TCS mKrishi: delivering services to farmers via mobile technology
The mKRISHI initiative offers personalised and integrated services in local languages to farmers on their mobile phones. The service aims to enable farmers in remote areas to connect to their stakeholders, access good quality agricultural inputs, find advice on farming practices, and get information on market prices, weather and other information that can help in planning and boosting yields.
The mKRISHI business model involves Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) maintaining the software platform and inviting partners to use the platform to provide services and products to farmers. Revenue opportunities come from fees paid by farmers or by partners who use the platform to reach farmers.
Farmers using mKRISHI® form groups of 1,000 called Progressive Rural Integrated Digital Enterprise or PRIDE™. Collective buying through the 300 PRIDE™ collectives spread across 10 states has helped bring down input procurement costs for farmers. This helps them get much better prices for their yield.
Meanwhile, efficiencies in the field have resulted in over 40% increase in yield, and over 10% reduction in pesticides and fertilizer usage. The mKRISHI® platform crossed 1 million users in 2017, a figure its team aims to push to 100 million by 2020 – so that no farmer has to go hungry ever again.