Krishi jagran agriculture world february 2016 by Krishi Jagran

Volume II | Issue 2 | February 2016 | `70

AGRICULTURE

W RLD The Pulse

Global Agriculture

SMART

AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGIES EMPOWERING INDIAN AGRICULTURE

DIGITAL INDIA AND AGRICULTURE THE POWER TO EMPOWER FARMERS

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY TREND IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE: GEOSPATIAL AND ICT

AGRI CLUSTER MAPS CAN HELP INDIA IMPROVE ITS EXISTING FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS?

Echoing Sustainable Environment and Agriculture krishi.jagran

@krishijagran

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE

W RLD Volume 2 Issue 2 February 2016

contents 06

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY TREND

SMART AGRICULTURE

Geospatial tools along with Information and Communication technologies can play an important role in this respect by helping eective plan and manage agriculture resources

Help to raise productivity, accuracy and in time decision taking, improving eciency across major sectors of the economy

AGRI CLUSTER MAPS CAN HELP INDIA

18 DIGITAL INDIA AND AGRICULTURE

Technology has touched every sector and gradually making its way into the Indian farmer`s world

EMPOWERING FARMERS WITH INFORMATION REVOLUTION With a Mission to empower farmers and people living in rural India with pertinent and high quality information and services, through aordable communication network, in a sustainable manner

The objective of these cluster maps is to improve the existing food supply chain by establishing new and strengthening existing B2B2C relationships

30 POWERING RURAL INDIA An initiative to bring farmers and farming community close to its end users, service providers and facilitators and provide them the beneﬁts by cutting across the multiple channels of communication

GPS Tracking Sandeep Sabharwal

Biostadt's Elite Club Haani Khorakiwala

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TECHNOLOGIES EMPOWERING INDIAN AGRICULTURE

griculture in India is not merely a business enterprise; it is more a way of life. Indian agriculture is undergoing rapid transformation since the introduction of green revolution. us, there is a need for technological innovations in the sector, which will continue to emphasize the importance of a sustainable approach with increased yields. Geospatial tools along with Information and Communication technologies can play an important role in this respect by helping e ective plan and manage agriculture resources. Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS technologies have been of great use to geospatial users in planning for the e cient use of natural resources at the national, regional and farm levels. Realizing the important role played by the geospatial their application areas and advantages. Jyotsana Chuchra Raheja Explains the Èmerging Technology Trend in Indian Agriculture: Geospatial and ICT` in his article. India has made progress towards its goal of bringing millions of people in digital arena and giving them a better living condition. What is the need of hour now is a productivity- and e ciency-led transformation. Geospatial and ICT can have a disruptive impact on Indian Agriculture followed by nation's economic development. Technology has touched every sector and gradually making its way into the Indian farmer`s world. Now the Global markets have become accessible with the implementation of technology, and e orts to the latest technologies are being made by the Government. Chander Mohan in his article ` Digital India and Agriculture` explains the National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A) which is the power to empower Farmers. Communication is a major challenge and is a serious impediment in taking the fruits of ICT to rural parts of the country. IFFCO Kisan has been formed with an exclusive mandate to design, develop, source and supply state of the art, economical and rural communications with value additions of content and services. Sandeep Malhotra touched the pulse of the rural India in his article Èmpowering Farmers with Information Revolution of IFFCO Kisan Sanchar` for improving the Quality of life of Rural Citizens by empowering them with quality, timely and actionable advisories on topics of rural interest. Cluster maps create horizontal and vertical relationships between vendors, service providers, consumers in a geographically de ned area and create a reciprocally supportive process. Once clusters are created, dissemination of knowledge and information results in ow of bene ts in all directions explains Anurag Awasthi in his article Àgri Cluster Maps can Help India Improve its Existing Food Supply Chains` emphasizing the need, role and achieving the goal to improve the existing supply chain linkages. To create a mobile e-commerce platform that is also a low-cost ful lment system focused on the needs of rural India. is system will help in rural transformation and would help to alleviate rural isolation, create more transparency for farmers, and improve their productivity and incomes. Dev R Bhardwaj explains the Kisan Manch initiatives in his article `Powering Rural India Kisan Manch Way` an Idea of a mobile e-commerce platform that is also a low-cost ful llment system focused on the needs of rural India. M C Dominic Editorâ&#x20AC;?inâ&#x20AC;?Chief dominic@krishijagran.com

GEOSPATIAL

Technologies can play an important role in this respect by helping effective plan and manage agriculture resources

Emerging Technology Trend in Indian Agriculture: Geospatial and ICT

griculture sector is the mainstay of the rural Indian economy. Unlike developed nation, agriculture still remains the backbone of our country. Agriculture in India is not merely a business enterprise; it is more a way of life. Indian agriculture is undergoing rapid transformation since the introduction of green revolution technology. There is focus on faster, sustainable and more inclusive agriculture growth in the 12th five year Plan. Thus, there is a need for technological innovations in the sector, which will continue to emphasize the importance of a sustainable approach with

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

increased yields. Geospatial tools along with Information and Communication technologies can play an important role in this respect by helping effective plan and manage agriculture resources. Understanding the Indian agriculture sector, where most of the landholdings are small and the majority of farmers are practicing subsistence farming, there is need for steady investments in technology development, irrigation infrastructure, emphasis on modern agricultural practices and provision of agricultural credit and

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(RS) and GIS technologies have been of great use to geospatial users in planning for the efficient use of natural resources at the national, regional and farm levels. Realizing the important role played by the geospatial technologies, given below in the figure are majorly used technologies, their application areas and advantages.

subsidies concerning the small farmers. At the farm level decision support, near-real time information, soil condition, water use, fertilizer application, pest and weed management are the most important elements of geospatial technology. Remote Sensing

UAV S

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Nabard, NRSC sign MoU for web-based monitoring of watershed projects

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Progressive Rural Integrated Digital Enterprise (PRIDE) business model

Hyperspectral data

GIS Precision Technologies

Airborne images Big Data FARMER

There is a need to translate remote sensing, GIS techniques, precision farming data, and cloud data into implementable policies and schemes at the farm level and ensure their adoptability by farmers at the grassroots level

Satellite LIDAR Automated Sensors

ICT GPS

Fig.: The diagram below highlights some of the core technologies used in Agriculture. krishijagran.com

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GEOSPATIAL

Jyotsana Chuchra Raheja

It has been observed that large number of these projects, applications and various programmes are making use of the geospatial technologies like GIS, high resolution satellite data, aerial images and more. Government agencies have now started focussing on village and farm level studies using these technologies. The various programs utilizing this technology are Agmarknet, Agriculture Mission Mode Project under NeGP (National e-Governance Plan), Agriculture Resource Information, AgriNET, Kissan SMS, Hortnet, Dacnet, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Nav Krishi, CAPE (Crop acreage and production estimation) and Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agrometeorology and Land based observations (FASAL). Some of the recent initiatives are discussed below:

TECHNOLOGY Satellite Imagery Aerial Imagery UAV's/ Drones

GEOSPATIAL

Hyper spectral data

Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS technologies have been of great use to geospatial users in planning for the efﬁcient use of natural resources at the national, regional and farm levels

LIDAR

APPLICATION AREAS  Agriculture mapping and surveys to gather information and statistics on crops, rangeland, livestock and other related agricultural resources  Crop monitoring for nutrients, waterstress, disease, insect attack and overall plant health.  UAV/Drone can capture highly accurate images of fields, covering up to hundreds of hectares/acres in a single flight  Identify Crop Production Impact LIDAR can be used to create elevation map of the farmland that can be converted to create slope and sunlight exposure area map

GIS

 Visualization and assessments  Generating maps and resource data

GPS/GNSS

Coupling of real-time data collection with accurate position information  GPS-based applications in precision farming are being used for farm planning, field mapping, soil sampling, tractor guidance, crop scouting, variable rate applications, and yield mapping.

Precision Technology

ICT and mobile technology



 Precision soil preparation and seeding  Swath control and variable rate technology  Optimizing planting, harvesting and distribution  Overall farming life cycle

AgroStar: Direct to farmer “m-commerce platform”

New Crop Insurance Scheme (NCIS), the plan will make use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones to access crop damage figures

KISAN (Crop Insurance using Space technology and Geoinformatics) will use satellite and drone-based imaging and other geospatial technology to get timely and accurate data on crop yields

Geospatial applications in agriculture have grown to a stage where they facilitate decision and policy support for food security, poverty alleviation and sustainable

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ADVANTAGES  Easy and timely data acquisition  Temporal and real time (time series) data availability  Comprehensive and reliable information  Generating cartographic maps.  Optimized use of resources.  Efficient management of resources and data in a centralised database.  Better visualization of agriculture objects using satellite imagery.  Enhanced planning tools and techniques.  Better analytical capabilities  Accurate assessments  Easy Dissemination of agriculture data through web capabilities and interoperability services.  Optimized on farm decision making  Accurate field mapping and measurements  Real time monitoring and managing farm operations  Efficiency and sustainability in the food and agriculture value chain

development. In India, there is vast potential for these technologies and a good knowledge base has been established over the years. There is a need to translate remote sensing, GIS techniques, precision farming data, and cloud data into implementable policies and schemes at the farm level and ensure their adoptability by farmers at the grassroot level. For greater and sustainable development of the sector and efficient planning and management of agricultural resources, it is necessary that the technology infiltrate at the micro or small farm level.

