Know your farm

Remote monitoring of crop health and comparative analytics across fields through time series analysis

About

At 6th Grain, we believe that the direct application of digital technology and science is key to establishing profitable and productive agriculture and food systems. We are a digital agriculture technology company which focuses on transforming farmer-provided data into information that can be used to increase success and uptake in crop protection services, credit provision, and high yielding seeds.

Machine learning, modeling, and sophisticated, composite data are at the heart of our technology platform and sets 6th Grain apart from the competition. We merge information on field management with satellite observations of weather, crop extent, and crop health, resulting in the development of timely, comprehensive and accurate information. This will improve decision making to reduce costs, increase productivity and enhance customer engagement.

By providing services both to the small farmer and large agribusiness, 6th Grain’s digital agriculture solutions delivers high quality, remote sensing and weather-based information to millions of farmers across the world.

Mission

6th Grain’s ongoing mission is to help actors all along the agricultural value chain improve agricultural yields and profitability through science and technology.

Vision

6th Grain provides information and technology to help farmers, institutions and organizations through crop maps, crop monitoring, and ground data collection across low and high income settings.

Products & Services

Crop Mapping

6th Grain’s unique, remote sensing-based crop type mapping system allows for quantitative analysis of cultivated areas across the African continent at 10m resolution at an annual time step. Our crop mapping system uses an innovative sampling scheme that exploits expert knowledge to produce training data.

Key Solutions & Benefits
  • Annual cropped area maps for maize, wheat/barley, sunflower and soybean at 10m resolution.
  • Comparable and consistent agricultural statistics across space and time for business decisions and market size analysis.
  • Partitioning of field sizes into small, medium and large fields, varying by country & region according to the agro-ecology and needs of the user.
  • Cropped area maps in low income countries with poor agricultural statistics where little is known about variation in cropped area year-to-year and few other comparable options at our products’ quality, resolution and time step.
  • Annual crop maps produced 1-2 months after harvest.
  • Constantly increasing map quality which can be demonstrated by mapping a region with statistics well known by the client.
For more information, please visit
https://cropmapping.6grain.com

Crop Monitoring and Analytics

FieldFocus
Web and Android-based field management platform

FieldFocus is a modular online and mobile platform for farmers to digitize their fields and get information about crop health and weather. Using satellite remote sensing and client-provided specific crop and variety information, we send our users recommendations and alerts that help improve yields and reduce problem response times.


Because FieldFocus uses local data on climate and soil conditions for your location and allows you to enter detailed information for your field operations, we can provide yield estimates and tailored recommendations for your specific situation.
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We are in the process of rolling out an integrated chatbot within FieldFocus. This chatbot will take user experience to the next level, with increased user self-service, improved knowledge management, and a streamlined workflow behind the scenes.

FieldFocus creates a customer-centric agriculture environment and connects a farmer directly to off-take agreements, as well as financial and value chain services thereby reducing the risk associated with farming.

Key Solutions & Benefits
  • Online digitization of fields.
  • Remote monitoring of crop health and comparative analytics across fields through time series analysis.
  • Easy access to weather conditions and forecasts.
  • Instant online access to satellite imagery for field scouting and alerts about field conditions.
  • Calendar function for tracking agricultural activities, farm planning and agronomic advice.
  • Agronomic advice, alerts and daily yield estimations for decision making.
  • Notifications and mobile data access, along with offline functionality when in the field.
  • Online farmer notebook and picture hosting.
SalesFocus/VillageFocus

Platform for agri-tech companies and governments to track field-level performance when farmer information is not known.

Field Productivity Index

Easy-to use interactive geospatial app and web portal that allows a user to examine ag/crop suitability and productivity potential.

Disease Early Warning System

Focused delivery system of single crop-single disease information to smallholders via SMS or WhatsApp blasters.

Field Performance Tracker

In-season, field-scale performance tool based on remote sensing for large commercial farming enterprises with comprehensive field-level yield and farm records.

Field Management Index

Index that highlights the differences in crop performance independent of growing conditions. The index also helps identify regions with more engagement in commercial seeds and crop protection products than others.

Agricultural Retail Support

Tool that uses remote sensing and sales data to support retailers with information and logistics needs.

Ag-Risk Index

Index that measures the volatility of productivity and climate over the last 15 years in a region.

