What is Agrivate?
Redefining the Agricultural Dynamics with farmers Focusing on farmers connect at root level.
Agrivate is FaaS(Farming As A Service) that is solving farmers problem at the root level with cutting edge technology and services.
Agrivate bridges the gap between rural farmers to the technology and services to solve the problems at the root level and optimizing the conventional farming methodologies.
With technologies like GIS and IOT we provide services for pre-harvest and post-harvest period of farming that will help them to increase the efficiency of crop yield productivity.
Current services which are provided by Agrivate are:
Rent and Hire Services : Hiring and Rental services of small agricultural equipment’s to large machines through agrivate platform.
Agriculture Consultancy : We provide agriculture Consultancy services to help farmers to optimize farming and good yield production.
E-Market Platform : Online digital farming E-market platform for farmers to sell and buy at local and regional level with substantial logistics services.
Soil & Crop Health Monitoring : Soil is for the farmer what the pulse is for the doctor.We provide low cost smart soil and crop monitoring system to help the farmers facing farming decision predicaments.
Logistics : Agrivate provides transportation and storage services to farmers for small and large scale farming.Rent or hire storage location and transportation services.
Research and Development : Continuous research and development using cutting edge technology like GIS, IOT and Artificial intelligence to develop and build the low cost and smart services for farmers.
Current situation and the challenges?
Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58 per cent of India’s population. Gross Value Added (GVA) by agriculture, forestry and fishing was estimated at Rs 19.48 lakh crore (US$ 276.37 billion) in FY20(PE). Growth in GVA in agriculture and allied sectors stood at 4 per cent in FY20.
Small and scattered land holdings, high initial cost of equipment, non-availability of high-tech precision equipment, poor quality of equipment available in the market and poor after sales services are some of the major challenges for mechanization of Indian agriculture, which hinders faster growth of farm mechanization. The efforts so far have been mainly towards tractorization rather than mechanization of Indian agriculture. Although, farmers have a number of options for financing, a number of challenges continue to hinder credit flow within the beneficiaries. These include high collaterals, especially for loans of more than 1.0 lakh, high interest rates and relatively low repayment periods (5–7 years). Small and marginal farmers are still far away from the benefits of farm mechanization. Even after a large number of custom hiring centres are in operation small and marginal farmers struggle to perform the farm operations timely. Since,about 85 percent of farm holdings are under small and marginal category this group of farmers needs to be targeted with appropriate farm machines and technologies.
The Indian food industry is poised for huge growth, increasing its contribution to world food trade every year due to its immense potential for value addition, particularly within the food processing industry. Indian food and grocery market is the world’s sixth largest, with retail contributing 70 per cent of the sales. The Indian food processing industry accounts for 32 per cent of the country’s total food market, one of the largest industries in India and is ranked fifth in terms of production, consumption, export and expected growth.
In India, agriculture supports 58% of the population. Around 51% of India’s geographical area is under cultivation. Major shares of its GDP comes from agriculture sector
The efforts so far have been mainly towards tractorization rather than mechanization of Indian agriculture. Although, farmers have a number of options for financing, a number of challenges continue to hinder credit flow within the beneficiaries. These include high collaterals, especially for loans of more than 1.0 lakh, high interest rates and relatively low repayment periods (5–7 years). Small and marginal farmers are still far away from the benefits of farm mechanization. Even after a large number of custom hiring centres are in operation small and marginal farmers struggle to perform the farm operations timely.
Several studies suggest a direct correlation between farm mechanization and crop productivity. Use of improved implements has potential to increase productivity up to 30 percent and reduce the cost of cultivation up to 20 percent.
While the population of agricultural workers as percentage of rural population has gone down from about 69 percent in 1951 to about 55 percent in 2014–15 but in absolute terms, due to increase in overall population, the number of agricultural workers available in rural areas increased from 131 million in 1960–61 to 263 million in 2010–11 and corresponding power increased from 6.55 million kW to 13.15 million kW during the same time period. It is estimated that number of agricultural workers will increase to about 336 million and power available from agricultural workers will be 16.84 million kW in 2032–33.