Jyotsana Chuchra Raheja Sr. Research Analyst Commercial Research and Policy Advocacy Geospa al Media and Communica ons krishijagran.com

GEOSPATIAL

Making a Difference through Geospatial Knowledge in World Economy and Society has been constantly working towards promoting and propagating Geospatial knowledge for facilitating advancements and collaborations

SMART AGRICULTURE Technologies Empowering Indian Agriculture

ndia has made progress towards its goal of bringing millions of people in digital arena and giving them a better living condition. What is the need of hour now is a productivity- and efficiency-led transformation. Geospatial and ICT can have a disruptive impact on Indian Agriculture followed by nation's economic development. These are powerful technologies which can help to raise productivity, accuracy and in time decision taking, improving efficiency across major sectors of the economy, and radically alter how services are delivered. Geospatial Media and Communications, with its vision of ''Making a Difference through Geospatial Knowledge in World Economy and Society'', has been constantly working towards promoting and propagating geospatial knowledge for facilitating advancements and collaborations amongst stakeholders of geospatial industry. To take our vision forward in the region, we are organizing 18th edition of our flagship event GeoSmart India (Formerly India Geospatial Forum) from 1st March-3rd March, 2016 at India Expo Centre and Mart, Greater Noida, India. Understanding the value of

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geospatial technology and ICT in enhanced decision making, effectively managing resources and assets, enhancing the efficiency of workflows, and improving the accessibility of information, two days long and exclusive program GeoAgri for Smart Agriculture is being organized with the theme: “Smart Agriculture: Technologies empowering Indian Agriculture'' on 2nd -3rd March 2016 followed by a panel discussion. The key highlights of the GeoSmart India 2016 conference are: § 4000+ delegates/visitors from 80+ countries § 30+ Concurrent Sessions § 300+ Total Presentations § 1500+ sq m exhibition space § Ministerial level participation from all over India § Dedicated two-day program on Smart Agriculture GeoAgri and much more. GeoAgri Participants Proﬁle: Technology Companies || Ministries & Department of Agriculture & Plantation from dif ferent countries || Agricultural/ Plantation/Forestry Research Agencies || krishijagran.com

Agricultural Universities & Colleges|| Multilateral Agencies|| Industry Players || Agricultural/Plantation Associations & Unions || User Organisations || Policy Makers || Academia || Meteorological Agencies || National Geospatial Agencies

The specific Objectives of GeoAgri are: §

To understand current geospatial and ICT domain's path and bring awareness to the agricultural stakeholders on global platform. To exchange of ideas and sharing of knowledge and skills pertaining to the domain and provide an explicit platform for networking opportunities.

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To strengthen and connect geospatial and ICT communities all over the world with the strategies taken to cater global challenges.

Exchange of skills and knowledge on new forms of applications and technology by sharing latest success stories and challenges.

Bring together decision makers to discuss and deliberate the sustainable contribution of geospatial intelligence.

Major Themes: Theme 1: The benefits from Traditional Farming to Knowledge based Agriculture: The linkages with sustainability, food security and climate change impacts. § Theme 2: Use of ICT- Web-based Agro advisories for Rural Development § Theme 3: Way for ward in space technology for Sustainable Agriculture''Reach the Unreached'' Panel Discussion Themes:  The need of application research & prospect analysis on reliability of Geospatial Technology and ICT in Agriculture.  The latest advance in and challenge in precision agriculture at home and abroad.

To strengthen and connect Geospatial and ICT communities all over the world with the strategies taken to cater global challenges

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GEOSPATIAL

GeoAgri will be focusing on diverse emerging topics in Modern Agriculture and Rural development, the major themes for the program shall be Precision Agriculture, Geospatial tools innovations in Agriculture, Irrigation and automation technology, Digital Farming, ICT Based Agriculture, Mobile based Agriculture practices, Climate Smart Agriculture, Robotics/Drones/UAVs which will be having 6 sessions in two days with almost 30+ well known faces across region catering Agriculture users Segment, Technology & Solution Providers, Investors, F o o d S e c t o r, B a n k e r s , R e s e a r c h e r s , Warehouse professionals, Supply chain Industries, Policy Makers, Secretar y Generals, Agri technology experts etc of various agencies as GeoAgri Speakers.

NeGP-A

Enhancing reach & impact of extension services Improving access of farmers to information & services throughout crop cycle

CHANDER MOHAN

DIGITAL INDIA AND AGRICULTURE The Power To Empower Farmers

he penetration of the virtual world is enhancing the profitable margins to the agriculturists and the agricultural business sector worldwide. Technology has touched every sector and gradually making its way into the Indian farmer`s world. Now the Global markets have become accessible with the implementation of technology, and efforts to the latest technologies are being made by the Government. National E-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A) introduced during last phase of the 11th Plan, to achieve rapid development of agriculture in India through the use of ICT, has been continued during 12th Plan as a part of Sub Mission on Agricultural Extension (SAME). a) Strengthening of IT apparatus in Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (Hqrs), Field Offices and Directorates of DAC b) Strengthening of IT Apparatus in Agriculture and Cooperation in the States and Union Territories (AGRISNET) c) Development of Agricultural Informatics and Communication iv. Kisan Call Centre

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All the IT initiatives of DAC will be integrated to enable the farmers in making proper and timely use of the information available through multiple ICT channels including Web Portals, Common Service Centres, Internet Access Points, Touch Screen Kiosks and SMSs through State Wide Area Network & State Data Centre and availability of Government to Citizen (G2C) Services. National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A) NeGP-A is proposed to be implemented across the country and aims at offering Government to Citizen / Farmer (G2C or G2F), Government to Business (G2B) and Government to Government (G2G) agricultural services in an integrated manner through the Central Agriculture Portal (CAP) and State Agriculture Portals (SAPs). The key objectives of the Project include: Bringing farmer centricity & ser vice orientation to the programmes. Enhancing reach & impact of extension services Improving access of farmers to information & services throughout crop cycle. Building upon, enhancing & integrating the existing ICT initiatives of Centre, and States krishijagran.com

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Cabinet in May, 2006. The need of the hour is that the Farmers of today wear the mantel of entrepreneurship and are leveraging the potential offered by technology. The farmers are widening their horizons and exploring markets to manifest a global reach. The introduction of innovative schemes by the Government reflects the aspirations of India to create benchmarks in the agricultural domain and be at par with global practices. Digital India Project and Agriculture Government's Digital India project launched on 1 s t July 2015 envisions empowering citizens with e-access to government services and livelihood related services, among others. The project has three core components, viz. digital infrastructure, digital services and digital literacy. Mobile phone is the preferred delivery medium with focus on m Governance and m Services. The m Agriculture and m GramBazar, out of the seven components covered under m Ser vices, directly impact agricultural extension and marketing services. The project will benefit small farmers. It seeks to 1. Transform rural India into a digitallyempowered knowledge economy. 2. Provide universal phone connectivity and access to broadband in 250,000 villages. 3. Extend timely services to farmers through information technology and its tools.

The need of the hour is that the Farmer of today wear the mantel of entrepreneurship and leverage the potential offered by technology

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NeGP-A

Enhancing efficiency & effectiveness of programs through process redesign More effective management of schemes of DAC Promoting a common framework across states. The scheme is expected to bring the following benefits to the Stakeholders â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Farmers, business and Government(s): Provide uniform face of government to agriculture sector stakeholders (especially farmers) Service-level governed service delivery with built-in checks and balances to increase efficiency. Streamlined processes which make Government efficient and effective for service delivery Integration of existing initiatives with new ones, thus creating sustainable balance of ICT Improved monitoring of compliance, MIS and utilization of public money. The Project would make current service delivery mechanisms more efficient, transparent and accountable. Further, it would facilitate farmers to have easy accessibility to these services through multiple service delivery channels. The Project will also help the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) to optimize its costs in delivery of services to various stakeholders. The Project will generate efficiencies in the system and the benefits shall be realized immediately after implementation which will more than offset the total cost of the Project over a period of time. The farmer value proposition emanating from this Project can be succinctly depicted as follows: The Mission Mode Project on Agriculture is one of the 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) under the State Category of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) duly approved by the Union

NeGP-A

4. Enhance efficiency in agricultural governance through digital literacy and electronic delivery of services. This article briefly highlights government's initiatives and suggests the need for harnessing potential of digital India for agricultural development.

