmer who raised wheat, corn or oats for these cereals. You do not see the agronomist, you do not see the mass of people who work in the supply chain. All together, you need to ensure that there is a good quality cereal box on the store shelf at a reasonable price, and you could purchase it. I think it’s possible to change with technology.
How to do it? Imagine that you take a package of oranges and scan the QR code on it using your mobile phone to see the entire supply chain. Find out not only where the oranges came from, but also who raised them, what was the farm on which they grew. See the full product profile, find out important data for the consumer: what chemicals were used, whether it was organic growing or, for example, that these products are delivered by three different suppliers to the supermarket chain. You can see the whole set of processes and the people behind it. Technology allows you to make specific people more visible and responsible. They do not make them super-loafers, in my opinion.
- What will change in the future in the development of agricultural technologists? What is your prediction?
- Already in the near future we will see newsupply management methods, other types of food, for example, artificial proteins for partial replacement of meat. Existing tools are not fit for the future. And not because of population growth, but because of its movement. See what happened in the last 20 years in the largest economies in the world. People massively moved from rural areas to cities. The lands began to consolidate more economically, the work of the farmer is no longer as accessible to the population as before. On the other hand, having moved to cities, people began to live more freely, and they got more money. And what do they want? When you have easy access to food, you tend to buy more food, right? This shift leads to a focus on intensive agriculture. And we must intensify agriculture through sustainable development.
How can we produce the food we need?to the population? And produce it using resources wisely and more efficiently? If an agricultural company does not adequately fund new technologies, it becomes increasingly difficult for that company to compete and will be locked out of a future where we produce food sustainably.
- Describe the future of agricultural technology in one word.
- A better future. This is a matter of artificial intelligence. Why is AI so important? There are numerous parameters and data sources that must be considered in order to make a decision. This is quite a challenge for people. Not only because of the limited capabilities of a person, but also because meaningful decisions often need to be taken promptly.
Firstly, not all the necessary information can bebe accessible to a person; secondly, many people with different competencies may be needed to make a decision. And this is a common story in the food supply industry.
You have to analyze a lotsources to make a decision. Should I grow a particular crop, how much should I grow, with whom from 50 different producers to sign an agreement for the supply of seeds, fertilizers and equipment, and many more different factors that influence decision-making. There are many other independent parameters: soil, region, weather, geopolitical decisions, logistics, consumer wishes, market conditions. Putting it all together, in the long run it is very difficult to constantly keep in mind such a large number of factors when making decisions and control production efficiency. I think the role of AI in solving this problem will increase.
For example, data from sensors (in the case of IoT),satellites or other sources allow AI to make the best decision. And in this area, this solution will have a high degree of elaboration, since any satellite data, any reports on the crop, on soils, and cartographic data are taken into account. All this is collected in one place, carefully analyzed, allowing you to make a decision - to water or not, to spray or not, to fertilize or not, and the like. But the most important thing is the consistent quality of the crop, sufficient for your customers, your consumers. This is the type of solution in which AI can benefit.