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Bengaluru-based, agri-tech start-up CropIn has partnered with the Punjab Agri Export Corporation (Pagrexco), a Government of Punjab enterprise, to leverage CropIn’s AI-powered technology to improve the quality of potato seed production in the State and incorporate a first-of-its-kind ‘Seed Potato Traceability’ in the entire value chain.
By leveraging QR-code tagging during packaging and warehousing process, CropIn will ensure that potato farmers are able to trace the origin of the seeds that they are buying. They will know exactly where the seeds are coming from, and whether they are Pagrexco certified. From next year, potato growers in India and around the world will be able to differentiate the certified, high-quality seeds produced by Punjab from that of other growers.
“Punjab produces 27 lakh tonnes of potatoes every year, which means that ensuring high seed quality is absolutely critical. Given the sub-par, spurious seeds that are flooding the market and resulting in low yields and poor ROI, this certification can transform potato seed production. It will also play a big role in building trust and credibility for Pagrexco’s seeds among potato growers,” said Krishna Kumar, founder and CEO of CropIn.
Stating that Punjab caters to 60-70 per cent of the entire seed potato demand in the Indian and global markets, he said, “This partnership will not only impact the potato seed farmers in Punjab, but also potato growers across India and in the international markets. Of the 98,000 hectares that are under potato seed production in Punjab, we are working on 55,000 hectares.”
CropIn uses its agri-tech solutions to improve the seed production process and help potato seed farmers produce superior quality seeds from the R&D stage. A number of parameters have to be carefully monitored to decide which seed varieties meet the quality benchmark.
Once the certified seeds from Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) and aeroponic labs are received, Pagrexco takes up a massive seed multiplication process in which the seed varieties are packaged into millions of seed packets. At the seed multiplication stage, CropIn will use a combination of three digital solutions including SmartFarm, SmartRisk and AcreSquare to monitor the entire process, right from planning to production.
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