The document outlines a proposed mobile agriculture (mAgri) platform called Farmdream that would connect farmers, buyers, and sellers. It would provide (1) agricultural information and advisory services, (2) a marketplace for produce transactions, (3) access to financing and insurance products. The team has over 100 years of experience in mobile services and agriculture. Their strategy involves user research, localized content, prototyping, and partnerships to realize the mAgri opportunity.

2. The vision
Enabling societies
through sustainable
technology

3. The customer
Direct customer:
1. Farmers; agricultural products buyers; farm input
sellers (seed, fertilizer, pesticide etc.); banks;
insurance companies; health companies
Indirect customer:
1. Big Data Analytics Relevant government
department or institution; Agricultural products
and service company; Other FMCGs/organizations
that want to target the farmers

4. The target market
All farmers and farm produce buyers who either
1.own a mobile phone or
2. have access to internet.
Jilin Province:
GDP:500 billion
Population:28.3 million
Shandong Province:
GDP:2,951.2 billion
PopulationL94.3 million
Mainland China:
1.22 Bil Mobile Phone users
Pilot phase target

5. The market trends*
1. 1.22 Billion mobile phone users
2. 591 Million internet users and 464 Million Mobile internet users
3. E-commerce applications witnessing fast development in the field of mobile
phone terminal, online payment took a lead, up by 3.9% over the end of 2012,
and the size of mobile online
4. payment users increased by 43.0%. In addition, the utilization ratios of mobile
shopping, mobile
5. group-buying and mobile online banking grew by 3.3%, 2.1% and 2.7%
respectively compared
*2013 - 32nd Statistical Report on Internet Development

6. The market size
1. Total China
• Annual agricultural products trade business: $ 625Bn
• Famer population: 0.7Bn, 53% of total population
• 80% of all farmers (and family) have a mobile phone
2. Select Provinces:
• Jilin province: The top agricultural province in China NE
• Famer population: 1,755M, 65% of total population
• Shandong province: The top agricultural province in China
• Famer population: 5,700M, 59% of total population

7. Poor farmers (below the international poverty line) are
also willing to pay for the service*
20% fall below Int’l
poverty line
$0.55/mo.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
mKisan Tigo Kilimo
International
Poverty Line
National
Poverty Line
20.2%
10%
36.6%
13%
$0.06/use
*GSMA report - India

8. Case Example: mKisan, Handygo India
Content
Categories
Pull Channels
Push – SMS
IVR
Helplin
e
Crop Advisories X X Optional
Livestock
Advisories
X X Optional
Market Prices X X X
Weather X X X
1. Subscription based service (~$0.55/mo.) offering a range of
agricultural information via multiple mobile channels
2. Farmers receive daily SMS tips and can access specific content
via IVR menus navigation or calling a dedicated agriculture
helpline
3. Operating on a revenue share with MNOs, they are projected to
reach break even within the mFarmer grant period
Indian States Language
Uttar Pradesh Hindi
Bihar Bhojpuri & Hindi
Madhya Pradesh Hindi
Maharashtra Marathi & Hindi
Andhra Pradesh Telugu
Karnataka Kandada

9. How does Farmdream make money?
1.Commission on transaction of goods
2.Subscription fee for member
companies
3.Advertising revenue
4.Big data analytics service fee

10. Farmer’s Challenges = Farmdream Opportunities
Productivity Losses
Poor knowledge of agri-inputs & nutrition, new
technologies
Non-availability of prices for crops across markets
Lack of accurate weather information
Supply Chain Inefficiencies
Gap in supply-demand match
Intermediaries act in silos
Poor logistics – causing wastage
Financial Exclusion
Non availability of loans, payment
facilities, savings
Non availability of insurance for
protection against
crop failure
Key Challenges mAgri Applications & services
Information & Advisory service
Agriculture, livestock & nutrition services
Market prices
Weather forecast service
Supply Chain services
Raw materials sourcing and enhancement
Real time visibility of supplier networks
Track & trace facility of products in
supply chain
Mobile Financial services for farmers
Payments enabled by m-payment facility
Availability of savings, credit products
Micro insurance for crops
* Source: The Mobile Economy 2013, GSMA

11. The problem
1. Pricing Information Asymmetry leading to inefficiencies in
the value chain.
2. Lack of centralized market mechanism leading to
inconvenience and dead weight loss for the farmer and
the buyer
3. Lack of transaction based market place leading to
resource wastage
4. Lack of ranking mechanism making it difficult to rate
good/bad/ugly buyers and sellers
5. Lack of technology agnostic market platform leading to
exclusion of buyers and sellers
6. Lack of a centralized one stop solution leading to reduced
diffusion of financial, insurance and other modern
products

12. The solution
A virtual marketplace which
1. is easily accessible through any kind of mobile phone,
2. allows buyers and sellers to bid for products,
3. rank buyers and sellers based on the quality of the
transaction,
4. allows the buyer and the seller to complete the financial
transaction virtually
5. gives access to financial, insurance, farm input and health
products
6. gives a forum to buyers and sellers to exchange ideas,
share best practices and impart education

13. Product Overview
Agriculture Information Service
• Pricing information for produce by market
• Weather information
Agriculture Produce transaction service
• Buyer can procure directly from farmer
• Transaction to be done over Farmdream portal using mobile money
Seed/ Fertilizer transaction service
• Farmers can buy directly from the company
• Existing distribution channel can be used with Farmdream to organize ordering and
mobile money for payment
Agriculture insurance
• Cover loss during transportation
• Loss in crop
Microfinance loans
• Loans for the farmer to buy seeds/ fertilizers
• All exchange to take place through Farmdream using mobile money
The survey will mainly focus on the products and services listed below;
1
2
3
4
5

14. System Architecture Overview
TRADING PLATFORM
OPEN API
ARCHITECTURE
CUSTOMER INTERFACE

15. Trading Platform
1. The Trading platform is proprietary database driven
application designed on SQL and VB.Net
2. The Trading platform processes complex logics of linkages
of commodities with quality and manages bidding
processes and Transactions.
Open API Architecture
1. The open API interfaces are to integrate the platform
with various 3rd party systems and associated
integrations. Some of the Core API will be as
1. Web based communication API
2. Billing & charging API
3. Operator integration API

16. Customer Interface
The customer interface will be with the following
key components
Customer
Interface
Mobile
Applicatio
n
Web Based
Interface
Legacy
Telecom
Interfaces
(SMS, MMS
and USSD)
Social
Integratio
n

17. The team
1. More than 100 years of collective
experience in the field of mobile telephony,
mobile agriculture, mobile insurance,
mobile banking and mobile health products
2. Detailed knowledge of market conditions in
China
3. Access to MIT resources

18. Strategies for Realizing the mAgri Opportunity
1. Strong investments are needed in key areas:
2. User and content research
1. Uncover key consumer insights
2. Informs content development and service design
3. Engaging & localized content
1. Make people want to adopt what the content is advocating
2. Leads to demand generation
4. Service design
1. Prototype and user testing
2. Business intelligence
5. Marketing and distribution
1. Reach at the village level (ATL and BTL)
6. Partnerships