Farmer Platform: Towards a Better Future for a Kisan

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Backdrop: Agriculture is single largest livelihood contributor in India

India is the largest producer of spices, pulses, milk, tea, cashew and jute; and the second largest producer of wheat, rice, fruits and vegetables, sugarcane, cotton and oilseeds. At 157 million hectares, India holds the second largest agricultural land in the world. Gross Value Added by agriculture, forestry and fishing combined was US$ 253 billion in FY17.

The Farmer: his plight has not improved significantly over the years, pace of change is slow

Past strategy for development of agriculture sector in India has focused on raising agricultural output and food security.  The strategy did not explicitly recognize the need to raise farmer’s income and did not mention any direct measure to promote farmer’s welfare.Between 1993-94 and 2015-16, farmer income in nominal terms increased 9 times. Taking away the effect of inflation, farmer income has just doubled during this period (Farmer income per cultivator: Rs 21,110 in 1993-94 to Rs 44,027 in 2015-16.Doubling real incomes of farmers by 2022 over the base year 2015-16 will require an annual growth of 10.4% in farmer’s income. The major sources of growth in agriculture could be:

• Productivity improvement
• Reduced cost of production
• Increase in cropping intensity
• Diversification to high value crops

The sources outside agriculture include:

• Improvement in terms of trade for farmers or real price realization by farmers
• Providing non-farm occupations as an additional source of income

Sources: http://niti.gov.in, CSO, NSSO, IBEF

Farming ecosystem: Needs and envisioning an end to end phy-(di)gital intervention

A farmer is interested in selecting the right crop and seeds, receive timely advice on soil moisture and pest attacks, to mitigate crop losses, optimize his farm spend, improve farm yield per acre and at the end of harvest season, receive higher price realization.

Since more than a decade, the endeavor of the agri corporates has been to improve ‘farmer connect’. The connect initiatives have largely been through rural melas, agri-advisory service centers and agronomist visits, retailer meets, product promotion and discount scheme.There exists an opportunity to orchestrate an end to end product & service play to meet farming needs such that the challenges get addressed. Connect not only at a physical level, but also a digital connect, with a view to maximize farmer income.

Bringing an array of world-class products and services to the doorstep of a farmer such that his overall spend is optimized, his farm yield increases manifold and as a result his income rises, this is the value proposition of the platform.

Phy-(di)gital farmer platform would require the following strategic and operational blocks.

1. Orchestrator: A sponsor of the platform, having agri-sector growth focus, who is willing to collaborate with complementary business stakeholders in the agri and non-agri value chain and keen to improve farmer incomes
2. Participants:
   • Agri-input suppliers of Fertilizers, Pesticides, Seeds
   • Farming implements from Tillers to Tractors
   • Advisory services in Soil moisture, pest prediction, weather forecast, crop planning and farmer produce prices
   • Agri finance and insurance players to support with financial services
3. Revenue model and sharing structure: Bringing participating corporates on a platform requires alignment of common goals and a ‘win-win’ commercial construct
4. Go to market channel: Retailer channel and ‘feet on street’ teams will need to be aligned and incentivized to ensure the physical connect with the farmer
5. Technology provider: Agility and Scalability can be brought in with a reliable and secure technology service provider. Data management, Mobility, Cognitive & analytics, Security and Cloud will be important technology components
6. Change management: Driving strategy & change will be a tall task. Sustaining the scale-up of such a roll-out will required focused efforts

 Farmer platform: Solution blocks in a page

The views expressed in this blogpost are individual views of the author and not necessarily of the firm he represents