In the context of the new agriculture reform bills recently passed by India’s parliament, I came across this article on the need and opportunity for technology in Indian agriculture. The whole article, end to end, is a gold-mine. For anyone with any interest in building a business in the agricultural space after these reforms, this is a great read.
[A farmer looks for] answers to three basic questions—what crop to sow, how to grow it, and where to sell it… To be specific, there are three infirmities in the current agriculture extension system—insufficient knowledge creation, poor delivery of information, and an absent grassroots capability. We need to reimagine the agricultural R&D and the extension system by creating knowledge, disseminating personalized information through technology, and decentralizing knowledge delivery by empowering local channels.
On knowledge creation:
An extension officer visiting Kamlakant’s farm is often swiftly surrounded by a crowd of farmers waiting to get their query answered. To really address farmers’ knowledge gap, we have to create a knowledge bonanza… agriculture universities and institutes need to create open access online agriculture courses (like courses on Udemy, a popular online learning platform) on horticulture, soil science, nutrient management, crop protection, greenhouse cultivation, post-harvest management and cold supply chain.
This is an enormous opportunity because
Currently, over 94% of India’s 138 million farm landholdings do not receive information through the agriculture extension system due to which smallholder farmers continue to be far less productive than what’s possible.
On information delivery:
Smartphone for all can be a real gamechanger as it would solve for all the three questions that Kamlakant and his ilk usually have at the beginning of every cropping season…. Recently, during the lockdown, tomato prices plunged, causing tomato cultivation to decline. If Kamlakant can find out that there are fewer tomato growers in the same way Google Maps informs us about the route which has less traffic (past trends would indicate that less cultivation could result in a price rise 2 months down the line), he would plant tomatoes. Data can help farmers make safer bets and get better prices.
On grassroots capability:
With cheaply available online courses, young graduates and even progressive farmers can self-train as extension officers and fuel on-farm innovation… When every farmer uses a smartphone, it becomes easy to develop mass contact farmer-to-farmer data sharing as well as individual contact with farmers. Armed with individualized information, farmers make independent data-driven decisions and mitigate harmful herd behaviour. Smartphones help gather large amounts of data quickly, contributing to better policymaking.
Hugely inspirational. At the same time, I balance excitement with experience of how slowly things move. Back in 2006, I had written a guest post on a website I cannot remember, on the (Indian) state’s excessive interfering in business – a subset of that ended up becoming a post on this site. I remember that guest post had references to what could be possible with information delivered over SMS and focused radio stations accessed via phone calls, all over hardy Nokia dumbphones. A decade and a half later, after the mobile revolution we’re talking about smartphones for all farmers, but the information gap remains.