Crop Consulting Re-Defined For Small Farms
There is one thing that completely struck me when we started customer research in the agricultural industry: Professional farmers regularly ask crop consultants for help.
We met this tomato farmer, growing nothing but tomatoes for almost 10 years in more than 6ha of greenhouses. One single plant species for almost a decade, every day. Yet still, this perfectly reasonable and pretty smart man is relying on the services of a Dutch horticultural consultant, visiting him EVERY WEEK to improve the conditions in his greenhouse.
Why Growers Need Help
Farmers basically operate companies, we just call them farms. And just like every other company, they face all different kinds of challenges. The farmer has to take care of a plethora of tasks, way beyond only growing plants. They have to understand the market, need to sell their crops, find and train labour, operate complicated machinery and technology, be fluent in rules and regulations and then shit hits the fan and all of the crops are lost because of a heavy disease infestation in the whole !/&!%$ greenhouse. Why haven’t you seen this coming?
Because it’s freakin’ hard, that’s why! Crop cultivation systems are so complex, it’s incredibly hard to understand the dependencies between the different components of the system. Plus, every farmer sees nothing but their own farm, day in, day out. They get so used to the daily routines that it’s sometimes hard to see discrepancies.
The Biggest Challenge
“Knowledge still is the biggest challenge in agriculture today.”
Jacco van der Wekken, CEO Delphy Groep NL
The moment I heard this sentence in a meeting with Jacco van der Wekken, CEO of one of the biggest global crop consultancies called Delphy, I was absolutely baffled. Delphy employs over 200 consultants and operates globally. Jacco wasn’t talking about the developing world, but rather about the professional agricultural industry. Think huge greenhouses or open fields, heavy investments and well-trained labour.
How could this be? We’ve been growing plants for tens of thousands of years and still people don’t know how to do so properly? Plants seem to be some seriously complex pieces of work!
The Problem With Traditional Consulting
There’s a broad range of crop consulting services available on the market. You can use them to buy the help of experienced agronomists, sometimes they also do their own research to be on the cutting edge of applied science. They are typically based on year-long contracts and assign you to one consultant. It’s like marriage, but you only talk about plants and tech. Amazing, isn’t it?
Yes, if you can afford it. This is why smaller farms rarely rely on these services, but rather turn somewhere else for help. If you’re lucky, there are associations or state agencies you could consult. Maybe there are industry suppliers offering consulting services, but if you ask Monsanto what to do then what do you think they will tell you?
Bummer. What else could you do? Ask The Internet. It is open and full of valuable information. It is everywhere, this information, floating around just like this. Problem is: these little bubbles of precious truth float in a sea of bullshit and nonsense and everything looks the same. In the end, you spend three times as long to validate information than to find it in the first place.
Stripping Down Consulting
Sometimes you just don’t need to get into a dedicated relationship with a consultant. Sometimes, all you need is help. What if you could instantly ask a trusted source, a real expert with years of experience in his or her field of expertise? What if you could pay a small amount of money and just get help. Quick!
Hm. Why not?
Introducing: Farmee Experts
A couple of weeks after the meeting described above, me and my co-founders at farmee went back to Delphy and presented our idea: a remote online consulting platform. And hey: they liked it. In fact, they liked it so much that we’re partnering for a pilot phase to kickstart Farmee Experts. It is based around the idea: What if you could instantly ask the best expert agronomists in the world and get an answer you can trust within 24 hours?
Our vision is to expand it into a digital consulting marketplace, connecting farmers to a broad network of specialised experts all around the globe. Farmers would no longer need to rely on one consultant for all their needs, but could build their own network of experts for different tasks. And our agronomists could broaden their client base globally, from the comfort of their homes. Imagine sitting on your sofa at night, quickly helping a young grower in a remote location of Canada, who hasn’t had access to professional agricultural services before.
This is how it currently works: Any farmer in the world experiencing an issue with their plants can post a question on the Farmee Experts web application, accessible from any computer or mobile phone with a browser. Within 24 hours, the question is answered remotely by Delphy’s experienced agronomists. Farmers just have to pay for this specific advice without any long-term costs. All questions and answers are private and cannot be seen by other users. As a special launch deal, Farmee Experts offers the first answer for newly registered users completely free. After that, any question will be answered for a fixed price of 49 USD during the market entry phase. And if you’re not satisfied, you get your money back.
Give us a visit, we’re here to help: https://experts.farmee.io
About Farmee
Farmee is a German AgTech-startup, developing digital solutions. Our mission is to enable people to grow better food. We are working on both digital products for ordinary people growing food for themselves and their communities as well as services for professionals, such as Farmee Experts.
Come visit us at www.farmee.io.