Economies of operation : To ensure return on investment and make investment profitable in farm mechanization, area under operation should be grown, which has limitation.Though the gross cropped area can be increased by cultivating same land for more no. of seasons, which also has limitation due to unavailability of assured irrigation facility and favorable climatic conditions.
Uninsured market hence hesitation to invest : In the country like India, where population dependent on agriculture is more than non-dependent population, market for agriculture produce will remain as supply driven rather than demand driven. It leads to fluctuation of prices and low income. Farmers will not have confidence for earning income from agriculture activities. On other side, investment in farm mechanization takes longer period to repay.
Low awareness : When we talk about farm mechanization, we view it as only using of tractors, power tillers, combine harvesters and threshers. There are many other self-propelled machineries and equipment, which are suitable for small land holdings and can be used by even individual farmers. Farmers are not aware about these kind of machineries and implements and methods of using them.
Availability of Farm Power
Human power availability for agriculture was about 0.046 kW/ha in 1960–61.Average farm power availability for the cultivated areas of the country has been increased from 0.295 kW/ha in 1971–72 to 2.02 kW/ha in 2016–17,Which is estimated to be about 0.12 kW/ha in 2032–33
Over the years the shift has been towards the use of mechanical and electrical sources of power. In 1960–61 about 93 percent farm power was coming from animate sources, which has reduced to about 12.6 percent in 2010–11. On the other hand, mechanical and electrical sources of power have increased from 7 percent to about 87.4 percent during the same time period. It is estimated that by 2032–33 the share of animate source will be reduced to 4.1 percent in total farm power.
Food grain productivity in India has increased from 0.636 t/ha(Tonne per Hectare) in 1965–66 to 2.20 t/ha in 2013–14, while farm power availability has increased from 0.32 kW/ha to 2.11 kW/ha during the same time period. It is estimated that food grain productivity and farm power availability will increase to 3.96 t/ha and 4.81 kW/ha by 2032–33. The relationship between food grain productivity and unit farm power availability for the period 1960–61 to 2032–33 have shown a linear function, with highly significant value of coefficient of determination (R2= 0.99). It is also evident that farm power input has to be increased further to achieve higher food grain production, the composition of farm power from different sources to be properly balanced to meet its timely requirement for various farm operations.
The overall mechanization level in India is only 40–45 percent even though 90 percent of the total farm power is contributed by mechanical and electrical power sources. The average farm power availability needs to be increased to a minimum of 2.5 kW/ha by 2020 to assure timeliness and quality in field operations, to undertake heavy field operations like sub-soiling, chiseling, deep ploughing and summer ploughing.
The concerted efforts have resulted in the mechanization of critical farm operations of major crops in different states.The economic benefit due to adoption of improved implements is of the order of Rs 833.75 thousand crore per annum, which is only a small fraction of the existing potential for improvement (Singh, 2015). This has also resulted in generating employment to rural youths and artisans for the production, operation and maintenance of these machines. Due to significant and continuous reduction of the workforce in agriculture, higher levels of farm mechanization are necessary for sustainable productivity and profitability.
Major problems we are solving.
Farm mechanization : Several studies suggest a direct correlation between farm mechanization and crop productivity. Use of improved implements has potential to increase productivity up to 30 percent and reduce the cost of cultivation up to 20 percent.
While the population of agricultural workers as percentage of rural population has gone down from about 69 percent in 1951 to about 55 percent in 2014–15 but in absolute terms, due to increase in overall population, the number of agricultural workers available in rural areas increased from 131 million in 1960–61 to 263 million in 2010–11 and corresponding power increased from 6.55 million kW to 13.15 million kW during the same time period. It is estimated that number of agricultural workers will increase to about 336 million and power available from agricultural workers will be 16.84 million kW
The declining trend of drought animal power has been more visible in those states where the demand of tractors and power tillers has been high. It is observed that on average a tractor is replacing about 5 pairs of animals and power tiller about 2 pairs of animals. Drought animal power availability in India decreased from 0.22 kW/ha in 1960–61 to 0.09 kW/ha by 2032–33
Farm mechanization has been known to provide a number of economic and social benefits to the farmers. It saves inputs like seeds and fertilizers up to 15–20 percent and labour requirement and operational time by 20–30 percent. On the other hand, it increases cropping intensity by 5–20 percent and crop productivity by 10–15 percent. It helps in encouraging the youth to join farming and attract more people to work.