Mobile phones are omnipresent and cost effective means to revolutionize agriculture in India

According to “Situation Assessment of Indian Farmers”, only about 28% of all farmers use any kind of agriculture-related information that is available rather than what they need. While about 72% of farmers do not have any source of information that can help them adopt latest technology, most farmers are unable to access credit, insurance and marketing services from the established institutions. This is primarily responsible for farmer's low crop productivity and profitability. Despite India has the largest irrigated land and ranks second in terms of arable land the yield crops is 20%-40% of the world's best levels. Potential of ICT Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has the potential to revolutionize Indian agriculture in terms of raising crop productivity and profitability per unit area and resources. By June, 2014, rural India had about 122.4 million [68.32%] households with mobiles exhibiting mobile connectivity has become a basic service in rural areas. Rural mobile subscriber base is growing twice as faster compared to urban subscriber base. As of March 2015, the national teledensity was 79% and rural teledensity 46.5%. Telecom Policy aims to increase rural teledensity to 60% by 2017 and 100% by 2020. Study of the IAMAI revealed 80% using it for communications, 67% for online services, 65% for e-commerce and

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60% for social networking. Mobile phones can be effectively utilized for purposes including generating, processing, transmitting, disseminating, sor ting, archiving and retrieving critical information and data relating to agriculture. Mobile phones are omnipresent and cost effective means to revolutionize agriculture in India. Several apps are now available and many more can be developed to meet farmers' following specific needs For India, at a time when national, regional and international research institutes have already developed technologies, farmers need motivation and encouragement to adopt these proven yield-enhancing, costefficient and environment-friendly technologies. Acknowledging the slow impact of the ICT initiatives of the government and private sector, the digital India project should pay undivided attention to provide accurate information from authentic sources to farmers on time on various aspects as identified by various field studies, viz. ·

Details of location-specific crop production technology

Economics of crop, livestock and fish farming

Authorized sources of timely availability of standard quality inputs [seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc.] farm equipment, sprinklers, drippers, among others, along with costs

Post-harvest management technology and facilities including transport, storage, processing, preser vation, packaging and marketing

Commodity prices, weather, measures to minimize impact of drought and climate change

Detailed procedure for availing bank

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credit, crop and livestock insurance cover, government subsidies, land records etc. 路

Government's programs providing subsidy and other facilities to develop irrigation potential, rainwater harvesting, soil and water conservation measures, soil and water testing facilities, prevention and control of pests and diseases, bio-gas, minimum support prices

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Contract farming, value chain system, warehouse receipt

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Reclamation of degraded, saline and alkaline land

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Mechanism to redress grievances. Accordingly, farmers need ICT-enabled portals for following purposes which can be developed, rigorously field tested and made available to farmers.

Crop-specific reasonably priced standard quality production inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) and farm equipment and machinery along with sources of availability Storage, transport, processing, packaging, Land records, farm credit, insurance, marketing, weather, farmerproducers' organizations, market yards,

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Availability of subsidies, assistance available to mitigate effects of climate change, drought, floods, earthquake, cyclones State government's department of agriculture, state agricultural universities, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, regional research institutes, farmerproducers organizations, corporate/industrial/business houses and multinational companies engaged in manufacturing/production and distribution of farm inputs, farm equipment & machinery, rural financial institutions, insurance companies, among others, have a significant role and added responsibility to contribute their professional knowledge to develop digital ecosystem for agriculture and make available to farmers. Government has, among others, initiated several measures viz. A. Government has put in operation three portals viz. farmer portal, kisan call centre and mkisan portal to help farmers take informed decisions for efficient farming under varying agro-climatic conditions. B. Under the e- Governance Programme, soil health card software has been standardized and web-based software developed to provide integrated nutrient management recommendations using soil test crop response method for eight states. C. Under National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture [NeGP-A] information is

There are three core components, viz. digital infrastructure, digital services and digital literacy and Mobile phone is the preferred delivery medium with focus on m- Governance and m- Services

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NeGP-A

Production-enhancing proven cropspecific technologies [from pre-sowing to harvesting and post-harvest management] based on soil & water analysis. Separate for dry land & irrigated farming focusing efficient use of seeds, fertilizers, water, pesticides, farm equipment & labor; and reclamation of degraded, saline & alkaline land.

procurement centres

NeGP-A

About 72% of farmers do not have any source of information that can help them to adopt latest technology, most of the farmers are unable to access credit, insurance and marketing services from the established institutions

provided to farmers through multiple channels including Common Service Centres Internet Kiosks and SMSs. Currently, 12 identified clusters of services provide information on weather; soil health; seeds, nutrients, pests; irrigation; crops, good agricultural practices, farm machinery; marketing infrastructure; farm commodity prices, arrivals, procurement points; electronic certification for export & import; drought relief & management; livestock, fisheries management; training; monitoring implementation and evaluation of schemes. The first phase of the project is under implementation in seven states out of 28 in the country. D. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has also designed agricultural portals for farmers. The Focused Attention isImmediate need is to conduct a nationwide separately for each agro-ecological region] evaluation study to assess the impact of ICT initiatives on agriculture already developed and put in place by the government and private sector in respect of (a) number of farmers regularly receiving & using mobile-enabled agricultural information services (b) feedback from users about content, timeliness, utility, satisfaction, changes required, their grievances (c) increase in productivity, output and income of benefitted farmers (d) increase in price realization in farm commodities sold, direct selling without dependence on middlemen (e)

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reduction in costs of transactions (f) mechanism to redress grievances. For successful designing digital ecosystem for agriculture, the system design should have all desired features of higher user satisfaction, viz. (i)ease of access (ii)updated content (iii) layout, design, consistent themes (iv) easy navigation (v) higher interactivity (vi) access through multiple media (particularly voice) (vii) higher use of non-textual information (viii) language options[ix]lower cost of transaction. Regulatory & Development Authority need to be in place to ensure (i) increase in farmers' easy, timely and reliable access to agricultural information system (as per farmers' needs) throughout the country in a systematic & planned manner. (ii) development of need-based appropriate digital models for agriculture under public & private sector which conform BIS & available at affordable cost. (iii) improving general and digital literacy and computer skill and digital infrastructure in rural India in line with digital India vision. (iv) prevention of fake models and fraudulent practices

Chander Mohan Sr. Execu ve Editor Krishi Jagran, New Delhi Mob: 9891311166 Email: cmohan@krishijagran.com krishijagran.com

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COVER STORY

Empowering Farmers with Information Revolution of IFFCO Kisan Sanchar The focus is to take the advantage of latest in technology to address several issues faced by the farmers for simple need for communication, access to input from experts and services of reliable quality

Sandeep Malhotra

ommunication is a major challenge and is a serious impediment in taking the fruits of ICT to rural parts of the country. Majority of the villages - which form bulk of India, fall abysmally short of access to basic source of quality communication. IFFCO has realized that absence of reliable medium as well as appropriate services of relevance to ride over it have been acting as a major bottleneck. The need of the hour is to take valuable information inputs to farmers - directly to their 'ears' and 'eyes'. Equally important is the ability to scale up these services so that the large rural base is not left out in the process of e-transformation. It is apt to note that many initiatives fall short in replicability on a large scale. Thus, communication, content and scalability are three major concerns in this arena which IFFCO sought to address. 'IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited' is IFFCO's determination to take the above challenges 'Head On'. IFFCO Kisan has been formed with an exclusive mandate to design, develop, source and supply state of the art, economical and rural communications with value additions of content and services. The focus is to take the advantage of latest in technology to address several issues faced by the farmers for simple need for communication, access to input from experts and services of reliable quality. The objective is to empower people living in villages of the country in a sustainable and viable manner. Cooperative Societies form the core of the strategy which is enabled to be a catalyst for promoting these products and services in an economically viable manner. In order to achieve the objectives cited above, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited was incorporated on Apr 12, 2007. Initially pilot projects were launched in Eastern UP to test the

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model. IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited has forged strategic relationships to evolve products in mobile telephony which are tailor made to suit rural requirements. IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited is endeavouring to ensure that the basic need of communication for people living in villages is lowest possible so that they do not feel hampered in their need to 'talk' to their near and dear. With a Mission "Empower farmers and people living in rural India with pertinent and high quality information and services, through affordable communication network, in a sustainable manner. To work concertedly to develop content and services which will improve informed decision making by people living in Indian villages." To fulfill the objective to Improve the Quality of life of Rural Citizens by empowering them with quality, timely and actionable advisories on topics of rural interest. The network of : IFFCO KISANâ&#x20AC;?S SERVICES AND TECHNOLOGY

Through the Green SIM Card, every day, up to four free voice messages are delivered to the Subscribers. Each such voice message is of one-minute duration and cover contextual alerts and advisories on diverse subjects like soil management, weather forecasts, weather based agro-advisory, crop management, plant protection, market rates, dairy and animal husbandry. Information of general use on health, employment, education, women empowerment, financial inclusion, awareness of climate change and Government schemes are also provided.

Helpline (Dedicated helpline for query resolution by Experts) The subscribers of Green SIM Card of IFFCO Kisan have the privilege of access to a dedicated Helpline service, which has the potential to become a rural lifeline through a 6 digit number 534351. Farmers can get a solution to their problems, queries by using this short code. Experienced professionals are accessible on this helpline, who provide solutions to farmers. Where required, Subject Matter Exper ts (SMEs) are taken on conference call to provide a satisfactory resolution to queries.

State Covered-19 Number of Zones-107

Districts Covered390

No. of Communities79

Territory Manager-84

Marketing Associates-300

Distributors-2300

Retailers-17000

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Kisan Mitras-2000

Call Back Facility (To listen to voice messages once again) Every day up to four voice messages are delivered to people who possess Green Sim Cards, on their mobile phones free of cost. These messages are based on the area of interest of the people and are recorded in the local

The objective to Improve the Quality of life of Rural Citizens by empowering them with quality, timely and actionable advisories on topics of rural interest

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

COVER STORY

Free Voice Message (Free Voice Message for rural Subscribers)

These voice messages are prepared by experts on subjects of immediate interest to the rural Subscribers. Market rates and weather information at district-level is also given as text message. The endeavour is to empower rural subscribers, particularly farmers, with latest information for informed decision making.

languages. However, for those subscribers, who could not receive the voice message call or have missed a voice message, a facility is available to call a short code (534359) which provides for listening to the messages again. This facility is available for listening to the same days' alerts and advisories any time during that day.

