1. 2 nd National Workshop on “ICT in Agriculture & Rural Development” Project Sankalp A step towards eAgriBiz

2. Agenda 1. Introduction 2. Business Context 3. Application Software (FIMS) 4. Technology 5. Next Steps …

3. Introduction (What Project Sankalp is) Project Sankalp-  Is about achieving excellence in customer satisfaction  Has a wider scope and meaning beyond IT  An initiative of an AgriBusiness organisation The project we did at TCS for our client to achieve some of their goals of Project Sankalp through IT initiatives is the central topic of this presentation. Within the boundary of this presentation, we will use – Project Sankalp – narrowed down to only IT initiatives. Being an AgriBusiness initiative towards customer satisfaction, Project Sankalp is primarily focused on farmers.

4. Introduction (Problems addressed by Project Sankalp) ProblemsSolutions 1 Economic ConditionsLoan facilitation 2 Slow Agriculture Extensions and lack of timely information/education to the farmers Information centers, Agri experts’ field visits 3 Inappropriate usage of agri inputsSustainable agriculture through Soil testing, counseling on appropriate usage, information centers 4 Poor returns due to lack of market access and market price information Contract farming, information centers, collection centers 5 Lack of quality consciousnessCrop guide, crop monitoring, information centers, counseling 6 Reach to the farmer at individual levelInformation centers, Agri experts’ field visits, group formations, counseling 7 Weather dependencyInformation centers, loan for irrigation resources

5. Business Context The implementation of the solutions mentioned in the previous slide is through the sales point, who are franchisee driven. The business provides all the support to the franchisees through its regional offices. The franchisees are encouraged to promote other programs along with the product sale. The IT support was planned in the phased manner. Development of an application to support the services to farmers like contract farming, agri-finance etc. was in the scope of phase I of the project. TCS developed the application and implemented it along with the financial accounting product - EX Smart Accounting - at all franchisee locations. All regional offices and corporate office implementations are designed to get the consolidated results of the franchisee business. The next slide is a pictorial representation of business setup

6. Business Context Corporate Office Regional Office Dealer + Advisor Farmer (individual)Farmer (group) Dealer + Advisor

7. Application Software (Farmer Information Management System - FIMS) Personal detail Land Holding Demographics Buying pattern Cropping pattern Group Formation Group information Farmer – Group Association Membership plans Family Insurance Soil testing Training Agri Finance Counseling Crop Guide Buyer Contracts Crops under buyer contracts Farmers under buyer contracts Crop Monitoring Procurement Bank Contracts Loan requests Loan Disbursals Repayments / Recovery Competitors’ sales tracking Farmer Profiles Group Profiles Services Contract Farming Competit ion Agri Finance

8. Application Software (Farmer Information Management System - FIMS) Personal detail Farmer’s Name, Father’s Name, Address, Birth Date, Area of Interest, Occupation, Education details, Family details Land Holding Farm Survey No, Size of Farm, Farm owner’s Name, Irrigation Details, Soil type Machinery details Machinery used, Status of ownership Source Source of Technical Help, Agri Finance, Soil Testing, Agri inputs, Rental Machinery, Market access Demographics Village details including population, status of village in terms of wealth, facilities available at village level like School, Hospital, Agri Dealers, Agri Finance source, Bus route, Railway station. Cropping pattern Crop and variety sown in particular time span, Seed Type Used, Seed Rate, Yield (kg / hector), Income Buying pattern Details of Agri inputs purchase for a given time span Farmer Profiles Group Profiles Services Contract Farming Competit ion Agri Finance

9. Application Software (Farmer Information Management System - FIMS) Group Formation Farmers are approached and inspired to form a group. This concept replicates cooperative farming approach through which farmers can share agriculture resources to optimize cultivation cost. Group information Group details Group name, Address, village, Bank details for group, Details of Agriculture expert inspiring group Farmer Details List of member farmers, Joining and termination dates of member farmers, Details of group Representatives Payment Details Details of mode of payment and amount as membership fees, Insurance details of member farmers and their family Farmer – Group Association Farmer can associate himself to a group according to his convenience e.g. group of farmers producing cotton. Farmer Profiles Group Profiles Services Contract Farming Competit ion Agri Finance

10. Application Software (Farmer Information Management System - FIMS) Membership plans Farmers are inspired to purchase membership at some nominal fees to access paid services. Membership is for some specific time period during which farmer can access any of the services according to strategy of the business holder. FIMS tracks membership process with necessary data. Family Insurance On purchase of membership, farmers are given self and family insurance. System keeps track of all require data regarding this service like Name of insurance holder, Nominee details. Soil testing Soil testing is a special service given to member farmers to guide them further for crop cultivation. Training Member farmers are invited in training sessions for technical help and support. Agri Finance Farmer or group of farmers is eligible for accessing loan facilities, FIMS keeps track of entire Loan Cycle. Counseling Crop Guide Member farmers are supported in their farming activities with best package of practices through crop guide Farmer Profiles Group Profiles Services Contract Farming Competit ion Agri Finance

