An overarching framework to understand digital agriculture and emerging business models.

1. An overarching
framework to
understand digital
agriculture and
emerging business
models

2. What

3. Porter’s Value Chain Framework
Competitive Advantage by Porter (1985)
• Corporate success driven by linkages
• Linkages enable seamless cooperation
and information flow
• High transaction costs and co-
ordination costs weaken linkages*
• Challenges for farm as an ag enterprise
• Technology Development/R&D
mostly through public institutions
• All activities other than operations
dispersed across public and private
institutions
• Weak bargaining position and high
transaction & co-ordination costs
• Many variables within
operations/production Eg. Weather
Farmer
Government
Private Sector
Consumers
Research & Extension
Land, Water, Machinery, etc
Self, Family, Farm Labour
SAUs, Public Institutions, private sector
Govts, Agriculture Dept
Fellow farmers/Community

4. Canvas for ICTs 4 Ag
Knowledge
Intermediaries
Government
Departments
Distribution
Channels
Ag
Marketing
Structures
Research2Farmer (R2F)
Government2Farmer (G2F)
Private2Farmer (P2F)
Farmers2Consumers (F2C)
• Extension
• KVKs
• NGOs
• Federal vs State
• Multiple Departments
• Subsidies
• Mostly input companies –
fertilizers, seed, pesticides
companies
• ICT enabled innovation
happening -Evolutionary
& revolutionary
• Knowledge seen as a
means to build customer
loyalty
• Lot of ICT innovation
• Market linkages is a very
broad term – processor,
aggregator, retailer, end
customer
• New business models
emerging – ICT is a critical
enabler
• Precision farming
• Irrigation Automation
• Data driven farming
Operations
Peer to Peer collaboration platforms
• Community learning
• Aggregation models
• FPOs

5. Innovation Spectrum of digital agriculture
Digitization
(evolutionary)
Disruption
(Revolutionary)
• Mainly three themes
‒ Disintermediation
‒ Uberization
‒ Expert Systems – AI, ML and Big Data
• Digitization of supply chain
‒ No structural changes
• Disintermediation and Uberization impact commercial aspects of agriculture
• Expert systems enable computers impacts human computer interaction – offers mass customization
• Six Broad areas/themes
• Research – extension – farmer linkages
• Peer to peer collaboration
• Governance to Farmer engagement platforms
• Risk assessment and monitoring platforms
• Market linkage platforms
• Agriculture operations

6. How
“ Fall in love with the problem, not the solution” – Uri Levine, founder of
Waze

7. launched on February 13, 2017 to accelerate opportunities for agri-tech in India
ICRISAT’s digital agriculture innovation platform
• Incubators are traditionally means of scaling out – peripheral departments within organizations
• Incubation as a means to provision and research/learn about Digital Ag
• DA products and services development and provisioning needs an ecosystem of diverse
institutions
• Ihub provides ICRISAT researchers’ access to cutting edge innovations from IT eg. Drones, IOT, AI,
Big Data, block chain etc
• Ihub facilitating digital transformation of ICRISAT’s projects – sourcing innovation

8. KALGUDI
Intello Labs
TITSC

9. Our Portfolio
and
Achievements

10. Portfolio and updates
 Intelligent Systems Advisory Tool (iSAT) and Sowing App for climate risk management in collaboration with
Microsoft and SACSA
 Nearly 4,000 farmers receiving advisories from pilot
 Positioned DA to propose weather forecast based agro-met advisories to farmers
 Co-developed MEASURE, a web and mobile based platform for ICRISAT’s M&E needs in collaboration with
Verdentum
 Ten projects of ICRISAT using MEASURE for M&E.
 Demand from other institutions Eg. ILRI (AVCD), TAAT etc
 Platform has nearly 400k records.
 Exploring use of AI, ML to develop deeper insights
 Digital Seed Catalogue and Roadmap tool developed and maintained with support from TL III and HOPE 2
projects
 Catalogue has curated information of 252 varieties across 7 crops through workshops
 Continuation in AVISSA
 agSKILLed – mobile app to launch MOOCs courses

11. Achievements
 Ihub brand well established and recognized
• Private capital - PEAT Gmbh ( 5 Mn Euros) and PALS Global
( 5 Mn USD)
• Impact at scale – Plantix (7 Mn +), Kalgudi (2 Mn +),
KhethiNext (0.5 Mn +)
• USAID case study and BDP commissioned Accenture
review complement ihub as a radical new way of
provisioning and researching Digital Agriculture
 Publications/Other
 2 research publications (1 peer reviewed), 3
conference papers and articles in prestigious
magazines (CIO Business Review), Ethical Corp,
DownToEarth
 Live tracking of FAW spread with plantix and
CABI will be presented at ICT4D
https://plantix.net/en/live/fall-armyworm

