LightCastle Featured Insights | 2019
Envisioning A Data-driven Agriculture in Bangladesh Consider Abdullah, an agri-entrepreneur in
The case for agriculture is no different.
Northwestern Bangladesh. He wakes up in the
Smallholder
morning to find a notification in a dedicated
stakeholders in the agricultural value chain
mobile application on his cellphone from his
typically lack the necessary knowledge of and
aggregator asking if he could supply 50 kgs of
foresight to apply data-driven decisions, which
tomato from under his networked famers by
is absolutely critical to compete and succeed in
next week. Through the push of a few buttons,
an ever-changing business environment. This
he pulls up the expected harvest collection for
apparent problem is only a symptom of a larger
next week and just as swiftly, but not before a
problem
smile lights up his countenance, lets the
agricultural value chain. And that’s because
aggregator know that it’s a done deal. That’s
data is not getting captured digitally – resulting
how fast a simple piece of information – yet
in several inefficiencies.
farmers
that
exists
along
across
with
the
other
entire
carrying powerful ramifications for everyone in the agri-value chain – flows from one end of
Farmers need access to timely market
the spectrum all the way to the other, in a
information and agri inputs; agri entrepreneurs
matter of seconds.
and distributors grapple with collecting cash on time and optimizing inventory; processing
That’s what data and ag-tech are doing; they
companies require robust customer and
are changing the game. The integration is
farmer profiling to ensure greater transparency
opening up wider avenues of business
to constantly improve the end consumer
opportunities,
experience. So there’s a vested interest for
rendering
greater
income
potential and inspiring the next generation to
everyone in the process.
resurrect the image of an industry that’s slowly taking a backseat, but which nonetheless has
Granted that data is a critical tool for
been the growth driver of Bangladesh in its
development, what’s the first step towards
early years. A paradigm shift in agriculture is
building the culture? Digitizing paper-based
already underway.
information.
In a world where data talks, industries and
Rapid advancement in hardware and software
organizations need to step up and leverage
technology is already paving the way for
data and technology for the greater good. A
organizations to collect, analyze and leverage
vast amount of data we are currently sitting on
data for better business decisions than ever
– both individually and collectively – is, at best,
before. Many of them – either in the form of a
serving the purpose of a sleeping giant. As a
rising group of ag-tech startups working
nation, we are yet to recognize the full potential
towards improving crop productivity or large
that data can trigger to create larger impacts
processing
for
analytics and digital initiatives to predicting
organizations,
across
all
spheres,
transcending to social benefits and into
companies
investing
in
data
sales by region – are cases in points to
economic development.
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