COVER STORY

Rural Portal (one place information centre)

The rural Portal leverages the voice content delivered to farmers and also includes many new features like supplementing the information

IFFCO Kisan.com is a visionar y initiative extending e-revolution to farmers & cooperatives. It was an ambitious project for IKSL to e-transformation of rural India and farmer. As IKSL has been studying the requirements of farmers, their concerns and type of information; which farmers are looking, which in turn helped it develop vast databases of advisories in form of text, graphics and audio files in ten Indian languages. 'IFFCOKisan.com' is an attempt to take this useful information to a much larger audience, readily available online for quick access. It will be greater use of data related services in rural India with interactive and farmer friendly Content. IKSL is poised to grow further to work for the uplift the farmers of India by innovative use of technology. “IFFCOKisan.com” will help user to get weather information and forecast, mandi prices and its trends, will promote Rural ArtCraft & Rural Tourism and many more. In a nutshell 'IFFCOKisan.com' would serve as a complete E-Gateway for Rural India promoting both “Make in India as well as Digital India”. This rural Portal is inspired by a similar initiative of IFFCO launched in 2001, based on touch screen kiosks, but refurbished to suit the latest context and new developments. The rural Portal leverages the voice content delivered to farmers and also includes many new features like supplementing the information with images, providing library services on large number of topics and even promoting rural tourism & handicraft. Initially this portal was launched with the name of “gramsanjeevani.com” and later on it's get renamed as 'IFFCOKisan.com'. Mobile App- Agriculture App - Evolution from Kiosk to Multi Modal Interactive Platform for rural India

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

This “IFFCO Kisan” mobile app is working for rural empowerment. Its provides access to weather forecasts, mandi prices, latest agricultural advisory, library of best practices, expert's advice, latest news and many more. This user-friendly app is available in eleven Indian languages with audio enablement for the convenience of less educated farmers' i.e English, Hindi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Kannad, Telugu, Tamil and Gujarati. Weather - This section provides five day weather forecasts of a particular district with temperature, humidity, possibility of rainfall, wind speed and direction for locations of interest set through preferences. Farmers may add or remove the locations for which information is required. The farmers can take informed decisions on farming related activities based on the forecasts. At a time, two locations can be selected as a preferences in weather section. Mandi/ Market Information - Mandi section provides information on the prevailing prices in market yards. Farmers can view the market price status, trends and take a decision on sale of their produce. Farmers may add, edit or remove the crops / mandi / locations for which information is required. They can also search for status of a commodity in a particular mandi, just for information. At a time, five crops & mandi combination can be selected in the preferences. Contextualised Advisories - The crop specific advisories for various agro-climatic zones based on prevailing conditions are provided through this section. The advisories and alerts are based on research by experts,

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which can guide the farmers on actions required to be initiated under the prevailing weather conditions. The advisories and alerts are provided in audio format also for the benefit of less educated farmers. Farmers may add, edit or remove crops / locations for which information is required. At a time, two crops can be selected in the preferences.

Gyan Bhandar- It is a library for the user, based on the set preferences user can get written information. Information is also provided in audio format for the benefit of less educated farmers. Market- It is a very important and center of attraction for Buyer & Seller. It will be a meeting place for Seller & Buyer. Its increases the chances of selling his produce in less time and maximize his income. Seller registered his produce with all required information including his contact details. Similarly, buyer can also register with his requirement. It also creates new business avenue for rural India societies and can be work as a bridge for direct consumer/ trader to source or purchase directly from farmer. News- It might be hard to believe but our 'News' section of IFFCO Kisan mobile app is the most dynamic and most frequent updated section. We keep this section as a credibility indicator for the users and invite them to visit this section at least twice a day. Our news section is a collection of news from different sources and all news will be connected with rural India, agriculture and related things, social welfare, jobs & employment, government initiatives and many more. krishijagran.com

Chat- It is a text-based communication which an IFFCO Kisan app user can do with other IFFCO Kisan app user that is in realtime. For example, any typed text is received by other participants immediately; it is an exchanging of messages in real time with one or more simultaneous users of IFFCO Kisan app user's network. Setting- It is a place where a user will set all his preferences and make IFFCO Kisan app for himself by customising the preferences in Weather, Mandi, Advisory, Gyan Bhandar by providing location, crop, interested areas and related information. User can also set his profile like personal profile data i.e Crop details, land details, animal's details, family details and many more. Helplines- Through this section user can reach to IFFCO Kisan helpline (for green SIM user) as well as for Kisan Call Centre Services (KCC) by selecting any one option. Our entire experts are available. In order to harness the potential of ICT in Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture launched the scheme "Kisan Call Centres (KCCs)" on January 21, 2004. IFFCO Kisan app is having facility to connect with “Kisan Call Centres” experts to talk with. This one touch connect with KCC expert can be used from any network's user i.e BSNL, Idea, Vodafone, Airtel etc. It is a toll free service from Ministry of Agriculture. KCC experts will resolve the enquiry/ issue and provide personalized solution on the call to the user. It will be helpful for user to get right solution for their enquiries instantly.

User can also set his proﬁle like personal proﬁle data i.e Crop details, land details, animal's details, family details and many more

Sandeep Malhotra Chief Execu ve Oﬃcer Mob: +91‐9810131375 Email: smalhotra.iksl@iﬀco.in

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

COVER STORY

'Ask our Experts' - Quick Access to Experts -Farmers can send their queries / doubts to a panel of experts through this section. Those who find it difficult to write may take a photo of the plant part causing concern to them. The expert will study the issue and provide personalized solution. This section provides access to all the important information one may need to know on a specific crop. Farmers may add or remove crops / locations for which information is required. At a time, two crops can be selected in the preferences.

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AGRI CLUSTER

A developing nation with a large segment of young population base, is witnessing rising individual incomes and rapid urbanization

AGRI CLUSTER MAPS CAN HELP INDIA IMPROVE ITS EXISTING FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS?

ndia is the second most populated nation in the World and home to nearly 1.30 billion people. In 2014, analysis of India's population demographics revealed that 65 percent of its population was below 35 years and 50 percent of the population stood below 25 years age group (Guardian). Forecasters at FS Pardee Center for International Futures predict India's population to e q u a l China at 1.45 billion by 2025 and reach 1.60 billion by 2060. Nearly 4 billion people in the World make less than USD 3,000 a year or approximately USD 8 a day. 60 percent of this population resides in India and China, and this segment of the society constitutes the Base-of-Pyramid or BoP population. Interestingly, BoP households spend nearly 70 percent of their earnings on food. A developing nation with a large segment of young population base, is witnessing rising individual incomes and rapid urbanization. Further, a shift in dietary patterns from carbohydrate to protein and vitamin rich diets and preference for processed and semiprocessed food, is presenting a new set of challenges and opportunities for the existing food supply chains in India (Reardon & Minten, 2011).

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

Base-of-Pyramid (BoP) markets constitute a large and rapidly emerging consumer market for goods and services, which until recently were primarily associated with consumers in developed economies (WEF, 2009). Agriculture -In 2013-14, India ranked among the top three food grain producers in the World with an annual production of 265 million metric tons (MT) and was the leading producer of milk at 137.68 million MT (Agri Stats, Govt. of India, 2015). Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing contributed 13.9 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (World Bank Indicators). Further, the sectorgenerated employment for nearly 49.7 percent of total workforce in India (Worldbank Indicators). Yet, In 2013, a total of 11,744 farmers committed suicides of which 10,462 were males and 1,282 were females (NCRB, 2015) Post harvest loss -Nations are faced with the challenge of delivering nutritious, adequate and continuous food supplies at economical prices to their citizens. While developed nations have ensured food security for their masses by defining and refining their agricultural value and supply chains, many poor and developing nations are still krishijagran.com

at its storage facilities from 1997 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2013 (Save Indian Grain, 2013). India incurs post harvest fruits and vegetable losses worth over INR 2 lakh crore (USD 32 billion) each year, owing to the absence of food processing units, modern cold storage facilities and a callous attitude towards tackling the grave issue of post harvest losses (Assocham, 2013). The quantity of post harvest losses may represent a small percentage of the annual food grain production in India which could have fed millions of malnourished Indians suffering from hunger, by meeting their individual nutrition requirements. Further, monetary losses to the national exchequer could have been stemmed and surplus agricultural production subject to exports.

struggling in their efforts to identify and streamline their food supply chains. The efforts of these poor and developing nations are further stymied by loss and waste suffered during post harvest cycles. Post harvest losses are best explained in terms of food loss and food waste. Food losses take place in developing nations where inefficiencies in food supply chain, poor warehousing infrastructure, logistics, little access to markets is available and exposure to natural elements such as rain, result in edible food being rendered unfit for human consumption. Food waste is seen in developed nations where food is rejected and subject to waste at the retail and or consumer level. Stringent retail standards, bargain discounts and numerous consumer options at supermarket aisles are some of the major drivers for food being subject to waste. A 2011 FAO study Global Food Losses and Food Waste, stated that â&#x20AC;&#x153;roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year.â&#x20AC;?

In India, the movement of food from fields to households involves various stakeholders such as aggregators, grain and produce merchants, wholesalers, forwarding agents, transporters, distributors, retailers, vendors and finally end-consumers. Financial services, telecommunication companies, energy firms and fleet logistics act as powerful enablers of business activities within the food supply chain. These direct and support stakeholders facilitate the movement of food from fields to sub market yards, major mandis, warehouses, distribution hubs, food processing units and finally to retail supermarkets, neighborhood and kirana stores.