12. Outreach and engagement
 keynote address in CII regional events (2) and invited
speakers/panelists at GFIA, ICPP, IRC, GDI (Univ of Manchester), GBC,
ICT4D etc
 Knowledge partners (Ag track co-lead) of the annual ICT4D conference
 Nurtured strong partnerships with Microsoft, Cyient, Source Trace,
aWhere, CRS, CGIAR BDP, CG centers, NABARD, State Governments etc
• 3 training programs in 2018/19 on IOTs in agriculture for senior
officers of NABARD

13. Learnings and research questions
 Transaction fee based revenue models for disintermediation and uberization
 Information is still not paid for but is valued by farmers – capacity building is still donor and govt funded
 Options ?
 Bundling with inputs to create brand loyalty amongst farmers
 Insurance companies and financial institutions have an incentive to serve this to farmers
 Agriprenuer/infomediary based business models (last mile – 1 model)
 Shift in agriculture less technological and more social
 Less a platform play and more a ground level game
 Agriprenuers/self appointed extension agents - business development and fulfilment
 FPOs can wear the hat of Agriprenuers and better positioned for success
 Possible Research questions
 Framework for design of Digital Agriculture for small holder systems
 Role of user experience and drivers of adoption
 Big data for small holder agriculture/AI in agriculture
 Innovative uses of latest digital technologies Eg. Blockchain in agriculture

14. Thank You

15. Innovation Spectrum of digital agriculture
Digitization
(evolutionary)
Disruption
(Revolutionary)
• Mainly three themes
‒ Disintermediation
‒ Uberization
‒ Expert Systems – AI, ML and Big Data
• Digitization of supply chain
‒ No structural changes
Static digital
Content
Dynamic/
Interactive
Consumable
Content/
Knowledge
Personalized/
Contextualized/
Insights Driven
• Foundational for Decision Support
Systems (DSS)
• On farm management tools possible only
if this is available
• IOTs
• Plot level aerial imagery
• Analytics
• Investment needed in making content dynamic and consumable – knowledge engineering
• Disintermediation and Uberization impact commercial aspects of agriculture
• Expert systems enable computers impacts human computer interaction – offers mass customization
Personalization

16. Plan for 2019 – 21 (Asia)
• ICTs for managing climate risk
• iSAT and Sowing App; Mobile app for weather forecast (IITM) based agro-met advisories
• Drones for Agriculture
• surveying and crop health monitoring in collaboration with IDC for Karnataka
• M&E modernization
• MEASURE for IDC projects and Walmart
• Digital Learning platforms/tools for farmers
• MOOCs courses (Ground Nut and Tomato) for farmers in Andhra Pradesh
• ICT based market linkages and platforms
• Digitization and linkages of SERP FPOs in Andhra Pradesh
• Crop Insurance
• Design and deployment of digital solution to quantify agri-risk for crop insurance (OMDC)*
• Collaboration with Agrifortis and Geoclidian to support service design for crop insurance sector*
• AI, ML, Big Data and strategic initiatives in Agriculture
• Strengthening and scaling up the plantix app in collaboration with PEAT Gmbh
• Blockchain in agriculture – successful pilot with ELEVEN01 and KhethiNext
• IOT based smart farm at ICRISAT
• Exploratory use of ML and AI on MEASURE data and support DG’s science initiative
• Mobile based soil health determination with FFEM (ihub incubate) and IDC
• Engagement with NABARD and other big donors (BMGF, GIZ, CTA, WB etc)

17. • Strengthening and enabling digital agriculture
ecosystem in ESA and WCA
• Continuing support of MEASURE for M&E and
Digital Seed Catalogue and Roadmap tools
• Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD)
• MEASURE platform deployment and usage
for M&E
• Digital interventions across AVCD value
chains
• Accelerated Varietal Iprovement and Seed Systems
for Africa (AVISSA)
• MEASURE platform deployment and usage
for M&E
• Digital Seed Catalog and Roadmap
improvements
• Work on new proposals in WCA (MANOBI etc) and
ESA (Digital Agriculture Hub on the lines of ihub)
• Continued engagement with strategic partners and
donors
Plan for 2019 – 21 (Africa)