KISANMITR: Meeting demand side of agri-technologies through S&T enablers

With the imposition of lockdown, India has faced a unique challenge of migration of a large number of workers from unorganised sectors in urban, peri-urban regions to villages and rural areas. This will require to rapidly engaging the migrants moving to primary agricultural and rural livelihood settings by supporting them with effective employment opportunity locally through technological and innovative solutions to increase their efficiency and yield. This will also require youth migrants who could be supported by making them change agents or trained personnel for the deployment of technical know-how etc. in villages.

To meet the load on agriculture and to ensure sustainable farm and allied products including best rural practices, both agro-scientific research output and agri-technologies deployment will be essential at this juncture as an effective response through a COVID-19 Agriculture track being launched by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to Government of India.

The objective of the call was to support the migrants and other agriculturists by providing access to scientific knowledge and innovative technologies as well as required capacity building by involving scientists and technologists from national laboratories and academic institutions along with their incubated start-ups from the supply side. Efforts will be made to bridge the supply side with the demand side by proactively involving enablers like industry, accelerators, foundations and public agencies to support technologies and solutions through evaluation for low cost, high quality, bankable and scalable projects in agriculture and allied areas. The range of scientific and technological products would include, amongst others, light equipment, scientific solutions and heavy-duty technologies.

An Atmanirbhar India can be achieved primarily through self-reliance and self-sustainability in agriculture. Standardization and promotion of indigenous knowledge of agricultural technology, techniques and resource utilization are imperative. However, in India, the findings relevant to farmers are housed in multiple national and international databases. This data could be relevant and helpful to the farmers if found on a single unified platform.

Moving ahead with the call, the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India has launched an initiative called KisanMitr. The initiative aims to transform agricultural extension in rural India using the latest available digital platforms, technologies and research methods. The group of experts and partners shall build, scale, and improve mobile phone-based agricultural extension with the goal of increasing productivity and income of smallholder farmers and their families pan India.

KisanMitr is a seven-phase project aimed at supporting farmers to become Atmanirbhar (self-reliant).

The first three phases focus on creating a repository of agricultural technologies, livestock technologies, and scientific research to catalyze modernization of farming and solve information asymmetry. The engagement stage of the platform independently helps young start-ups to showcase their agricultural technologies and easily engage with market demand. Market demand includes Industry, Incubators and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).

The fourth phase focuses on creating a last-mile network for niche (nutritional, medicinal, aromatic, organic, GI-tagged) agricultural products from the fringes. Autonomous drones are being considered for development through a hub-and-spoke model of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs - land & Sky), especially in mountain states where the road networks might not have full coverage. Demand to be generated through charitable trusts for undernourished children as well as retail aggregators in metro cities.

The fifth phase focuses on equipping farmers with actionable agricultural insights and early weather alerts. Data related to soil health, moisture, weather, and ecology is being aggregated and analyzed to generate personalized insights related to crop selection, fertilizers requirements, and water needs for each farmer at farm-holding level. This would be provided by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity)-UMANG through an Atmanirbhar App. The sixth and seventh phases look at micro-financing needs of the farmers and supplementing their incomes through off-farm products such as handlooms and textiles.

The details of all seven phases have been entailed below:

PHASE I

The first phase focuses on creating a repository of agricultural technologies to catalyze modernization of farming and solve information asymmetry. The engagement stage of the platform independently helps young start-ups to showcase their agricultural technologies and easily engage with market demand.

After the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, reverse migration happened across the country, in which labours returned to their native villages. Through the KisanMitr digital platform, migrant youth can not only engage in farming but can also become agriculture-related entrepreneurs, helping their communities with modernization techniques.

The KisanMitr platform receives a catalogue of technologies supplied by institutions such as IIT, IISER, CSIR, ICAR, MSME, start-ups, and reputed Universities specializing in agriculture (Punjab, Tamil Nadu).

