WHY WE DO IT
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemics, we shut down the entire world economy and as a result, GHG emission fell by 8%. This is shockingly little and it makes one thing clear: to survive, the human race needs to reinvent the entire economy. How will we feed 10 Bi people with Net zero emissions?
This is a problem which concerns mainly the global South, which sees mass population growth. Tropical countries need to find ways to increase their food production by a factor of 3-5, without compromising their nature. We believe that Brazil and Latin America is in the best position to lead this race, but they need certainly technology and scientific collaboration with European and US companies. This collaborative Innovation Eco-System is our Mission.
SCIENCE GIVES US A MASTER PLAN - WE MAKE IT HAPPEN!
PROJECT DRAWDOWN - The World's Leading Resource for Climate Solutions
Climate drawdown is the point at which greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere level off and begin to decline. This milestone is the most important task of humanity in the next 50 years. Project Drawdown is a scientific climate change mitigation project initiated by Scientists around the globe. Central to the project is the compilation of a list of the “100 most substantive technology solutions to global warming”. This gives us a Scientific Master Plan on reverting climate change. The list also includes numerous initiatives for a more sustainable Agriculture and Food Production.
DRAWDOWN LABS' mission is to bring this Scientific Master Plan into concrete business actions. All these initiatives need technologies to be economically viable and scalable and this is an enormous opportunity for all, farmers, local consultants, startups and incumbent ICT technology companies.
OUR VISION - DRAWDOWN ECONOMY
BRAZIL & TROPICAL AGRICULTURE
Brazil is where the Game of against Climate Change is being played
By 1970, Brazil was a net importer of Food. Today, the country is among the top 4 food producers. This success is based on innovation. The technologies of Embrapa (the national Agricultural R&D agency) made agriculture in tropical regions possible and efficient. Now, we stand before the next challenge: How will we produce even more food by protecting our nature?
It is clear that the challenge of Food production vs climate change must be resolved by the global South. Only tropical countries have the potential to increase their yields and they are the regions, which face the increasing demand for food. The country of Brazil long declared itself as the leader of modern tropical agriculture and digitization in agriculture. The country has a modern, and vibrant Agritech sector and ideal climatic, agronomic, social and economic conditions for leading this journey. Indeed, Brazil has some of the leading agronomic research and education institutions and the year-round growth climate allows much faster development than in the north. On the other hand, European and US industry is still ahead in technologies, electronics and ICT technologies. These are perfect conditions for collaborative actions towards solving climate change.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN AGRICULTURE & CLIMATE
Artificial Intelligence needs to be combined with Domain Expertise!
Imagine you are a plant manager. Your connected heating system has 10 pumps, each of which has 10 different levels to adjust. There are 10 Billion possible configurations, of which only one grants the most efficient operation. Each business faces such situations where the complexity is far beyond what humans can manage. The lack of full information leads to an enormous resource inefficiency. In Agriculture we don't deal only with 10 pumps and 10 levels, but with some 50 different crops, 20 different climates, 10 different soil types, and countless different pests, diseases, agronomic practices, market demands etc. Many of these variables are highly uncertain.
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are tools which are made for dealing exactly with this kind of complexity and uncertainty. They are very efficient in optimising problems, working with a large complexity and find the best decision in an uncertain environment. In Agriculture, we know that we can operate with at least 50% less input resources. Further, many regenerative practices, such as Agroforestry are only feasible in combination with new AI solutions. The challenge point is that we are nowhere near a Artificial General Intelligence. This means that we need to deploy AI/ML algorithms specific to a certain task, which mean that we need a lot of local agronomic knowledge to flow into these models. This can only be achieved in a collaborative manner between different agents and specialists.
OUR VENTURES
#drawdownbusiness
THE FUTURE IS COLLABORATIVE - JOIN US!
Are you a Technology Manufacturer and think Brazil and the Tropical Agriculture World can be an interesting market for you? Are you a Brazilian Startup and you need access to cutting edge Data Science, academia and technology? Are you a local technology importer and reseller and you are missing certain aspects of a local presence?
Certainly, we are able to help you in your quest. The core question is how your business can generate true value for all, society, environment and yourself. Once this is clear and compelling, finding your spot in the Eco-System is a minor problem. There are many agents which want your success, from the Embrapa to partners to investors.
THE PARTNER TEAM
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WHY WITH US?
If you need to develop an agronomic optimization algorithm, you need a Data Scientist or Agronomist from a Top-tier university. If you need to set-up a local growth hacking and marketing campaign, you need it to be cost efficient and fast. If you need to program a simple interactive Web-app to collect customer orders, you need it to be cheap and error free.
We are a lose organization of independent experts and freelancers, which work together in different projects and ventures, united by the same mission. Nobody can offer the same combination between top-tier expertise and cost efficiency.
TOP QUALITY AND COST EFFICIENT IS NOT CONTRADICTING!
SCIENCE
Influential Publications & Studies
Project Drawdown
Project Drawdown is a world-class research organization that reviews, analyses, and identifies the most viable global climate solutions, and shares these findings with the world. It proposes scientifically viable solutions and shifts the global conversation about climate change from “doom and gloom” defeatism to one of possibility, opportunity, action, and empowerment.
Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning
Is a Paper by leading Machine Learning experts from top institutions describing how machine learning can be a powerful tool in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping society adapt to a changing climate. From smart grids to disaster management, the scholars identify high impact problems where existing gaps can be filled by machine learning. The paper proposes promising business opportunities.
AI and climate change transform investment sector
Financial Times article on shifting in investments towards climate change and AI focused businesses.
Data Science in Agritech: Being approximately right or exactly wrong
Michael becomes official EMBRAPA Expert for Artificial Intelligence in Agriuclture
Michael C. Rubin, Co-Founder of Drawdown Labs becomes an official Expect for Artificial Intelligence for EMBRAPA (Brazilian Argiculture Research and Development Institute). Watch Michael's presentation about the status quo, limitations and the roadmap of Artificial Intelligence in Brazilian Agriculture on the official EMBRAPA Youtube channel:
