Abstract

In 2024, Singapore-based ag-tech startup Polybee launched drone-powered pollination to boost horticulture efficiency. The drones were designed to perform bee-like functions in places where they were scarce. Founded by Siddharth Yadav, the drones were equipped with artificial intelligence and used digital phenotyping to help farmers make better informed decisions about their produce and how to make more profits. The company believed that drone pollination would be able to enhance food security by optimizing the value chain. Some analysts believed that drones were a viable option for pollination, while others opined that despite the innovative technology, drones could not replace bees. As per experts, except for a few large companies and investors, the technology might not be accessible to all. While on the on the one hand, inaccuracies in yield prediction methods resulted in downstream challenges for growers and breeders when making decisions regarding pricing, there was a lack of scalable, high throughput phenotyping and crop registration solutions. It would be interesting to see whether Polybee will be able to emerge as a technically and economically feasible alternative to bees to address the problem of crop pollination. Going forward, it would be interesting to see how Siddharth will grow his business.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Describe the role of pollination in crop production and the consequences of the declining population of natural pollinators.
• Analyze the pros and cons of using ag-tech solutions as an alternative to natural pollination.
• Design strategies to use ag-tech for improving crop productivity and achieving sustainability goals.
• Formulate a growth strategy for an agri-tech startup.

Keywords

Drones; Technology; Artificial Intelligence; Agriculture; Sustainability; Food Security; Drone-powered Pollination; Agritech; SDGs; Precision Farming