The demand is comprised of buyers from accelerators, agri-innovators, agri-incubators, industry, foundations, large FPO communities and Women Self Help Groups (SHG). A few examples are NABARD DDMs, TAFE, ITC, Coromandel, Tata Chemicals, Rallis, Nagarjuna, etc.

Examples of a few technologies on the platform include soil & water conservation technologies, farm ecosystem machinery services, clean energy-related technologies, logistics or supply chain technologies, storage and processing techniques, Mandi dashboards with real-time data, Drones on hire, etc.

The KisanMitr platform facilitates an engaging exchange between the supply and demand sides through chat, video meetings, rating system, and feedback forms. It also bridges the collaboration gap between the research institutes and the industry primarily via competitions in which difficult problems from the industry are posed as a challenge to the scientific community.

To solve the cold-start problem, NASSCOM and NIAM organize weekly webinars and convene both the sides to the platform. DD Kisan is considering televising the agricultural technologies in order to increase visibility and adoption of modern farming techniques and technologies across the country.

PHASE II

The second phase provides a repository of livestock technologies to catalyze modernization of animal husbandry and solve information asymmetry. The platform provides filters to easily find livestock, technology, or research from ePashuHaat as well. The engagement stage of the platform independently helps young start-ups to showcase their livestock technologies and easily engage with market demand.

The KisanMitr platform receives a catalogue of technologies supplied by institutions such as IIT, IISER, CSIR, ICAR, MSME, start-ups, Gates Foundation, etc.

The demand is comprised of buyers from accelerators, incubators, industry, foundations, large FPO communities, and Women Self Help Groups (SHG). A few examples are NABARD DDMs, TAFE, ITC, Coromandel, Tata Chemicals, Rallis, Nagarjuna, etc.

Examples of a few technologies on the platform include DNA tests, Immunization techniques, Disease detection kits, Purification techniques, Pregnancy test kits, Business management apps, Organic medications, etc.

The KisanMitr platform facilitates an engaging exchange between the supply and demand sides through chat, video meetings, rating system, and feedback forms.

The platform also bridges the collaboration gap between the research institutes and the industry primarily via competitions in which difficult problems from the industry are posed as a challenge to the scientific community.

To solve the cold-start problem, NASSCOM and NIAM organize weekly webinars and convene both the sides to the platform. DD Kisan is considering televising the agricultural technologies in order to increase visibility and adoption of modern farming techniques and technologies across the country.

PHASE III

The third phase provides a repository of agriculture-related scientific research and technologies that might not be ready for mass production yet, but industry leaders and technology enthusiasts get an early opportunity to see what’s around the corner and engage in the development process of the final product. The engagement platform helps research teams and young start-ups to showcase their research and easily engage with industry interest.

The KisanMitr platform receives a catalogue of research and technologies supplied by institutions such as IIT, RUTAG, IISER, CSIR, ICAR, MSME, start-ups, Gates Foundation, etc.

Examples of a few research projects on the platform include oil extraction techniques, dehusking techniques, small-scale milling techniques, curing and polishing techniques, storage techniques, production improvement techniques etc.

The KisanMitr platform facilitates an engaging exchange between the supply and demand sides through chat, video meetings, rating system, and feedback forms. The platform also bridges the collaboration gap between the research institutes and the industry primarily via competitions in which difficult problems from the industry are posed as a challenge to the scientific community.

To solve the cold-start problem, NASSCOM and NIAM organize weekly webinars and convene both the sides to the platform. DD Kisan is considering televising the agricultural technologies in order to increase visibility and adoption of modern farming techniques and technologies across the country.

PHASE IV

The fourth phase of the project focuses on developing a last-mile supply-chain network for niche (nutritional, medicinal, aromatic, organic, GI tagged) agricultural products cultivated by farmers on the fringes. This phase has been named Himalayan Bazaar considering the geographical distribution of the supply-side farmers.

Thousands of FPOs and Women SHGs located in the mountain states, north-eastern states, and tribal areas will be on-boarded to sell their produce on the platform. Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) data of thousands of FPOs is currently being used by KisanRath app (NIC). The same data is being sought for on-boarding FPOs from mountain states and tribal areas onto the KisanMitr digital platform through API integration.

