Dear Rodinhooders,
Last week, I presented at the Rodinhoods Open House about my startup Svadha – a for profit social enterprise which aims to making farming smarter and more efficient.
As someone who comes from a business management and liberal arts background, I couldn’t quite figure how I would meet the right kind of people who can bring tech skills on the table for Svadha. Luckily, Rodinhoods’ Yin-Yang Matchmaking section came to my rescue! 🙂
To say that it was a great experience would be an understatement. The Open House was lively, buzzing with energy, laughs and brainstorming galore and the insights that all presenters got, myself included, was very constructive and valuable. This session helped me get in touch with a lot of people about my idea and also interact with them about the potential possibilities of working together and getting suggestions of whom they could connect me to in related fields. I realised (huge thanks to Asha Chaudhry for this) that I should definitely make the most of the Rodinhoods’ online platform to connect with other like-minded Rodinhooders, who could not be present that at the Bangalore OH, about my idea. So here goes:
For me, it started three and half years ago with the simple nagging of question of ‘why is the farming sector, which is supposed to be the backbone of our economy, so inefficient, ill-planned and ridden with gaps?’
A lot of research into the field exhibited the multiple gaps that existed – from on farm inefficiencies, lapses in supply chain, poor warehousing, corrupt and cumbersome rollout and receipt of subsidies and policies which are unfavourable.
To dive into this further, I said goodbye to my job in the e-commerce space and went from researching, studying and exploring this sector as an interest into full time occupation in the farming sector. I got into an organisation in Delhi with the aim of building a farm-to-store model for chemical free produce grown by farmers in Mewat- one of the most economically backward districts in Haryana, with the objective of building markets for it in Delhi NCR and led the Sustainable Foods & Farming Division for an year and half and we successfully took our farmers’ produce to market in stores and institutions across Delhi NCR. This experience made one thing pretty clear – there are glaring issues in every aspect of the agrarian sector, but the ones that stood out to me the most, were the ones on the farm!
What fascinates me is that even though a lot of interest exists from the government and centre and state level to fix some of the problems in farming, they have to rely on redundant government organisations and research institutes in this field. Furthermore, the state of agricultural extension in the country is deplorable so the entire responsibility of making sure the agrarian sector is performing well, which is the backbone of our economy, is left to the farmer who has to use his limited resources and the lack of support yet maintain production surpluses year on year.
The trickle down effect of inefficiencies which plagues the entire food system starts with the farm, which apart from having severe economic issues also puts the farmer at a very disadvantageous position where he/she has no bargaining power or say and hardly benefits economically or socially from being in this profession.
And that understanding got me to Svadha – a start up aimed at making farm systems and farming communities smarter, knowledgeable and more efficient! *cue lightbulb icon*
With this is mind, I started with the objective of developing farm management tools which would be a hybrid of technological platforms and advisory services to enable a shift to smarter and more efficient farm systems. The objective is to work on a consulting basis with governments, farmer groups, development organisations and NGOs to develop, execute and monitor the establish of stable holistic farm systems across India’s farmlands.
I am looking to team up with tech strong people who have a passion for solving pertinent problems in the field of farming or want to use technological for impactful disruption in the agrarian sector.
I see immense potential growth in this sector, both for good meaningful work and for people who choose to be a part of it. The big question is – could that be some of you? 🙂
To provide a clearer idea to the product offering I am talking about and its scope, do check out the concept note PPT embedded down below and I look forward to a discussion and potential collaboration on this. To connect further you can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter. Cheers!
Arpit Desai
Interesting !
Atul Wadhwa
Nice thought..lets see how u go n do further..my best wishes..good luck..
Harsh Gilda
Hi Sharadha,
I would like to draw your attention to few simple observation, I may be wrong though:
CMS information is aggregated, collated and available through govt. portals and govt. runs necessary programs at right time through internet, radio, TV, SMS, Aanganwadi, Agriculture schools, Gram Panchayat and Gram sevak networks etc. and still has failed to mark a significant change in Indian farming.
