What is Gro Intelligence's mission in the agriculture space and what services do you currently provide?
Since agriculture and climate data is disparate and hard to source for AI and ML models, our company's goal is to provide our clients with a curated source of data that they can use for internal analytics, procurement or price risk management, and business decisions or processes. Leveraging this clean database business, we also built our own IP through which we can serve derived data with the help of software products. For about eight years now, we have been gathering our data from quality public sources (ministries, meteorological associations, space agencies, etc.) but we are also licensing it from vendors or private sources. We have our own knowledge graph, or ontology mechanism, that categorizes all this data and we are constantly looking into new data sets suggested by our clients, in order to stay up to date with any changes. Besides climate and agriculture experts that are classifying the data, we employ product and engineering talent to assure the accuracy of data points. So long as we find that certain data comes from a legitimate source and might be useful for our clients, we bring it in our system and analyze it.
Gro Intelligence offers forecasts on a number of variables, but how far can data and AI go in predicting future outcomes for the agro-food industry?
Some of the yield forecasts that we offer can be up to ten months ahead of official government statistics. By comparing AI and machine learning algorithm values to the final forecasts from different agencies, we know that we are able to get accurate enough information.
However, given climate variability year after year, the science is not yet advanced enough to achieve full predictability, especially as forecast accuracy goes down over time.
Who are the main users of your API and is there a possibility that your solutions could be affordable enough for small famers?
We are delivering most of our data via our Application Programming Interface (API) product, with the help of a subscription service through which we provide trial options that establish which data is relevant to our clients. Our customers are seed, crop protection, food, consumer packaged goods (CPGs), financial institutions and governments interested in historical climate and agricultural data. Besides the codes built to snip the data they are looking for, we are also offering simple visual tools for a more user-friendly experience. Similarly, hedge funds can benefit from data discoverability to look into trade market signals.
Presently, it is difficult to gain access to small stakeholder farmer data (especially in developing geographies) so it is hard to anticipate when a product fit for farmers could become available. However, through our Gro for Good offering we are opening our API and data base products for NGOs with humanitarian purposes (like the UN Food Programme).
What solutions can Gro Intelligence offer to tackle supply chain challenges?
Even before the war in Ukraine, we have been doing a lot of work on quantifying data on supply and demand. Having structured data that updates regularly is very helpful, especially when dealing with disrupted supply chains where differentiating sensationalist information from true insights is vital. Our products have the potential to aid in these disorderly times by giving the ability to revisit data without having to commission long reports done by extensive teams. During volatile times, when decisions need to be made swiftly, data and technology have the power to address the urgency of the market environment.
What are the key objectives that you would like to achieve in the next couple of years?
Our main plan is to keep developing our agriculture and climate data offerings for the new customers that might be looking into our services. Besides the commercialization of the proprietary products that solve clients' pain points, we are also interested in expanding the pro bono side of the business. In the long term, we are going to continue sharing our established model across different supply chains around the world.
