Indian Agriculture – The Next Wave: IT as the

Game Changer

Agriculture and allied sectors in India: Key Facts

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

Producer of milk, cashew, coconut, tea, ginger, turmeric, banana, black pepper in the world; largest cattle population in the world ~281 million

World’s second largest producer of fruits, vegetables, wheat, rice, sugar, groundnut, cotton; second in worldwide farm output

World’s third largest producer of tobacco

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

Of world fruit production

Of India’s population depends on agriculture as primary source of livelihood

1st

2nd

3rd

13%

Top 5

~58%

Stakeholder value chain spans across producers to

processors and the retail consumer

AGRICULTURE

VALUE CHAIN

Pre-

Cultivation

Crop

selection

Credit

access

Land

selection

Calendar

definition

Land

preparation &

sowing

Input

management

Water

management,

fertilisation

Pest

management

Food

processing

Packaging

Transportation

Marketing

LIVESTOCK

VALUE CHAIN

Breeding Production

Transportation

Processing

Packaging

Distribution

Retail Consumer

Source: Secondary sources

FARMING COMMUNITY INDUSTRY RESEARCHERS

GOVERNMENT/POLICY MAKERS INSTITUTIONS, AGENCIES ACADEMIA

IT S

ER

VIC

E P

RO

VID

ER

S

CO

NS

UM

ER

S

Higher input costs and falling productivity emerging

as key challenges

CHALLENGES

Horticulture Livestock

Crops Soil

AGRI-BUSINESS

MARKETS Under-developed Poor market intelligence Infrastructure

TALENT Quality Access, unemployment Skills

MACRO ECONOMIC Ecosystem Variability Inefficiency Infrastructure Demographics

COSTS High prices Low profitability Low yields

• Non-availability of hybrids

• Lack of technical inputs

• Dearth of quality

• Plant genetic resources

• Post-harvest losses

• Seed, planting material

production

• Soil & nutrient mgmt

• Pest & disease mgmt

• Post harvest

(perishability, inadequate

storage, cold chains)

• Farm mechanisation

• Genetic resources

• Production, identification

• Diseases

• Health & fodder

• Livestock insurance

• Available nutrients

• Crops/cropping system

• Recommended doze of

fertilisers

• Fertiliser, manure

availability

Source: ITRA Strategy Formulation Meeting, Mar 2013

Rural Broadband

• Aksh Broadband

• N-Louge

Communications

• Gramjyoti

• AKshaya

NOFN:

Connect all 2,50,000

Gram panchayats

in India

Krishi Vigyan

Kendras

631 nos

Mobile subscribers:

331.6 million

Telecom subscribers:

338.54 million

Mobile internet users:

~5 million1

Internet users1:

45 million (est.)

Active internet users:

~37 million1

Teledensity:

39.85

Computer literates:

70 million

Rural connectivity: Rapid improvements providing

a suitable platform for service delivery

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

• Rural telecom subscribers account

for nearly 38 per cent of total

subscribers

• ~98 per cent of rural users are

mobile subscribers

• Government and telecom players

aiming to increase rural broadband

penetration

• ~8 per cent of the rural population

is estimated to be computer literate

• Government’s National Optic Fibre

Network (NOFN) program expected

to significantly improve connectivity

and ICT access

AGRICULTURE AND ALLIED SECTORS

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

Livestock,

fisheries:

• Herd/flock mgmt

• Management of

semen stations &

semen availability

• Milk collection,

storage, processing

• Production ,

availability of fish

seed

• Marine fishing and

logistics

• Fish processing &

production

• Marketing of

products

Agri education,

extension:

• Education/training

processes

• Produce

professionals with

practical, research

skills

• Extend crop

technologies

• Reducing lab to

land gap

• Better capacity

building/training of

stakeholders

• Real-time advisory

Areas for IT Intervention

Marketing, Agri-

business:

• Efficient procurement

• Storage and supply

of produce and

processed goods to

consumers

• Sale of produce by

farmers

• Better market

intelligence

Sensing &

Communication Tech Data

Management

Modelling &

Simulation

Data Mining &

Knowledge Extraction

Decision Support

Systems

IT has the potential to emerge as the key influencer

across the value chain...

Source: ITRA Strategy Formulation Meeting, Mar 2013

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

Source: NASSCOM Foundation, www.themobileindian.com, TCS

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 expert’s 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

Mobile rapidly emerging as the most ideal service

delivery platform

Databases,

Data mgmt &

reporting

Information sys,

Decision

Support sys

Collaboration

s/w

Mobile tech,

Geographic tech

Wireless,

Surveillance sys

Modeling/analysis,

Weather

forecasting

Logistics mgmt,

Equipment

mgmt

Disease & pesticide

monitoring,

Post harvest mgmt

• Animal identification,

selective breeding and

increasing productivity

• Genetic resources

• Disease surveillance

• Market info systems

• Data mining

• Facility management

• eConferencing

• Video conferencing

• eLearning

• Crowd sourcing

systems

• GIS, GPS, RFID

• SMS alerts

• Mobile advisory

services

• Online disease

diagnosis

• Online monitoring of

pesticide sales/usage

• Post-harvest loss,

wastage management

• SCM, logistics mgmt.

• Database of machines,

manufacturers, service

providers

• Automation/AI

• Weather forecasting

• Soil analysis

• Farm profitability

• Water availability

• Heat detection

• Health monitoring

• Feeding system

• Wireless sensor networks

SOIL CROPS HORTICULTURE LIVESTOCK

...With application areas spanning genetic resource

management to supply chain management

Application

areas

Source: ITRA Strategy Formulation Meeting, Mar 2013