Presentation made at CII MSME Conclave at Chennai August 23 2012 . venkat subramanian , founder efarm www.efarmdirect.com

1. eFarm
Enabling FArmers to Reach Markets
Using IT to Solve the Agri Crisis
Venkata Subramanian , Founder - eFarm
Presented at the session :
The “As You Go” Magic Wand that makes
IT affordable for the micro-enterprise
Knowledge Partner for the
Session Event Organizer

2. Introduction : The Founders
Venkata Subramanian , COO Srivalli , CEO
MS (Computer Science), SUNY Albany, MBA (ICFAI), 2000
Newyork , 2003 B.Com Taxation, NMKRV, 1997
B.Arch , IIT Kharagpur , India , 1995
Over 12 years experience (1995-2007) in IT 8 years experience in Sales, Marketing, &
industry in roles such as Program Operations. Has run two start-ups and organised
management, Portal development for BFSI fund raising for NGOs as part of CSR programs.
clients, Outsourcing and Consulting
Technology & Marketing and
Operations HR
Domain
IT / Call entre Operaions Call centre Marketing HR Finance
Consultants
IT Dev. & Testing Purchase & Call centre / BPO
Interns
Team Delivery Team staff
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3. Currently Better known as ….
‘Hi-Tech Subziwallahs’ of Chennai
Can privatizing agriculture solve
marketing problems?
Farmer’s Notebook , M.J. PRABU
A network of collection centres and distribution centre in
Chennai and surrounding districts, procuring daily from over
2500 farmers and supplying to leading retail outlets,hotels,
caterers and restaurants in the city.
Most Promising
Startup 2011
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4. What does a ‘Farmer’
got to do in a
‘MSME’ Conference ?
Farmer as an entrepreneur

5. Villagers are ‘illiterate’ .
How can they understand
hi-tech?
Mobile phone
Social Networking : urban v/s rural
Education v/s Intelligence

6. Farmers are poor and used
to ‘freebies’.They cannot
afford to ‘buy’ ?
Land cost
Mobile phone + top up
How we counter ‘freebie’ argument

7. Pain areas | The Agri Supply Chain
Current State : Too Many Steps , Too Little Value Addition
Harvesting of • Unorganized , unregulated Terminal markets to
Vegetables
, unprofessional & unprofitable neighborhood wholesalers
•A Middlemen’ dominated market
1 •Adhoc /Arbitrary Decisions on quality &
price
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Regional mandi to Wholesalers to Retailers
4 Terminal markets near
A local mandi large cities
auctioning 2
Local to Regional mandis
for Auction
6
Loss in transit
40%
Price hike Retailers to Dining Table
3 End to end
> 400%
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8. So many solutions , but why still a crisis ?
“Blind men and the elephant” syndrome in agri
R&D Without
FDI in
Retail reliable
Increase
yield and
LIVE data
Contract any
farming Export
market
agri
intervention
Or
agri-business
will be
A
Cold
chain
Subsidies, L
failure
GM foods
oans, grant 8
s

9. Lack of Data| No visibility to supply or demand
Reality Check
• No accurate , dynamic data
on supply
• No market research on
customer demand
• No data = Wild guesses ?

10. “Desi” Problems need ‘Jugaadu’
solutions

11. What does Farmer ‘really’ need?
Key problems for farmer
Suppliers Transporters
1) Limited choice of buyers
2) Lack of Labour
3) Rising Input Costs of agro-supplies Buyers Labour
4) Rising Transport Costs
5) Unviable market prices
eFarmdirect.com
All other Industries use Web portal | Call centre| SMS
ICT tools and Software
applications to manage
operations
Whereas,
efarmDirect is a
Farmers have not been
B2B online platform which uses
IT enabled and are cut
simple ICT tools to
off from the ‘new’
CONNECT farmers with all the agri
world
supply chain stakeholders to build a
nationwide farmer’s marketing
portal
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12. DEMO : EFARMDIRECT

