Indian Agriculture The Next Wave: IT as the Game Changer

Agriculture and allied sectors in India: Key Facts

Producer of milk, cashew, coconut, tea, ginger, turmeric, banana, black pepper in the world; largest cattle population in the world ~281 million Worlds second largest producer of fruits, vegetables, wheat, rice, sugar, groundnut, cotton; second in worldwide farm output

1st

2nd 3rd Top 5 13%

Worlds third largest producer of tobacco

Largest producers of agricultural produce (coffee, cotton, etc), livestock & poultry meat

Of world fruit production

~58%

Of Indias population depends on agriculture as primary source of livelihood

Source: Economic Survey 2012-13, IBEF, Ministry of Agriculture

Stakeholder value chain spans across producers to processors and the retail consumer
FARMING COMMUNITY RESEARCHERS INDUSTRY

Land Calendar selection definition Crop selection

IT SERVICE PROVIDERS PreCultivation

Credit access Land preparation & sowing

Retail Distribution

Consumer

Food processing

CONSUMERS

Packaging
AGRICULTURE VALUE CHAIN

Packaging

Input management Processing Water management, fertilisation Marketing Pest management

LIVESTOCK VALUE CHAIN

Transportation

Transportation Production Breeding

GOVERNMENT/POLICY MAKERS

ACADEMIA

INSTITUTIONS, AGENCIES

Source: Secondary sources

Higher input costs and falling productivity emerging as key challenges

Available nutrients Crops/cropping system Recommended doze of fertilisers Fertiliser, manure availability Seed, planting material production Soil & nutrient mgmt Pest & disease mgmt Post harvest ( (perishability , inadequate storage, cold chains) Farm mechanisation

Soil CHALLENGES
Genetic resources Production, identification Diseases Health & fodder Livestock insurance

Crops

Livestock

Horticulture

Non-availability of hybrids Lack of technical inputs Dearth of quality Plant genetic resources Post-harvest losses

COSTS TALENT MARKETS MACRO ECONOMIC

High prices Quality Under-developed Demographics

Low profitability Access, unemployment Poor market intelligence Ecosystem Variability

Low yields Skills Infrastructure Inefficiency Infrastructure

AGRI-BUSINESS
Source: ITRA Strategy Formulation Meeting, Mar 2013

Rural connectivity: Rapid improvements providing a suitable platform for service delivery

Telecom subscribers: 338.54 million 338.

Teledensity: 39.85

NOFN: Connect all 2,50,000 Gram panchayats in Ind ia

Rural telecom subscribers account for nearly 38 per cent of total subscribers ~98 per cent of rural users are mobile subscribers

Mobile subscribers: 331.6 331 million

Computer literates: 70 million

B Rural Broadband Rura B Aksh Broadband N-Louge Communications Gramjyoti AKsh aya AKshay

Government and telecom players aiming to increase rural broadband penetration ~8 per cent of the rural population is estimated to be computer literate Governments National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) program expected to significantly improve connectivity and ICT access

Mobile internet users: ~5 million1

Internet users1: 45 million (est.) Active internet users: ~37 million1

Krishi Vigyan Kendras 631 nos

Source: 1 IAMAI, ICAR, TRAI (Dec-2012), http://www.bbnl.nic.in/content/page/national-optical-fibre-networknofn.php

IT has the potential to emerge as the key influencer across the value chain...
AGRICULTURE AND ALLIED SECTORS Areas for IT Intervention
Soil, water, weather : Improved soil management Soil mapping Weather forecasting Abiotic stresses Environment, natural resources Disasters Remote sensing
Crop production: Seed production systems, planting material Crop production systems Farm mechanisation Farm management Precision farming Pest/disease management Biotic stress management Post-harvest management Food processing systems
Data Management

Livestock, Agri education, fisheries: extension: Herd/flock mgmt Education/training Management of processes semen stations & Produce semen availability professionals with Milk collection, practical, research storage, processing skills Production , Extend crop availability of fish technologies seed Reducing lab to Marine fishing and land gap logistics Better capacity Fish processing & building/training of production stakeholders Marketing of Real-time advisory products
Modelling & Simulation Data Mining & Knowledge Extraction

Marketing, Agribusiness: Efficient procurement Storage and supply of produce and processed goods to consumers Sale of produce by farmers Better market intelligence

Sensing & Communication Tech

Decision Support Systems

Source: ITRA Strategy Formulation Meeting, Mar 2013

Mobile rapidly emerging as the most ideal service delivery platform

DIGITAL MANDI: A mobile application developed by IIT Kanpur and BSNL, aims to provide current rates of crops to farmers so they can choose appropriate time and market to sell their crops for maximum profit

Product: Livelihood 360, ConceptWaves Software Solutions Technology: Mobile based ERP application - a comprehensive produce management solution Objective: Revolutionise crop estimation, collection & processing for better returns and improved quality Solution: Uses cloud & mobile computing to capture & send real-time data for analysis & planning; supports end-to-end data management for harvest estimates, actual number of harvest crop, financial transactions Captures details about farmers, land, crop, literacy, health, nutrition - holistic view of village eco-system Adopted by >12,000 farmers in 658 villages in Araku Valley region, engaged in coffee and pepper farms Decreased yield estimation period from 70 days to 45 days

mKrishi: TCS mobile agro-advisory system - uses mobile phones and sensor technology to let farmers send queries, receive information on microclimate, local mandi prices, seek experts advice and other information relevant to them in their local language; supports text, voice, pictures
mKisan: Using mobile technologies to strengthen farmer-extension-expert-linkages in India Objective: Mobile-based agro advisory for smallholders; reach livestock producers with actionable information Solution: Mobile channels like voice/text messages, on-demand videos, farmer helpline, to be used. Offer advice on relevant crop and livestock issues and provide platform for exchange of knowledge: Provide daily bulletins (meteorology forecasts, pest attacks, livestock disease outbreaks) Strengthen market linkages by providing up to date information on prevailing market prices Improve access to advisory services by providing information on local service provision sources
Source: NASSCOM Foundation, www.themobileindian.com, TCS

...With application areas spanning genetic resource management to supply chain management
Online disease diagnosis Online monitoring of pesticide sales/usage Post-harvest loss, wastage management Animal identification, selective breeding and increasing productivity Genetic resources Disease surveillance

Disease & pesticide Databases, Data mgmt & monitoring, Post reporting harvest mgmt

SCM, logistics mgmt. Database of machines, manufacturers, service providers Automation/AI

Logistics mgmt, Equipment mgmt

Information sys, Decision Support sys

Market info systems Data mining Facility management

Application areas
Weather forecasting Soil analysis Farm profitability Water availability

Modeling/analysis, Weather forecasting

Collaboration s/w

eConferencing Video conferencing eLearning Crowd sourcing systems

Heat detection

Wireless, Surveillance sys

Mobile tech, Geographic tech

GIS, GPS, RFID SMS alerts Mobile advisory services

Health monitoring Feeding system Wireless sensor networks

SOIL

CROPS

HORTICULTURE

LIVESTOCK

Source: ITRA Strategy Formulation Meeting, Mar 2013