Food waste is seen in developed nations where food is rejected and subject to waste at the retail and or consumer level

Food moves from farmers to endconsumers in a batch process and money paid by end-consumer moves in the opposite direction to people who were involved in the

No nation is immune from post harvest losses and India too has incurred post harvest losses, to the tune of 502,389 metric tons of rice and 136,206 metric tons of wheat krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

AGRI CLUSTER

Anurag Awasthi

Food supply chains - Food supply chain refers to the series of processes such as production, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal, which are involved in the movement of food from our fields to households.

AGRI CLUSTER

The quantity of post harvest losses may represent a small percentage of the annual food grain production in India which could have fed millions of malnourished Indians suffering from hunger, by meeting their individual nutrition requirements

forcing them to rely on traditional word-ofmouth business relationships. While businesses with SEO optimized sites and access to IT resources, are able to achieve high rankings in search engine page rankings, small businesses are challenged for resources and SEO developers, and are unable to register their presence in the digital world.

various stages of the food supply chain. In developing nations, food supply chain operations and processes, are predominantly manual and labor intensive in nature. Since Food Supply Chains are a series of linkages involving multiple stakeholders in the movement of food in one direction and money in the reverse direction, the entire chain is affected when one link in the entire chain is subject to stress (What is food supply chain?

Centre for Health & Global Environment, Harvard).

ICT - Performance Indicator reports from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), show that India is one of the largest markets for telecommunications firms with 970 million telephone subscribers; comprising of 944 million wireless subscribers and 2 million wireline subscribers. 572 million subscribers reside in urban areas and 399 million in rural India (TRAI, 2015). Recent ICT trends and research studies currently account food and beverage sales for more than two-thirds of all retail sales, the value of which is expected to nearly double to $686 billion by 2020 (Bhattacharjee, 2014) and 5 percent of FMCG sales or 5 billion USD to be online by 2020 (Economic Times, 2015). Online purchases by mobile phones have grown more than 100 percent since last year and compelling reasons for smart phone shopping include growing availability of mobile applications and individual convenience (Indo-Asian News Service, 2015). A recent study by Deloitte revealed that, 67 percent of Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) lack digital footprint and experience poor business linkages, thereby

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

These digital gaps force agri businesses to engage and rely on numerous intermediaries, increase waiting time at mandis, warehouses and retail chains, stock high inventory levels, increase advertisement budgets, experience poor alignment of market forces; which eventually contribute to food losses and waste at most stages of the food supply chain. Clusters - In India, development of clusters is synonymous with pharmaceuticals sector in Haridwar, Roorkee, Dehradun and Rudrapur in Uttarakhand and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, textile and clothing sector in Ludhiana and Panipat for carpets and rugs along with wollen products, Tirupur, Coimbatore, Madurai and Karur in Tamil Nadu for apparels, spinning mills, silk and home textile units, and parts of West Bengal and Bihar for jute and silk, parts of Gujarat and Bhiwandi and Malegaon in Maharashtra for spinning, weaving, home textiles and garments. Clusters in leather and leather goods sector include Patna, Muzaffarpur, Bettiah, Aurangabad, Munger, Purnia and Katihar in Bihar for cattle hides and goat skins, Hyderabad and Karim Nagar in Telangana, Bhimavara, Cuddapah and Eluru in Andhra Pradesh, and Madagao, Mapusa, Panaji, Zuari and Ponda in Goa for raw hides and skins, Patiala, Bhatinda, Muktsar, Fazilka, Firozpur, Kotakpura, Gurudaspur and Amritsar in Punjab for soft leather shoes and traditional footwear, Solan and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh for leather finishing, Mumbai, Kolhapur and Bhiwandi in Maharashtra for leather sandals, and Chennai, Ambur, Ranipet, Vaniyambadi, Vellore and Pernambut in Tamil Nadu for finished leather, shoe uppers and finished shoes. Some of the major clusters for engineering and capital goods in India are krishijagran.com

based in Rajkot, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ludhiana for machine tools, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Delhi, Jaipur and Noida for power and electrical equipment, Rajkot, Surat, Vapi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Tarapur, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Panipat, Amritsar and Ludhiana for textile machiner y, Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Coimbatore for Process plant machinery, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore for plastic, paper and rubber machinery, and Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai and Delhi for light engineering goods. Principal clusters within the auto and auto components sector include, New Delhi, Gurgaon and Manesar in North India, Pune Nasik, Halol and Aurangabad in Western India, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hosur in South and Jamshedpur and Kolkata in Eastern India (KPMG, 2014).

Solution – Agri Stakeholder & Cluster Maps - At Save Indian Grain. Org, we have created “...a last-mile, online, mobile, mapdriven directory of stakeholders and commodities”, within the agriculture and food processing sector. These maps essentially reorganize fragmented information on commodities, vendors and stakeholders, and connect millions of producers, consumers from Base-of-thePyramid (BoP) segment in India; thereby giving stakeholders, equal opportunity to connect with new vendors and clients on a single page. These map directories are complimented by StandPoint, a map blog of India's agricultural commodities exports and imports by trade receipts, payments and destinations.

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Cluster maps create horizontal and vertical relationships between vendors, ser vice providers, consumers in a geographically defined area and create a reciprocally supportive process. Once clusters are created, dissemination of knowledge and information results in flow of benefits in all directions. Stakeholders gain bargaining power with vendors, seek new ways to spur R & D, connect with multiple competitors and consumers, and above all usher transparency in their supply chain operations (Porter, 1990). In developing nations, policy makers and stakeholders frequently seek and interact with each other for policy formulation, institutional intervention and arbitration. Mapping of office locations with readily available contact details such as telephone numbers, email ID and institutional URLs will help reduce the time and effort spent in search and connecting with each other. Further, rating mechanisms and feedback forms can enhance the quality and efficiency of services delivered. The goal is to improve the existing supply chain linkages by establishing new B2B and strengthening existing B2B relationships. Small and marginal farmers in India are semiliterate and lack real time access to quality information. Often times, farmers have to rely and believe on information made available by intermediaries to make decision regarding agri inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and irrigation equipment. Fertilizers and farm irrigation are the major expense heads for farmers, and if contact information about dams, barrages, fertilizer plants and depots is made available, then farmers can coordinate and sync their farm operations with their agri input providers, and vice versa; thereby improving the efforts of the government in terms of “more crop per drop”.

Wholesale exporters and merchants in large metropolitan cities can seamlessly connect with registered traders at various mandis to enquire about crop arrivals and ﬁnalize purchase agreements

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

AGRI CLUSTER

In the agriculture sector, the grape cluster in Nasik and Sangli, Maharashtra and the litchi clusters in Bihar are fine examples of agro-based clusters (Nogales, 2014).

The objective of these cluster maps is to improve the existing food supply chain by establishing new and strengthening existing B2B2C relationships. The map directories define agri-stakeholders into five broad clusters; namely, agri-input providers , catalysts, farmers, enablers and endconsumers. Industries are mapped in these sub-parent clusters based on the sequence of their roles within the food supply chain.

AGRI CLUSTER

Post harvest, farmers can see the crop production statistics at a district level and contact their nearest buyer and crop processing facility for sale.

Nations strive to produce and sustain improved and prosperous standard of living for their citizens, and this is driven by the level of productivity with which labor and capital are utilized

Cluster maps will ensure a check on the price volatility of highly perishable agri commodities, especially fruits, vegetables, milk and dairy products by clearly identifying multiple suppliers and buyers in the post-farm supply chain. Agri-producers and enablers will be able to identify new buyers who offer improved prices and payment options. New & improved connectivity between buyers and traders at mandis will increase throughput at mandis and reduce multiple layers of intermediaries, which ultimately will improve efficiency & effectiveness of the food supply chain. Wholesale exporters and merchants in large metropolitan cities can seamlessly connect with registered traders at various mandis to enquire about crop arrivals and finalize purchase agreements. Relevant & reliable sharing of information will align supply volumes with real-time demand forecasting, reduce inventories at mandis, warehouses/ cold storage units and retail stores, and ensure higher asset capacity utilization rates. Transparency in logistics cost at each stage of the supply chain will help buyers in performing cost-benefit analysis. The availability of map-driven supply chain maps will result in market and environment benefits, namely; a check on imperfect market behavior such as hoarding, price gouging and black marketing, reduced carbon footprint through smarter logistics and procurement practices, tracing source of infected agri-commodities in the event of ecoli/ salmonella outbreak, and above all smarter & economic disaster relief management efforts in natural and manmade disaster zones. Conclusion - No nation in the world is competitive in every industry and or sector. Nations achieve competitive advantage when their industries build and augment their potential to innovate and upgrade. When limited pools of human and natural resources are channeled in the most dynamic industry or sector, competitive advantage is attained and sustained through highly localized processes.