The demand-side will be comprised of charitable trusts and retail aggregators such as IKEA Foundation, ICICI Foundation, Akshaya Patra, Reliance Fresh, and Rotary.

In order to connect the farmers on the fringes with the primary supply-chain network, autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) created by ex-ISRO and IISc teams have been proposed as a solution. Using a hub-and-spoke model, these drones can bring smaller quantities of produce from nearby areas to the main hub located near a city. The proposal has been sent to the Ministry of DONER for evaluation.

The KisanMitr platform facilitates an engaging exchange between the supply and demand sides through chat, video meetings, rating system, and feedback forms. The platform also bridges the collaboration gap between the research institutes and the industry primarily via competitions in which difficult problems from the industry are posed as a challenge to the scientific community.

The project has received support from various departments of the government as well as private sector organizations.

PHASE V

There is a wealth of information which can be very relevant to the farmers which is carefully curated by various departments of the government, but it is locked in different platforms and not easily available to a common farmer. The fifth phase of the program focuses on filling this very gap, by combining data from various sources like IMD, ISRO, NWIC, etc. and making it available to the farmers in an easily understandable way.

 The office of the PSA started by connecting with all the relevant departments, and under the able guidance of the advisory committee of Dr Kalpana Shastry (Agricultural Expert, PJTSAU) and Mr Nagaraja Prakasam (Angel Investor, Mentor, Fund Advisor, board member for more than 12 Agriculture related industries) converted the idea into a feasible project.

The Atmanirbhar Krishi app has been developed by the Tech Mahindra Makers Lab (Research and Development wing of Tech Mahindra Ltd) as a part of their CSR activity, and the collection of data in a common repository has been done by Indian CST. Meark Enterprises provided project management services.

Each and every information has been carefully considered, and has been made easily understandable for the farmers. The app is available in 12 local languages, and is free of cost for any of the farmers, start-ups, KVKs, SHGs or NGOs to use. Considering the connectivity issues in the remote areas of the country, the app needs minimal internet.

More information about the ‘KisanMitr – Atamnirbhar Krishi App By PSA’ is available at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF2oITP1M8A

PHASE VI

This phase aims to provide details of agriculture related financial technologies (Agri-Fin tech) that will be useful to farmers managing their own accounting and financial statements, helping them understand in simple terms, their ledger and books of accounts and how to keep the records as well as technologies that will help any network of Non-Banking Finance Corporations (NBFCs) to monitor FPO financial progress. Start ups have several financial technology products that can be showcased here.

PHASE VII

The farmer families’ income can be enhanced by the use of allied businesses, which may contain non allied off farm industries like textiles, handlooms, jewelleries etc. apart from allied farm businesses like milk, post harvest enhancements and more.

There are many supplier technologies which are available in the off farm category, which need to be connected with the wider demand. Moreover, there are many startups or even technology research institutions who may be working on new technologies and are in need of funding as well as industry engagement. The demand side would be pleased to get a sneak peek at the upcoming technologies and they can very well connect in advance to understand the technology and promote the same.

The Kalamitr platform has thus been built to connect the technologies available in these domians to the wider demand. It provides the technology categorization into the 6Cs to indicate how the technology may help the user (Construct, Capacity, Create, Channel, Connect, Capital) and thus allows anyone to search and understand more about any given technology in more details.

Tech Mahindra Makers Lab (Research & Development Wing of Tech Mahindra Ltd) has built the Kalamitr platform which connects neatly into the KisanMitr platform. The suppliers can not only upload the information about their technologies onto the platform, but they can also connect and interact with prospective investors and buyers through the horizontal services like audio/video call, chat etc. provided on the platform.

The supplier technologies are being populated with the RUTAG data, whereas Industree Foundation is helping to get the demand side on boarded.

For more information, visit https://kisanmitr.gov.in/