11. Application Software (Farmer Information Management System - FIMS) Buyer Contracts For contract farming facilitation business holder does contract with food industries and other buyers. FIMS tracks Buyer details, Contract details like contract validity, contract amount, type of contract. Crops under buyer contracts FIMS gives liberty to associate crop with a particular Buyer contract. It keeps track of crops under a given contract, quantity of crop assured, acreages, expected quality and prices offered. Farmers under buyer contracts with specific crop FIMS also facilitates to associate farmers with a particular Buyer contract and crop. System captures necessary details like farm survey no, total acreage under contract, quantity assured by farmer. Crop Monitoring FIMS captures details of field visits of agriculture experts. System tracks details of farming activities, suggestions given to purchase agri inputs, Production estimations for given time period. Procurement FIMS tracks entire procurement process by capturing Buying process details like Farmer’s and Buyer’s details, details of transaction center, Buyer contract details, Crop, quality and quantity details and Price details. Farmer Profiles Group Profiles Services Contract Farming Competit ion Agri Finance

12. Application Software (Farmer Information Management System - FIMS) Bank Contracts Finance plays the major role in agri business. FIMS tracks entire Loan Cycle. System captures Bank Contract details including Bank Name, Contract Date and Validity and amount of contract. Loan requests Individual or group loan applications can be entered in to FIMS against a Bank Contract. Loan requests include Loan owner, Credit limit of a farmer,Date of Application, Validity, Amount requested, Loan status, Type of Loan (Cash/Kind). Loan Disbursals FIMS tracks disbursal details for a given Loan. It includes data related to farmer receiving loan, amount disbursed at farmer level, Disbursal request date, mode of payment, Activity for which disbursal is requested. Repayments / Recovery Repayment or loan recovery is important process of Loan Cycle. FIMS tracks Loan Recovery by capturing Loan owner, Installment amount, Date of Installment repaid, Mode of payment. Farmer Profiles Group Profiles Services Contract Farming Competit ion Agri Finance

13. Application Software (Farmer Information Management System - FIMS) Competitors’ sales tracking System facilitates to capture equivalent product details which are manufactured by competitors. FIMS gives liberty to capture farmer wise transactions of competitors’ products that includes Farmer’s Name, Competitors’ Product Name, Date of Transaction, Quantity purchased. it allows to track competitors’ sales. Farmer Profiles Group Profiles Services Contract Farming Competi tion Agri Finance

14. Technology (FIMS)  Hardware platform-  Intel pentium III or above with 128 MB RAM, 30 GB HDD recommended  Distributed desktop application at franchisee locations  Data movement to and from franchisees and regional offices is through dial-up, physical media  Data transfer between corporate and regional offices is through VSATs  Data gets consolidated at regional and corporate level  Software platform-  Visual Basic 6  Crystal Reports 10  SQL Server 2000 / msdb  Multilingual Support  Support for English and Hindi interfaces  Translation + transliteration from Hindi to English for consolidation

15. Technology (FIMS) Salient Features of FIMS are -  User friendly GUI with impressive outlook  Interactive search facility in each module  Object Oriented design  Data consolidation at regional and corporate level  Open and extendible design, features like automatic reconciliation with bank can be easily build  User authentication and role base access for system security  Current implementation is interfacing with EX Smart Accounting, though its not tightly coupled with EX  Large number of reports providing analytical information for decision making

16. Next Steps … Future considerations- Online access to “Crop Guide – In Regional Language” to support farmers for general crop cultivation practices. Online guidance for Mechanized Farming. Online guidance on best Post Harvest and Storage Practices Providing online Market Information and Market Access. Providing online Weather Information and alerts. Making farmers aware of world class quality features of different crops in demand. Making farmers aware of Sustainable Agriculture Practices. Providing information on “ Conventional Energy Sources and their uses at farm level” to optimize cost. Supporting farmers to solve their personal queries by associating them with agriculture experts and technologists. Online training sessions for farmers on wide range of topics with multimedia application. Approaching farmers to improve their literacy level, decision making and making them over all educated. Keeping farmer community up to date with latest updates and decisions of Government, Banking Sector, Insurance Sector, Domestic and International Institutions and Universities. Encouraging farmers for transit towards Hi – Tech Precision Agriculture by supporting them in all means.

17. Next Steps … Following projects are under consideration as part of phase II of the Project Sankalp.  Web portal  Interactive TV  E-Kiosk It can be seen from the above list that phase II is aiming at information dissemination to farmers

18. Questions Your questions …

19. Thanks