Nations strive to produce and sustain AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

improved and prosperous standard of living for their citizens, and this is driven by the level of productivity with which labor and capital are utilized. Finally, nations thrive in select industries when domestic environments are innovative, dynamic and challenging (Porter, 1990). By 2050, World will be home to nearly 10.9 billion people and agriculture production must increase by nearly 60 percent of current production levels to meet the food requirements of all (Alexandratos & Bruinsma, 2012). If women have access to improved resources, on-farm yields could improve by 20-30 percent and this extra output could reduce the number of hungry masses by 12-17 percent (FAO, 2011). I believe that agro-based cluster mapping of stakeholder and commodities in India is the need of the hour and neatly compliments with the #MakeInIndia, #DigitalIndia, #Star tUpIndia mission, the National Agriculture Market, the National Cold Chain Development, application of Space Technology in governance, and the newly announced Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission (SPMRM) initiatives of Govt. of India within the agriculture sector. India's efforts to address social challenge such as inflation of food prices, and efforts in combating hunger, malnutrition and poverty will bear fruit when it realizes self-sufficiency in protecting and timely processing its surplus production of agricultural commodities during the post harvest cycles, and this can be achieved swiftly by mapping its food supply chains. Anurag Awasthi Founder, Save Indian Grain. Org, Mob: +91â&#x20AC;?9936304149 Email: anurag@sigo.co.in krishijagran.com

THE GROWTH OF INDIA IS DIRECTLY Related to the Growth of the Rural Areas Narmada Bio-chem Limited (NBCL) a leading Manufacturer, trader and marketer of Organic Fertilizers, Organic Manures, PROM (Phosphate Rich Organic Manures) and Chemical Mixed Fertilizers (NPK mix, SSP), DAP, MoP, MgSO4, Ammonium Sulphate, different grade of water Soluble fertilizers, Micro nutrients, soil conditioner as well as different type of Bio Pesticides. We have manufacturing four units at outskirt of Metro city Ahmedabad, which are having State of the Art manufacturing facility with annual production capacity 5,25,000 MT as per FCO standards. To produce energy efficient, environment friendly fertilizers that ensure sustainable, enhancement of crops yield and empower rural India by augmenting the farmer's economic growth.

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To become a globally acknowledged business house and most preferred manufacturer and marketer of organic and chemical fertilizers and seeds a far-flung marketing network.

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To emerge as a technologically dynamic, growth-focused yet environmentally sensitive organization.

Narmada Bio-chem Limited annually produce approx. 5,25,000 MT of fertilizers and sell in 11 states of India like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, etc. with help of more than 700 distributors/dealers (Private and Cooperative) network and more than 2100 retailers private and Co-operative directly working at grass root level. We arrange time to time farmers' meeting, product promotion activity as part of business. Quality is integral part of NBCL corporate philosophy. Based on corporate philosophy “QUALITY and CUSTOMERS FIRST” since it foundation. NBCL takes in to account quality as the first norm for all aspects of the customers

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NBCL's efforts are well recognize at maintaining quality of its Products through its integrated management system leading towards sustainable development. All the manufacturing divisions are certified to ISO 9001 & ISO 14001. Significant achievements by th e company include an improvement in environment and resource conservation, including a reduction in green house emission, consumption of water and non-renewable resources without compromising the product quality. NBCL also received D&B (DUNS Number: 87244-5003) highest rating in the segment of MSME1. Narmada Bio-chem Limited considering imperative role of research and development for quality Products & services from the very beginning, took the initiative for strong inhouse R & D facilities. With this mission, Narmada Bio-chem Limited has uplifted Research and Development facilities at Kalyangadh through processes, equipment, consumables and procedures to meet the requisite needs of every customer. Narmada Bio-chem Limited believes that 'the growth of India is directly related to the growth of the rural areas'. Farmers being the central focus of rural India, and farming are main profession. It becomes necessary to help them by providing them with top-of-the-line agricultural inputs and services, “JAMIN BALVAN TO KISAN DHANVAN”.

Signiﬁcant achievements by the company include an improvement in environment and resource conservation, including a reduction in green house emission, consumption of water and non-renewable resources without compromising the product quality

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

NARMADA BIO-CHEM

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demand and exceeding the expectation with p r o m i n e n c e a n d p r o f i c i e n c y. D e e p e r commitment to suitable business relation through high quality compliance and envisaging a vision with creativity and innovation has been focus of NBCL. In addition, we are always prepared with our core commitment for QUALITY and ZERO DEFECT, ZERO EFFECT AND ZERO TOLERANCE.

MOBILE APP

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kisan Manchâ&#x20AC;? is an initiative to bring farmers and farming community close to its end users, service providers and facilitators and provide them the benefits by cutting across the multiple channels of communication.

The company intends to builds an eco system, which is more on ďŹ eld and ground rather than locked in the some service centre for farmers

Idea is to create a mobile e-commerce platform that is also a low-cost fulfillment system focused on the needs of rural India. This system will help in rural transformation and would help to alleviate rural isolation, create more transparency for farmers, and improve their productivity and incomes. This mobile e-commerce platform would be supported by trained and efficient manpower on the Ground, which would interact on dayto-day basis with the farmer's community. Powering Rural India with Information Technology - Young Team of Professional from versatile fields has joined together to start this initiative with a passion to serve the rural India. Rural India will take years to develop

the IT Infrastructure; Agro Farm Venture's rural initiative would take technology right to the fields of Farmers. The company intends to builds an eco system, which is more on field and ground rather than locked in the some service centre for farmers. We would reach out to far flung villages, hinterlands, which still remain away from Technology. There is an app and portal under development and testing which would roll out the following significant services for the farmers and farming community. Crop specific information system and digital calendar for farmers, which provide them comprehensive information on crop management and crop life cycle - The Crop Calendar would be a tool that provides timely information about seeds to promote local crop production. It contains information on planting; sowing and harvesting periods of locally adapted crops in specific agro-

POWERING RURAL INDIA KISAN MANCH WAY

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

Dev R Bhardwaj

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ecological zones. It would also provide information on the sowing rates of seed and planting material and the main agricultural practices. This tool would supports farmers and agriculture extentionists across India in taking appropriate decisions on crops and their sowing period, respecting the agroecological dimension. It would also provide a solid base for emergency planning of the rehabilitation of farming systems after disasters. To start with experts are putting in place Crop Calendar that would provide information for more that 30 crops, located in 50 agro-ecological zones of 10 States in India.

Access to various agriculture input products and services, which can be made available to farmers at their doorsteps Mobile communications technology has quickly become Rural India's most common way of transmitting voice, data, and services. Given this dramatic change, mobile applications in general and mobile applications for agricultural and rural development in particular hold significant potential for advancing development. They could provide the most affordable ways for millions of farmers to access information, markets, finance, and governance systems previously unavailable to them. “Kisan Manch” app is being designed to take advantage of mobile technology and aims at instant and convenient service delivery to farmer. This app would provide farmers and rural residents with timely access to extension services, such as advice on inputs products, agricultural production, marketing, and technology, food security, and nutrition. This application would also strengthen market links when used to improve production distribution and traceability. Further we see this app expanding access to finance and insurance products in rural areas. This app would be available through widely used Apple's App Store or Google's Android

It would also provide a solid base for emergency planning of the rehabilitation of farming systems after disasters

This Platforms and app would offer a payment mechanism for users who are using this source products and services. This Platform would facilitate transactions between far mers and companies or institutions that see opportunities to market their products to rural consumers. Examples include banks, micro insurance companies, agricultural cooperatives, and suppliers and distributors of fast- moving agriculture input goods. In India market we see this as highly krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

MOBILE APP

Crop based personalized alert and notification system, which provide crop information, nutrition requirements, weather alerts and market rates etc - An integrated notification system (ENS) or unified mass notification system (MNS) is being developed on “Kisan Manch” platform to deliver a message to a small or large group of registered farmers – anywhere, anytime on any device or service all at once. With this feature we would be instantly reaching them in the most relevant way to them. Recipients

and subscribers who opt-in for our messages can select both the content they wish to receive, plus the device(s) they want to be contacted by. ““Kisan Manch” ” scheduled notifications feature extends to alert and notification capability to include routine operational notifications that would help farmers run efficiently there farming operations. It would also feature scheduled reminders, event invitations, weather alerts, and other crop critical and non-critical updates.

MOBILE APP

promising platform where smart phone usage is growth is very fast.

Mobile applications in general and mobile applications for agricultural and rural development in particular hold signiﬁcant potential for advancing development

The Beta Version of “Kisan Manch” which is being launched in next couple of weeks is hyperlocal and tailored to user requirements—even down to the village level—in terms of the information and services that app would of fer. App would be launched for selective two states to start with and scaling would be undertaken gradually. Apart from this “Kisan Manch” is creating an innovative digital platform for farming community engagement, which would improve lives of rural communities across India. “Kisan Manch” is bringing together Agriculture Universities, Colleges, academicians & agriculture scientists together to share knowledge on improved agricultural practices, livelihoods, health, and nutrition, using locally produced videos. Production process is underway to produce more than 1000 Videos in more than 20 languages across India. According to the latest research reports, there is a deep penetration of mobile phones/smart phones in rural area and these are widely used by farmers to access lot of information and also to pass wide-ranging information between villages—such as forthcoming social events or the price of agricultural produce and livestock—or to offer products for sale and weather forecasts. For farmers, theses smart phones available at attractive prices have helped to create a social network, enabling them to communicate with

other farmers and to exchange information on various issues. Preliminary data indicate that by use of these smart phones farmers have gained self-confidence, good practices have been shared and very large social networks have been created in various regions. “Kisan Manch” Digital Platform foresees this public interest in promoting agriculture, which would work as a link between the farmers with the outside world. “Kisan Manch” ” initiative would go a long way in creating strong movement towards greater collaboration between the farming community and other stakeholders in the agriculture business and would drive the future of innovation in this sector.

