2. 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%
3. 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 INDUSTRYRESEARCHERS
GOVERNMENT/POLICY MAKERS INSTITUTIONS, AGENCIESACADEMIA
ITSERVICEPROVIDERS
CONSUMERS
4. Higher input costs and falling productivity emerging
as key challenges
CHALLENGES
HorticultureLivestock
CropsSoil
AGRI-BUSINESS
MARKETS Under-developed Poor market intelligence Infrastructure
TALENT Quality Access, unemployment Skills
MACRO ECONOMIC Ecosystem Variability Inefficiency InfrastructureDemographics
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
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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
8. 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
