Bengaluru based startup SatSure hopes to address the issue of ‘data poverty’ in the agriculture sector
Words: Vandana Devi Images: Various Sources
“The spate of farmer suicides and measly compensation received by farmers for their losses motivated us to work towards improving the sustainability of agriculture, by addressing the basic need of this sector- ensuring financial security of the vulnerable by supporting institutional mechanisms in place through good macro and micro data.” said Abhishek Raju, co-founder and Director of the SatSure team.
A private satellite data analytics company, Bengaluru based startup SatSure hopes to address the issue of ‘data poverty’ in agriculture sector by building a 15-year archive of satellite images over the Indian subcontinent. These images will be processed and analysed to give information that could be used for decision making purposes by governments, insurance companies, banks, pesticide & seed companies and commodity trading firms.
The satellite imaging analytics serve two purposes. It ensures that the farmers receive a fair and immediate compensation for crop loss that happens due to adverse climatic conditions. It also enables insurers to settle claims speedily thanks to the availability of near real-time data. Abhishek claims that such methods can be used as a better parameter for crop yield assessment than precipitation indices that are derived from weather station data.
Modernisation has not yet impacted farmers in the country in a meaningful way. SatSure wants to change that by providing technology based solutions for agriculture on a national level. Their aim is to work with the government, to give back to the state.