Food grain productivity in India has increased from 0.636 t/ha in 1965–66 to 2.20 t/ha in 2013–14, while farm power availability has increased from 0.32 kW/ha to 2.11 kW/ha during the same time period. It is estimated that food grain productivity and farm power availability will increase to 3.96 t/ha and 4.81 kW/ha by 2032–33(Figure 4.5). The relationship between food grain productivity and unit farm power availability for the period 1960–61 to 2032–33 have shown a linear function, with highly significant value of coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.99). It is also evident that farm power input has to be increased further to achieve higher food grain production, the composition of farm power from different sources to be properly balanced to meet its timely requirement for various farm operations
Studies have shown a direct relationship between farm mechanization (farm power availability) and farm yield. Farm mechanization is said to provide a number of input savings:
• Seeds (approximately 15–20 percent)
• Fertilizers (approximately 15–20 percent)
• Increased cropping intensity (approximately 5–20 percent).
To Increase the efficiency :
Aside from the above stated inputs, farm machinery also helps in increasing the efficiency of farm labour and reducing drudgery and workloads. It is estimated that farm mechanization can help reduce time by approximately 15–20 percent. Additionally, it helps in improving the harvest and reducing the post-harvest losses and improving the quality of cultivation. These benefits and the savings in inputs help in the reduction of production costs and allow farmers to earn more income.
Farm mechanization has been known to provide a number of economic and social benefits to the farmers. It saves inputs like seeds and fertilizers up to 15–20 percent and labour requirement and operational time by 20–30 percent. On the other hand, it increases cropping intensity by 5–20 percent and crop productivity by 10–15 percent. It helps in encouraging the youth to join farming and attract more people to work.
Soil fertility and Crop health monitoring via GIS : GIS can substantially help in effective crop yield estimates, soil amendment analyses and erosion identification and remediation. More accurate and reliable crop estimates help reduce uncertainty.
GIS tools and online web resources are helping farmers to conduct crop forecasting and manage their agriculture production by utilizing multi-spectral imagery collected by satellites.
The ability of GIS to analyze and visualize agricultural environments and workflows has proven to be very beneficial to those involved in the farming industry. GIS has the capability to analyze soil data and determine which crops should be planted where and how to maintain soil nutrition so that the plants are best benefited.GIS in agriculture helps farmers to achieve increased production and reduced costs by enabling better management of land resources. The risk of marginalization and vulnerability of small and marginal farmers, who constitute about 85% of farmers globally, also gets reduced.
Agricultural Geographic Information Systems using Geomatics Technology enable the farmers to map and project current and future fluctuations in precipitation, temperature, crop output etc
To monitor crop health, its growth and production various factors come into play such as temperature, irrigation facilities and the most important soil health condition. For this purpose government has launched a nation-wide scheme called soil health card.
Under this scheme mapping of soil is done along with its nutrient and sub-nutrient information like pH content, nitrogen, phosphorus, soil moisture et
Providing IOT based farming : In IoT-based smart farming, a system is built for monitoring the crop field with the help of sensors (light, humidity, temperature, soil moisture, etc.) and automating the irrigation system. The farmers can monitor the field conditions from anywhere. IoT-based smart farming is highly efficient when compared with the conventional approach.
One of the benefits of using IoT in agriculture is the increased agility of the processes. Thanks to real-time monitoring and prediction systems, farmers can quickly respond to any significant change in weather, humidity, air quality as well as the health of each crop or soil in the field. In the conditions of extreme weather changes, new capabilities help agriculture professionals save the crops.
We serve more services and technologies like agriculture consultancy,logistics and storage to the farmers so that they get the right resources and services to increase the productivity and profit. We are connecting with farmers at the root level and providing them high-end technologies in very simple way with proper information and communication so that they can use and operate technology very easily and efficiently.While connecting with farmers the most important thing is to connect with each of them and provide the trust and value, we are not serving only technology but also serving them full trust and value.We value our farmers and we serve them with our fullest potential,so that they provide the crops and food to our country and for themselves.