Seasonal Metrics

Crop metrics package that focuses on crop start, peak, and end, modified according to the seeds being sold in the region (90 or 120 days). Data can be used to enable resource planning, as well as timing of the distribution of seeds and crop protection products across large areas at district, state, or national scale.

Ground Data Collection

Using mobile devices and a questionnaire developed in conjunction with farmer groups across the world, we engage with farmers in the field to collect specific data on the management of their farm to gain a better understanding of their current situation.

The information collected is used to build a digital Farmer Registry. The registry is a powerful interactive online visualization tool that will allow for a flexible and focused presentation of the data to the project stakeholders.

The farmer data is combined with satellite and weather information, agriculture crop models, and a geographical information analysis tool to provide specific agricultural analysis that can assist in policy and extension of improved agricultural technologies.

Partners

Who We Serve

We provide agribusinesses, government agencies, and farmer organizations information data systems and online solutions using focused local data to strengthen the agricultural system, derive data insights, drive evidence-based decisions, and to improve productivity for actors along the agriculture value chain.

Agribusinesses
Government Agencies
Farmer Organizations

Where We Have Helped

Our products and services are available worldwide. The breadth of our past and current engagements spans over 20 countries across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. 6th Grain’s portfolio of solutions are customizable to client needs in most countries worldwide.

Crop Mapping

Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Angola, Katanga region of the DRC, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Iran, and Iraq.

Monitoring Collaborations

US, Brazil, Russia, Hungary, France, Vietnam, India, Thailand, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Mauritania, Senegal, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Angola, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Tanzania

Ground Data Collection

Cameroon, Zambia, Zambia, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), The Gambia, Senegal, Malawi, Tunisia

Clients and Partners

Team

At the core of 6th Grain’s cutting-edge technology is a group of 50 dedicated scientists, technologists, and specialists who are at the forefront of their respective areas of expertise. Our team of scientists are leaders in their fields, with experience hailing from NASA. The science team provides end to end remote sensing satellite data delivery, model delivery and implementation. Coupled with our talented technology and software development team, we deliver important digital agricultural innovations to large and small agricultural clients alike.

Senior Leadership

Vladimir Eskin, PhD
Chief Executive Officer

Vladimir was the CEO and head of International Operations of Prognoz, Washington DC. Previously, Vladimir was an economist of Global Insight, formerly WEFA (Wharton Econometrics Forecasting Associates), in Philadelphia, PA. He has a PhD in Economics.

Kaaz Ninomiya, PhD
Chief Operating Officer

Kaaz was a member of Management Committee and Head of Strategic Initiatives at McKinsey & Company's investment office. Prior to that, he held various different roles within McKinsey in New York, Tokyo and other offices. Kaaz started his professional career as an Equity Derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs in London and Tokyo. He has a Bachelor of Science in Biology
(Genetic Engineering) from M.I.T. and PhD in Management Science & Engineering (Operations Research) from Stanford University.

Molly Brown, PhD
Chief Science Officer

Hailing from NASA Space Flight Center, Molly leads a team of remote sensing scientists based in the United States, China and India. Molly ensures that 6th Grain products use the best possible science, data and models to determine disease alarms, farmer recommendations and yield monitoring in our tools. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Tufts University and a master's and doctoral degree in Geography from the University of Maryland.

Sergey Lebedinets
Head of Software

With extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of data collection, management and dissemination technologies and solutions, Sergey has unrivalled expertise in implementing software development projects for government authorities and international organizations. Sergey has a degree in Computing Machines, Complexes, Systems and Networks.

Jurgen von der Heyde, PhD
Head of IP

Dr von der Heyde has a master's degree in agriculture and a doctorate in entomology. He worked extensively in BASF's crop protection division, with overseas appointments in the Philippines, Japan and in the United States during his career.

Jyoteshwar Nagol, PhD
Lead Geospatial Data Scientist

Dr. Nagol is 6th Grain's lead geospatial data scientist who directs the three sections of 6th Grain's science team, which are data science, remote sensing and agronomy. He works in the field of remote sensing for agricultural mapping and monitoring. He has a PhD from the niversity of Maryland.

Min Feng, PhD
Head of Remote Sensing Section

Dr. Feng is 6th Grain's Senior Data scientist in charge of the Remote Sensing section at 6th Grain. He has expertise in distributed geospatial data modeling and integration. Min has a Bachelor of Science degree in
physical geography, a Master of Science and doctoral degree in cartography and geographic information from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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