Jyotsna Budideti, CEO of SpaceSense: geospatial AI is key to regenerative and more sustainable agriculture

First of all, Jyotsna, please tell us a little about yourself.??

I was born in southern India and I stayed in India throughout my engineering studies. Aerospace has always been my passion, so I studied aeronautical engineering. I was most passionate about using technology to solve everyday problems, so I felt I needed to develop my technological skills. I continued my studies at école Polytechnique in France and UC Berkeley in California, and I had the opportunity to learn more about AI and machine learning and how to get solutions into people’s hands. I was fascinated by AI and its game-changing potential, so I specialised in applied mathematics and AI. Then, in 2017, I started working for Airbus in Toulouse, France. It was a job that allowed me to bring together my backgrounds in machine learning, AI and aerospace.?

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How did you come up with the idea for SpaceSense????

At Airbus, I was mainly working on autonomous flight, and it was during this time that I had the idea for the core of SpaceSense. I could see how satellite data and geospatial technologies, in combination with artificial intelligence, could revolutionise the possibilities for solutions to climate change. So, in 2019, I founded SpaceSense.??

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Why did you start applying your solutions to agriculture???

It was clear to me that access to these technologies would be a game changer in terms of providing better solutions to climate change issues, so I wanted to start working on a project of this kind. When I researched who or what industry was most in need of this kind of solution, agriculture emerged as the biggest industry. That’s why I started with agriculture, because I felt that I could have a real impact in helping communities, farmers and food supply chains adapt to climate change and transition to a more sustainable model. That is the mission of SpaceSense.???

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Your main strengths are satellite data and AI, is that right??

That’s right. From day one, our goal has been to provide highly advanced and powerful technological solutions in such a way that communities, companies and organisations in agriculture and other industries don’t have to put together huge teams or invest millions of dollars before they can start using them. We felt that our most important mission was to democratise these technologies, and I think we’ve been able to focus a lot of our resources on making these technologies actually useful and easy to use for environmental monitoring, focusing mainly on climate intelligence.??

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What kind of reaction did you get from the market???

It was really positive. The thing is, we managed to make a real difference: from eight months to a year developing a solution based on these technologies, to an API that people, companies and organisations can use in two weeks. Very soon, we had some use cases in the agricultural sector, and those users gave us very positive feedback. They found our solution so useful that they wanted to start using it immediately.??

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In which industries and markets are you most active??

Agriculture was the first, and it’s the one we’ve been most active in. In recent years, we’ve also started to move into the environmental services industry, working with consultancies and large companies, helping them to see their impact and find the change that can lead to better, more sustainable activities for the business. In terms of geography, we’ve had to be global by nature from day one, which obviously hasn’t been easy. The good thing is that on a technological level, it’s the same for us, and that’s where AI has made a big difference: every time we’ve built something for one country, it’s taken very little time to adapt it to another country. And we’re actually supporting 20 different countries right now.???

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How do you feel about the integration of SpaceSense with xFarm Technologies??

I’m very excited. xFarm Technologies was one of our very first customers at SpaceSense, so we’ve had a close relationship for the last four years. All the satellite data solutions on their platform come from us. Both our companies recognise that geospatial AI will be key to delivering more regenerative and sustainable agricultural solutions in the future. We are very excited to work together and combine the expertise, data and knowledge of xFarm Technologies with our geospatial capabilities and are ready to bring new solutions that can really help accelerate sustainable and regenerative agriculture.??

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Is this integration good news for global agriculture??

I think it is, absolutely. As a geospatial company, we used to lack a lot of the nuance and agronomic expertise that xFarm Technologies has. Therefore, it was a lot of work for us to create really useful solutions for farmers. Since the integration, we’ve been able to combine our skills to not only bring the knowledge and agronomic expertise to the field to help farmers and companies transition to more sustainable agriculture, but also to apply the tools on a different scale, thanks to our geospatial expertise. This will help us bring sustainable and regenerative agriculture to many more countries at a much faster pace than we could do separately.??

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What do you see as the key challenges facing European agriculture at the moment???

The risks caused by climate change are definitely a big issue, and I think xFarm Technologies and SpaceSense together can provide solutions to help farmers and agri-food companies adapt to the situation and predict and manage the risks a little better. At the same time, I think farmers are also facing tough regulation. Don’t get me wrong; this regulation is good. Its aim is to get more farmers involved with regenerative agriculture and use more sustainable methods. However, farmers are facing two kinds of problems: on the one hand, climate change is reducing yields and profits, and on the other hand, they have to fully comply with the regulation or at least start to change the way they grow. I think these are definitely the biggest challenges facing farmers in Europe right now.??

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In some regions, rural communities are very small and far from urban centres. But even small farms and rural communities can use this kind of solution, right???

Absolutely. If you look at countries like Brazil or India, for example, the average age of farmers is very low, which means they are more familiar with digital tools. At the same time, some regions have connectivity issues and some countries are just starting to go digital, and digitalisation is absolutely key. Through digitalisation, for example, we’re not only giving farmers around the world access to information on how to deal with climate change or changing regulations; we’re also helping them with solutions for insurance and other risk mitigation measures.??

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Where do you see your company, SpaceSense, in 10 years????

I see us advancing in geospatial AI, creating increasingly accurate agronomic solutions and bringing them to scale through geospatial AI. I hope we’ll be able to do this in many more countries and that we’ll be helping more and more farmers to be more sustainable and resilient, thanks to our climate solutions. I envision increasing the scale and scope of what we do; that’s what I see for SpaceSense.??