Farmers in India are falling behind to Global standards is because of many reasons I am listing down 2 reasons which I have noticed recently while talking to the farmers:
1. Inefficient decisions: Farmers are not trained to evaluate risks and take right decisions for example: 70% probability of El Nino was confirmed in January 2014, with a chance of 20% drop in rainfall and 15 day delay in rainfall. The information was well in advance communicated in Rajesthan and Madhya Pradesh to all the farmers. However all the farmers went ahead and grew Soyabean which has high water requirement. Now Soyabean production is 25% lower as compared to last year. Also the quality is poor because of poor irrigation.
2. Low trust in new farm tools and Methods: Farmers are poor and don’t have risk taking appetite. They don’t try new techniques or seeds, manure till they have seen results. Also they don’t trust advertisements. They rather believe in word of mouth of distant relative who lives in far off village and try a manure/seed then a gram sevak/Aganwadi worker of there own village (Gram Sevak Knows more about soil quality and climatic conditions of their village).
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
I have rarely met someone with your levels of passion. The day you wanna quit the farm, contact me 🙂
Naresh Manchanda
Very interesting.. Absolutely eye opening..Whats agricultural extension ?
Sharada Vadlamani
Hi Harsha, the facts you have mentioned are absolutely correct. There are CMS platforms avilable through government portals. However, the quality of content, its updation and the overall quality of these sites are bad. Furthermore, the farmers barely know of these portals, let alone have access to it. TV and radio are informative but since they give general information, the whole aspect of agricultural extension and advisory for specific problems based on the actual affected farm is not possible.
Like you said, the decisions farmers are making is inefficient. But it is the direct result of the lack of adequate institutional support which the govt. has provided for but is dysfunctional in most parts of the country.The low trust on methods exists as farmers have most times not even aware of new methods and tools which the horticulture/ agricultural departments and universities are failing to disburse at the needed pace.
My objective is to fill some of these gaps with the understanding that a) general information helps only so much, we need to create pockets of localized data to really help farming communities have a access to relevant data pertaining to their area, collected by them, for them and b) like any other sector which needs minds to be thinking constantly about how ensure constant innovation, we need to start thinking about making our farms smarter and more efficient.
Look forward to more discussion with you on this! 🙂
Sharada Vadlamani
Thank you Alok. Knowing your appreciation for my passion to be in this field pumps me so much, it makes me want to work harder and do some good work in farming. Which decreases my chances of quitting the farm. But this makes my day! 🙂
Sharada Vadlamani
Hi Naresh. Thank you. To answer your question, agricultural extension is very simply the extending of new methods, tools and crop varieties to the farmers by the agricultural research institutes and state agricultural/ horticultural departments. It can range from being an activity that is completely govt held, to having private parties empanelled with the govt handling this. For detailed information, read this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_extension
asha chaudhry
hey sharada,
long time no word! any updates on svadha?? do tell!
Tarun
Hi sharada.
Kudos….actually thanks for foraying in this much needed sector. My brother is M.Sc guy who had his own software development firm. He has also moved to farming sector. Will connect u two and share the challenges and opportunities of tech farming in a detailed post on trhs.
asha chaudhry
hey sharada,
we’re really interested to know what’s happening at svadha!
do check agrowbook out and give this rodinhooder some feedback – you’ve got synergies!!
https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/easing-pressure-on-resources-in-urban-zone-by-agrowbook-com-way
Sharada Vadlamani
Hi Tarun,
Thanks a lot for your kind words. It would actually be wonderful if you could me to your brother as I am looking to partner and interact with people who have some background in tech and can think on how it can be used with respect to solving problems in the farming sector. Look forward to your connect.
Cheers!
Sharada Vadlamani
Thanks Asha! 🙂 Will be sure to have a look at it and connect at once. The search for like-minded agriculture buffs is still on! 🙂
Dear Cofounder, Where art thou? 😀
asha chaudhry
sharada!!!!!!
that would make a beautiful post – Dear Cofounder, where art thou?!
:))))))))))))))))))))
meanwhile, next week – we’re starting a series, “How I met my co-founder” :)))))
asha chaudhry
knock knock sharada!
this might interest you!!
https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/early-preview-harvesting-analytics-for-your-farmland-1