Dev R Bhardwaj Director‐ Farmer`s Support, Kisan Manch Mob: +91‐98166‐47638 Email: dev@kisanmanch.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD SUBSCRIPTION

YEAR

MONTHS

RATE

DISCOUNT

PER RATE

1 YEAR

840

140

700

2 YEARS

1680

380

1300

3 YEARS

2520

720

1800

5 YEARS

4200

800

3400

10 YEARS

120

8400

1400

7000

15 YEARS

180

12600

2100

10500

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

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BURNING OF STUBBLE IS A RAPID AND CHEAP OPTION

But do the farmers realize the down side to doing that?

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Lemken Plough “Opal 090” which is mounted reversible hydraulic in function and easy to operate which helps farmer to earn more by spending less on diesel consumption and farm labour

Difference in two yields (with and without Mulching) pic: ICIMOD

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

INNOVATION

The reason for agricultural burning According to research by ICIMOD (The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development), almost 90% of field waste is burnt these days in India, Those who use combine harvesters burn the remains of the crop, as the combine harvester leaves longer stalks of straw behind. Those who are in hurry to plant the second crop of “wheat” after “rice” burn their residue Burning is usually done in the late afternoon and smoulders well into the evening. This is because it saves having to employ labour and funds to manually clear it. It is believed by the farmers that: Burnt residue is a good fertilizer for the next harvest, but scientists have proved that a fallacy. Burning the stalks reduces it to ashes which has no nutritive value for the soil, which if the stalks were left to mulch naturally and become organic fertilizer. It kills the pests which proliferate in the fields, like any fire does. .And it drives away other insects and mosquitoes. This is helpful for the farmer but is not good for the soil. Burning agricultural waste causes serious threat to: Soil health - is affected with burning instead of allowing the stubble to mulch with the soil and give it organic fertilizer, the burnt straw is a useless additive to the soil fertility. Environment - Smoke from burning causes Black Carbon which is a product of incomplete combustion. According to ICIMOD, there are indications in the Hindukush Himalaya region ( HKH) that absorbing aerosols containing large amounts of black carbon are playing a significant role in changing of the regions climate. Human health - Reducing Black Carbon aerosols would both reduce climte impact and benefit human health. The ways to reduce this are to use alternative fuels for cooking and reduce open burning of waste, through improved waste disposal methods. Animal health is affected like human health with the quantum of black carbon in the air they breathe.

Biodiversity like insects, small mammals and birds that live in the ﬁelds are lost with burning. Effects on plant nutrients and environment Research from ICIMOD shows that: One ton of paddy straw contains: 5.5 kg N (as organic) 2.3 kg P2O5(as organic) 25 kg K2O (readily available) 1.2 kg S (as organic) 50-70% micronutrients absorbed by rice 400 kg of Carbon It is estimated that in Punjab alone, about 125 thousand tones of N and S in the paddy residues is lost during open burning, costing Rs. 2000 million per annum at the prevailing prices One ton of crop residue on burning releases: CO2=1515 kg CO=92 kg NO=3.83 kg SO2=0.4 kg CH4=2.7 kg Non methane (volatile organic compounds)=15.7 kg There are many mitigation options available according to the scientists instead of burning the straw, one of them is use of Plough. Framers can hire/buy what is called a plough. A Plough is one of the unique techniques farm tool or implement used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It is used for breaking up soil and cutting furrows in preparation of soil. The primary purpose of ploughingis to turn over the upper layer of the soil, bringing fresh nutrients to the surface, while burying weeds and the remains of previous crops, allowing them to break down. It also aerates the soil, and allows it to hold moisture better. Now days in market most popular farmer's choice plough is of Lemken Plough “Opal 090” which is mounted reversible hydraulic in function and easy to operate which helps farmer to earn more by spending less on diesel consumption and farm labour. This technology is eco-friendly cares for the health of soil as well as it also saves water, diesel and time.

EMPOWERING FARMERS

In view of the Scientiﬁc Warehousing, GPS tracking, Geo Fencing, Real Time Monitoring, etc. with technological innovations, more investments & strategic initiatives by the Government, the underserved sector is bound to accelerate growth in the coming years believes Shri Sandeep Sabharwal, Founder & CEO – SLCM Group. He has been recognized with several prestigious accolades including Mahatma Gandhi Ekta Samman by IIFS; Alumni Recognition Award for Entrepreneurship from FORE School of Management & the Most Innovative CEO by Inc India. Shri Sandeep interacted with the Agriculture World Team and elaborated the Scientiﬁc approach with GPS Tracking and Geo Fencing in the Warehousing

GPS Tracking and Real Time Monitoring Empowers the Farmers at SLCM

Q What makes this particular concept different? If yes, how do you stand out?

We place ourselves as the only player in the sector because although we manage more than 1000 warehouses & a throughput of 347 Million MT, but we have not invested in building a single warehouse infrastructure. We thrive on an asset light model, and this has helped us achieve an EBITDA growth of 90 percent year-on-year. Another factor is the process under the aegis of AGRI REACH, which we boast about as it has helped us in managing the entire network through a centralized system & cut down the post harvest losses to merely 0.5% which is

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

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generally pegged at 10%. In the warehousing domain, SLCM is the only company that has been able to map multi-location & multilayered operations to REAL TIME monitoring. We are the only company in India that enables our clients with Real Time information of his stock with a turnaround time of less than 5 minutes & an alert facility akin to a card swipe. Apart from our world class warehousing processes which enabled the agri value chain to save 9.5% of losses during the post harvest period; the other significant breakthrough was our NBFC christened as Kissandhan, launched in March 2014.

Till February 2016, Kissandhan has disbursed loans of more than Rs. 383 crores & the efficiencies were proven when it disbursed the loan amount within 48 hours of approval without referring to the balance sheet of the client. In fact, the smallest ticket size of loan has been Rs 42 lacs & typically the high-end ticket size has been between Rs 5-7 crores. Kissandhan provides an option to the farmer to store the crop for a small duration & get short term finance on his commodity. It enables him to do the price discovery & sell when he gets the best price & sow the next crop without selling the harvested crop & avoid distressed selling. In a short span, Kissandhan has impacted about 80,000 farmers pan India & brought Financial Inclusion by empowering the farmers with financing solution. To sum it all, we have a well-defined standard operating procedure which is extensively dependent on technology rather than people. We have a centralized Real Time process management system which is

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Q What are the factors driving the growth of industry?

The exponential growth in this sector is being driven with innovations like Scientific Warehousing, GPS tracking, Geo Fencing, Real Time Monitoring, etc. is bringing confidence amongst the stakeholders involved in the sector which is bringing in a lot of interest from investors from across the world as well. With technological innovations, more investments & strategic initiatives by the Government, the under-served sector is bound to accelerate growth in the coming years. Q Where did the initial capital for the innovation come? What returns does it have?

After working for almost a decade, I decided to launch Sohan Lal Commodity Management in 2009, raising Rs 16 lakh partly from my own savings and through a loan from family, while my father allowed me to use a part of his 8,000 sq ft unit in Delhi at an annual rent of Rs 8 lakh. As I had thoroughly researched on the sector before the launch and had in depth knowledge of the challenges, I was able to deliver better services and managed to generate a turnover of Rs 4 crore in the first year and reinvested the entire proceeds in the business.

In the warehousing domain, SLCM is the only company that has been able to map multi-location & multilayered operations to REAL TIME monitoring

The returns can be easily proven with our financials which show an EBITA growth of 90% year-on-year. Q What challenges did you face when you were starting out?

The sector itself is archaic â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the biggest challenge in this sector is mindset of stakeholders. Perception of people that warehousing is nothing but a piece of land and then a structure to be built on top of it has actually hampered the growth of the sector. Our first and foremost challenge was to AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

EMPOWERING FARMERS

Kissandhan provides agriculture loans at competitive commercial terms where storage receipt is taken as collateral. The brand name has been coined to convey a clear message that we are there to help farmers and others engaged in farming and associated activities with attractive financing options.

independent of geographical location and infrastructure, which removes any scope for deviation.

break this misnomer and prove topeople that crop management can be done agnostic to the infrastructure available on the ground. The second challenge was to get talent, as the sector is not that glamorous and two at the start we were a company which had no corporate backing. It took time but today I can say it with a pride that I have the most professional team working with me for the growth of the Group.

EMPOWERING FARMERS

Q What are your future plans?

Perception of people that warehousing is nothing but a piece of land and then a structure to be built on top of it has actually hampered the growth of the sector

As we have mapped a major part of the country with our services, SLCM had made a conscious decision to expand and replicate the model overseas which matches the DNA of our country. We launched our wholly owned subsidiary in Myanmar in March 2014 to engage into warehousing & other allied services. In a short span, the wholly owned subsidiar y (WOS) in Myanmar has expanded its footprints in 9 Industrial Zones & managing an area of 160,600 sqft, handling 67 commodities with a throughput of 1.37 Million MT. As a part of growth plan and to reach maximum number of people, we have tied-up with 8 Banks in India for Collateral Financing & 5 Banks in Myanmar. To expand further, we aim to take our model to other ASEAN & African countries. We are exploring regions which are agriculture centric and have scope for the sector. Q In what ways has SLCM contributed to the sector?