13. How Does It Work ?
1.Collect Details are in
Farmers efarmdirect website
Information
•Registration process
•Video/Presentation
7.Expand to 2.Collect
new locations Buyers
Information Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
3.Setup Rural Call
6.Labour centres
Dynamic updates
through mobile/sms
Buyer-Seller
matchmaking
5.Transporters
4. Register Agri
input suppliers /
dealers
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14. How to Access the eFarmDirect Platform ?
Human-Technology Interfaces
eFarmDirect Platform
Voice enabled
Human-
Computer
Franchisee / Interface
Call centre / Web portal /
Sales person , SMS
Rural BPO (IVRS / Web 2 Mobile devices
Human assisted
voice / Natural
language
processing)
Expected Usage pattern : Sales person/Franchisee ( 25% ) , Local language Call
centre / Rural BPO (45%) , IVRS / Voice driven self driven – (10%) ,SMS – 15%
,Web / Smart phones < 5%
Why ? -Most people are ‘off the web’ as in remote areas , Primary users not computer savvy
www.efarm.in | www.efarmdirect.com |
Technology development will focus on enhancing expected usage/behaviours through
Strictly Confidential | Materials may be 14
any interface THEY choose ,and subject to copyright | Do notthem !
NOT force ICT on circulate

15. Revenue Model
Farmer Buyer Input Labour Transport Notes
Supplier er
Registration 50/- 100/- 200/- Rs 10/- 100/- ONE TIME,
& Activation LIFETIME
VALIDITY
Usage fees ANNUAL
Individual 600/- p.a 1500/- p.a 5000 p.a 120 p.a 1500 p.a
user
Monthly 60/- pm 150 p.m 500 p.m 15 p.m 150 p.m To encourage
‘top-up’ small users to
option/fee signup
Corporate 6000/- 12000 p.a 18000 p.a 1000 p.a 15000 p.a Multi
/Large unit p.a users/chains/NG
Os/Federations

16. DATA COLLECTION - FARMER
Production data
• Produce name, variety
• Grade
• Typical yield at harvest
• Harvest cycles
• Cost price at farm gate
• Organic ? Certifications ?
Farmer information
How data is collected ? • Name
• Address
•At farmer mela’s and • Contact number
exhibitions • Preferred mode of payment
•Through partners like NGOs, • Bank / Post office details
KVKs, Agri institutions, rural • Photo
banks and MFIs • Attestation
•Through franchisees Other information
• Land type/irrigation type
• Banking information
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17. Basic Buyer-Seller Search and
Features
Search by
produce, availability, quantity,
price Demand /
Supply
projections
for future
planning
Farmer/buyer Map view for
details with locating
contact info farmers by
area 17

18. Advanced Features
Rating and review
mechanism
farmers and buyers
can provide feedback
which builds
transparency and
Audio Visuals Marketing identifies ‘good’
Farmers can add performers
audio/videos/pictures
about their produce /
products to showcase
uniqueness
GROUP view
map small farmers to respective
SHGs, Federations and Institution –
enables ‘aggregate’ of quantities
to meet larger demands as a
‘combined entity’
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19. Value proposition |
Connecting the Dots
Cleaning / Packing
Quality
Inspection/ Grading
Routing
Every stakeholder is alternately a
Long haul buyer or seller of agro goods, linked
Transportation
together by a common system.
Thus :
Develop Online supply chain
Rural Produce
Collection Centres Small retailers
Local vendors Technology backbone with offline
distribution mechanisms
Farmers
Create a network of farmers,
Urban area intermediaries, logistics providers,
Distribution centre
Local
Distribution distributors and retailers
Provide common support services
like marketing , training ,
Compost/Manure
from waste
Food Processing
units
technology and agri business
consulting
Bulk buyers
(Hotels / Caterers /
Retailers)
Exports ‘Organize’ the ‘un-organized’ rural
eFarm Common Services
to urban supply chain
Planning &
Coordination
Research
Call centre /
Communication
Technology
Training &
Support Manage the network to ensure
sustainability across the chain

20. Livelihood Generation and Social
Impact
• Creating Agri entrepreneurs in Rural Areas
• Rural youth/ Women are trained as local representatives for data
collection/updation
• Revenue from commissions and value added services
• Providing Employment for Disabled and Under
: priveleged
• Call centres/BPOs operated by differently abled – visually challenged
, speech/hearing impaired
• Job opportunities for those tapping unconventional talent pool of India
• Reverse migration to villages
• Create labour pools of semi-skilled labourers for farm work who are
available ‘on-call’
• Create central equipment leasing model so that farmers can ‘hire-an-
equipment and operator’ to reduce equipment costs
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21. Next Training Session
Venkata Subramanian
Sep 1st & 2nd Founder & MD /COO
venky@efarm.in
(M) 98847 61354
Srivalli Krishnan
Co-Founder, Director /CEO
srivalli@efarm.in
(M) 7418844275
•Company website :
•www.efarm.in
•Farmers Portal :
•http://www.efarmdirect.com/
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