Cropin launches Aksara, a generative AI system for climate smart agriculture

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Agritech firm Cropin Technology announced the launch of ‘Aksara’ a generative artificial intelligence system for climate smart agriculture.

Cropin said the first version of Aksara will cover nine crops such as paddy, wheat, maize, sorghum, barley, cotton, sugarcane, soybean, and millets for 5 countries in the Indian subcontinent.

This generative AI system can suggest farmers which inputs to use for crops like rice or maize under specific agro-climatic conditions or provide climate smart agri-advisories, the company said in a statement.

Aksara is an open-source Micro Language Model (µ-LM) for climate smart agriculture, built on Mistral’s foundation model, is designed to address the problems faced by the underserved farming communities in the Global South by removing barriers to knowledge, and empowering anyone in the agriculture ecosystem to build frugal and scalable AI solutions for the sector.

Climate change is disrupting conventional agricultural practices, making existing knowledge impractical in the era of global warming. Factors like irregular or extreme rainfall, unpredictable heatwaves, and increased pest and disease attacks affect farmers’ practices and reduce agricultural yield, productivity, and profitability. Cropin aims to bridge this gap with ‘aksara’ by harnessing the power of GenAI to provide insights into modern farming practices, accurate information, and farm advisories.

Krishna Kumar, Founder & CEO, Cropin, said, in an era where Large Language Models are reshaping jobs, businesses, and customer interactions, the spotlight is now on industry-specific models trained on niche and comprehensive domain data as the ‘next big thing.’

These models can potentially transform agriculture, paving the way for a new era of tech-driven farming in a sector that has traditionally seen limited technological advancement.

“Domain-specific AI models for agriculture are expected to attract significant investments, offering a practical and economically viable approach to food systems transformation. Aksara reinstates our commitment to leading the tech-driven agricultural movement in the years ahead, significantly impacting small-scale farmers’ lives,” he said.