SLCM is constantly bringing the best practices to upgrade the processes in the warehousing domain. Our major achievement has been that, as we have expanded the services gradually, we are present throughout the value chain that is enabling us as an integrated player. We have not rushed into expanding the product line and have taken one service at a time, understanding the pace and demand of the sector which has led to build a sustainable

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

model. Presently, the Group is providing a diversified portfolio of services ranging from Warehouse Management, Agriculture Financing, Collateral Management to Procurement. The Group has been handled more than 366 agriculture commodities including Cotton, Barley, Bajra, Castor Seeds, Wheat, Pulses, Maize, Spices, Aloe Vera, etc. SLCM imparts high quality modern warehousing services with Real Time MIS to globally reputed clientele. The Group undertakes 62 internal audits to check quantity & quality standards and entire system has been mapped to Real Time resource monitoring for efficient tracking. Today, SLCM has successfully created scientific processes in the agri-logistics space, which are also being showcased by the agriculture fraternity across the world as a role model for reducing post harvest losses. The scalabilities have been proven with our foray into Myanmar market last year. We have time and again proved that through out-of-box thinking and continuous innovation, we can address the concerns of the sector. Having said that, we have been proud to be referred and recognized by various esteemed bodies that have added to our achievements & some of them are listed here. Recently, we were amongst top contender for ET Startup Awards as Top Innovator from 3700 nominations pan India. Few prestigious recognitions that SLCM has received includes The Best Warehouse for Agro Commodity by SCMPro; India's Agriculture/Agro Logistics Company of the Year Award by Frost & Sullivan; Agri Warehousing Company of the Year by Kamikaze; Emerging Warehousing Company Award by CPAI; CII Scale Awards for Exemplary Position in Supply Chain & Logistics in Agri Warehousing; Emerging Brand Award for Rural Impact by CMO Asia & Innovative 100 Company by Inc India. Interviewed by Chander Mohan krishijagran.com

BIOSTADT'S ELITE CLUBa Platform to Learn for Progressive Farmers with Vision to Build Most Inuential Community of Farmers

Now, Biostadt India Limited is ﬁrmly positioned to address the emerging local and global challenges. The Company help in providing the farmers not just customized products but customized solutions, developing and evaluating products and processes for improving their satisfaction. Their extensive high-quality product range that includes insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, hybrid seeds, aqua products and farm services, further supports this goal. They offer amongst the best list of farm protection and associated products in India. In view of the above the Agriculture World Team discussed with Ms. Haani Khorakiwala, Director, Biostadt India Limited….She has done BS in Managerial Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, Piitsburgh and MS in Textile Marketing from FIT, New York. She formally joined Biostadt around two years back…..and brought in many strategic thrust to further bring business efﬁciency. Concept of Elite Club is noble idea to build an inuential Community of farmers and boost agriculture best practices.

Biostadt India Ltd is a 23 year old, young dynamic company in the business of serving the farming community with innovative agricultural solutions thru its pioneering technologies. Ensuring farmer delight is our mission. Helping them realize their dream is our goal. Over the last two krishijagran.com

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AGRI SOLUTIONS

Q Would you like to elaborate the working of Biostadt in India and Worldwide ?

Biostadt India Ltd. believes that 'the growth of India is directly related to the growth of the rural areas. Farmers being the central focus of rural India, it becomes necessary to give them a helping hand by providing them with top-of-the-line agricultural inputs and services. With this as their core initiative, Biostadt India Limited has been serving the farming community for over two decades. An impressive track record takes forward its strategy to head the leading position in the Biotechnology research-based agro inputs. This strategy has been further supported with safer and specialty chemical pesticides. The tremendous growth in the business in a span of just 6 years (from INR 100 crores in 2007 to INR 500+ crores in 2015) has itself created a story to talk about.

AGRI SOLUTIONS

decades Biostadt is directly linked with farmer's prosperity, our own multi fold success can be directly attributed to this.

Prophylactic application of right chemicals to possible extent, avoiding excess use of Chemical and Fertilizers, Proper water and nutrient management, sharing new technologies, trend and safety etc are scientiďŹ c and sustainable way of Agriculture.

We are fairly diversified as a company with a major focus on Biotechnology based Bio-stimulants for soil and plant health. We have strategic tie-ups with Japanese companies like Hoko and Nippon to serve high quality of pesticides as a solution for scientific management of insects-pest and diseases in all commercial and niche crops. Biostadt also offers big range of products in Aqua-culture and has emerged as one of the fast growing company in this domain in last couple of years' time. Biostadt has made a successful and impactful start in the Seeds domain as well and fortifying this segment of business by innovative marketing and robust strategies by expanding product portfolio, distribution excellence and acquiring companiesâ&#x20AC;Ś.like recently we acquired a leading Pearl Millet based company Nandi Seeds in Ahmedabad. We are committed to providing the Indian farming community with hybrid HIQ Nandi Seeds in crops like Rice, Bajra, Castor and vegetables as well. Our state of the art manufacturing plant in Jammu, produces not only our captive consumption but also serves as a contract manufacturing hub for huge and leading MNC's. We have a direct marketing presence in our wholly owned sister concern Biostadt, Philippines Inc. head quartered in Manila where we are a top 10 Agriculture company over there. In Vietnam we have a strategic JV called Vin-Thin Biostadt Inc. which again is involved with the farmers and we have recently bought a shrimp hatchery on the coast line to provide high quality post-larvae to breeders. Besides direct business in South East Asia, we have a growing global presence with our brand WOKOZIM which is being marketed in more than 30 countries. We have penetration in South-east Asia, China, Middle-east, African and Latin American markets.

AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

Q How is your Dealer/ Distributor Network?

Our domestic market covers a vast distribution network across PAN India with dealers' coverage of around fifty thousand to ensure our reach to farmers in every nook and corner of the country. We have our hi-tech manufacturing units in Jammu and Bhavnagar and twenty five stock points across the country to make sure efficient and timely supplies across PAN India. Q What are your priorities and Quality Policies of the Company?

Quality is our prime priority in every sphere of our business. It may be the products, Processes, policies, systems, Procedures or people. We have ISO 9000, ISO14000, ISO 17025, BS 18000 that certify our quality process, Environmental Health, Research Lab Standards etc. respectively.

Quality is our prime priority in every sphere of our business. It may be the products, Processes, policies, systems, Procedures or people Q What is the strength of the Company?

In the last decade, our business has grown about ten times. That tells the story of how Biostadt products have been patronized by millions of farmers. This reach and penetration could be possible because of good quality of products, strategies, and organizational ethics and value system but we rate our people, our Human Resources at Biostadt as our core strength. What is your marketing Strategy and Future Planning for growth of Company? Strategy remains to provide high quality products based on the need and differentiating services to farmers that could help them to get best ROI of their money and efforts. And we are committed to that. We are constantly evolving and seeking new avenues of growth. To that end we have krishijagran.com

entered aggressively in the seed business, shrimp PL breeding (international) and focused targeting of high acreage farmers under the Elite Farmer Initiative. Q Which is your major or revenue generating product?

Our major focus is on Bio-stimulants for soil and plant health. We have legitimate claim to be the market leader in this category…..with Brand BIOZYME powered with BILT technology which is globally mastered by Biostadt only. Biozyme is tested and recommended by various renowned Universities BIOZYME is one of the most preferred brand of the farmers across the country as this product helps them to get best ROI of their investment.

As we know that about 60-65% of our Indian population, directly or indirectly depends on Agriculture and allied occupation. However, contribution of Agriculture in our national GDP is only about 15%. This huge gap is the big scope for Agriinput business like Agro-chemicals and Fertilizers Industry. With the growing urbanization, area under Agriculture getting shrunk which raises the issue of providing food for all in a growing population. These kinds of dynamics speak out need of said Industries to ensure high yield, production and quality of the produce. Would you like to elaborate some Farmers Oriented Activities As a Biostadt whatever we do….Farmers our focal fundamental. We try to reach and help farmers by various ways like Farmers Meetings, Mass-media, and ATL- BTL etc. Recently, we launched an Elite Club for progressive and leading farmers with a vision to build the most influential community of farmers. This is a unique kind platform wherein farmers are associated with us towards best agricultural practices with a focus on exchange of experiences.

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We are educating them for scientific and sustainable way of Agriculture. Good quality of seeds, Proper identification of diseases and Insect, Prophylactic application of right chemicals to possible extent, avoiding excess use of Chemical and Fertilizers, Proper water and nutrient management, sharing new technologies, trend and safety etc. Also we have planned to organize Workshops and seminars where scientists and experts are invited. To encourage technological and best agricultural practices, we are awarding and rewarding the farmers. Q Other than advisory, what services are you offering to elite farmers?

We have designed it well to serve them as much as possible. To ensure that we have allocated Biostadt Relationship Manager who will be dedicated to attend and serve the farmer with top priority, suggesting right source of getting genuine products, Soil Health Checkup and recommendations, Providing and sharing with them AgriNewsletters to keep them updated and well versed with happening in Agriculture etc. are the few services which is being appreciated by the members of Elite Club. Q Any message you want to convey to elite farmers?

Elite Farmers play a very important and pivotal role helping other fellow farmers in adjoining villages by way of sharing their learnings and knowledge thus has partnered with us for transfer of technologies and knowledge to as many as farmer as a social activity, We express our thanks to these progressive farmers.

Have strategic tie-ups with Japanese companies to serve high quality of pesticides as a solution for scientiﬁc management of insectspest and diseases in all commercial and niche crops

Also our Elite Club Farmers keep us updated with grass-root level issues, challenges and needs related to their crops and farming. That is great marketing input for us. Interviewed by Ruby Jain AGRICULTURE WORLD | FEBRUARY 2016

AGRI SOLUTIONS

Would you like to say something about Agro chemicals and Fertilizer Industry?

Q What kind of education and awareness you are providing to Elite Club Farmers?

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