Application for the Shuttleworth Foundation was a thought provoking and clarifying process. While we did not get selected, capturing in this blog post our application and what we had said in it. The basic questions are often the ones that make you think most isn’t it!!
Hello Shuttleworth Foundation! I am Vartika, a rural development professional. We set up Vriddhi Rural Prosperity Services 3 years ago with purpose to develop services that accelerate the process of impact in areas such as the central Indian tribal belt. Through this video we will try and give you a glimpse of our work, what fires us, what frustrates us, what keeps us going, our approach and our plans as they are unfolding now!
So, first let’s start with setting the context.. where do we work? Why do we work here? Why here? The clip you see is drawn from a film we made on precision farming for one of our partners. It is the geography where our beta version has been released and where in partnership with some of these farmers, our idea of I am Kisan is taking life.
Harichandanpur is one such tribal dominated block. There are 900 of them, as per 2011 census data, spread through the centre of India, on the borders of states, state, market interventions still appear distant from them. They could wait for digital solutions to come to them, once proven elsewhere. We believe that the solutions need to be tailored to their reality and needs…
These are mostly first generation vegetable farmers. These needs are universal for anyone in vegetable cultivation…
They need: information on good agriculture practices
They need: information and access to good quality planting material and seed varieties
They need: expert advice on managing pests and diseases, with access to external inputs
They need finally: information and linkages with buyers and prices intelligence so they can make a decision on where to sell their produce.
n India, 41% farmers receive formal extension, 20% of those are from other farmers themselves. Actually, the farmer needs all of these players – companies with their new products, expert farmers with their lived experiences, non profit and other extension agents with their informed and well intentioned thinking. However today, on the supply side, these providers operate independently and on the demand side, the smallholder farmer individually has a very small economic footprint.
We believe technology can provide a solution to this. We therefore work to increase information on market and farming techniques to reduce risk and improve decision making
The challenges to this are many, some of them obvious. Infrastructure – both of devices and connectivity, farmers scattered over poorly connected areas, villages that are cut off by rains…. Physical infrastructure, digital, behavioral. Research globally also shows that those with socio economic disadvantages are usually not able to access the opportunities of the internet because content is not timely, relevant, relatable to them.
We set up a digital platform – available as an android application. In its beta version, launched in Feb 2018 it was available also as offline product. We realized it needs to be dynamic, searchable, curated. We made the changes in the next version of the app. Showing us that actually what needed to change was behavior! While we can work on it, it is needs an ecosystem to change behavior. What we can do is to understand decision making better. We need to find ways to reach the farmer at the time when she is deciding through whatever digital tools currently available… gradually moving them onto the app itself..Behaviour changed through positive experimentation, one aspect at a time.
Take for example Vishnu Raut, a farmer in Southern Odisha. He uses the price information that he receives by SMS to negotiate the rate with the local buyer. He has a smart phone. We are gradually transitioning them to the app – but after they have used the information on their terms i.e. via SMS.
With high interest among farmers, but low traction on the platform, we realized that we need to break this up into smaller pieces and go do bits of things… see what is working and bring that insight back to strengthen the platform. Also the experience will add some users to the platform itself… a bit like Vishnu bhai.
Let me take you through some of these, some also myth busting experiences. All these have given us some conviction that digital technology can make a difference, in the journey of these farmers. However, there is need for healthy technology skepticism, asking ourselves what it can do alone? And is that going to be enough? And accordingly have the courage and wherewithal to go do that much more. In the process of offering that, learn about user’s decision making process. We use that to change their behavior and our functionality and UX – step at a time!
Pointed Gourd is a very profitable crop. We made a video on this and published it via app and SMS to interested farmers. Youtube views were low as our motivation. Then our partner NGO – CInI – got a call. A farmer had seen this video and was interested to go for an exposure visit. The exposure visit was organized, farmers bought planting material and took the crop. Now, well packaged information here was critical but equally critical was a credible link to the “expert farmer” and some support for ongoing extension on return.
Watermelon sale: Farmers in the area had been growing but despite heavy production, their confidence was going down. Sale was a problem as it has a short selling window and needs link with larger markets. We started with the goal of “Zero loss for watermelon farmers due to low market linkage”. Our intervention was to reduce price assymetry, increase number of buyers coming to the area and help share good practices from successful farmers and common mistakes (like harvesting early). This project generated an experience for us on how weather information can be actually used by farmers. A cyclone affected the area, but no farmer lost any produce. Only 1 tonne was lost due to early harvest. Farmers reported increase in confidence on being able to sell themselves. The results will be reflected in next year area under cultivation
Good practices should spread by themselves among farmers. They dont. We had an opportunity to work with 250 farmers in Nayagarh in Odisha. We helped identify 5 practices that were already followed by farmers, by making their own investments. It resulted in cost and effort saving for the farmer. We found that farmer practice supported by an external validation, making specific aspects of the practice known to all is needed to encourage lateral adoption by other farmers. As an example, lets take this decomposer. More than one farmer swear by it, in terms of its impact on their soil. It costs less than half a dollar. However, buying and putting to use is not hasslefree. Spread of this good practice needs more than product information.
- Farmers don’t pay for information: We offered a market linkage service to bitter gourd farmers, many of who had already done watermelon with us earlier in the year. In one month, we generated credible offers from local buyers, increased number of buyers visiting the villages, improved price discovery by sharing prices of local and bell weather markets. 25 of the 50 participating farmers chose to continue the service by paying a monthly subscription fees, even while almost the same information is available on the app for free. It also showed us that only price information is not enough. Farmers are able to negotiate with their existing buyers, if they know there are others who will actually buy at the higher rate.
There is lots to do. We believe that the coming year is one of taking these ideas up together. We plan now to set up a few clusters of users, about 80% of the farmers in an area should be using our services. 1000-1500 farmers in one cluster. We provide them suite of services mentioned above, facilitating offline linkages where needed. We also bring in some technology solutions like raspberry pi based solutions to bring some good user experience of use of the app. We wish to partner with non profits such that they run channels of their expertise- sharing their content with the users of the platform, building on what is already there. We need to invest in our community of content creators, challenging each to build on the other’s ideas and insights.
As you can see, open is quite integrated in this idea. We are happy to share our hardware designs openly. We need to understanding IP implications on the openness for our android application. However, content is free to use. Our videos are hosted via youtube. We also host content generated by others via their own channels. We believe that technology allows ownership and collaboration to co-exist and that is another strength to why a tech platform is more likely to bring together stakeholders.
When we first started this work on the app, we thought it was a 3 month job. 3 years on, we are still at it. We are development professionals first. I first outlined this idea in full as part of a Chevening Gurukul Fellowship at Kings College in 2016. From the white boarding then to the work now, there have been many partners in this venture. First, is our content creators, expert farmers. They collaborate with us in sharing their experiences, trust us in working with them to find technologies that may be useful for them and bring their knowledge to farmers of other areas. Here, are Diwakar and Pramodbhai from Harichandanpur sharing their insights and experiences with farmers in South Odisha through farmer round tables that we call Pathogaro (drawn from a public reading space in rural Odisha). Second, non profit partners, Gram Vikas, CInI – each with their presence in the field and the larger development effort, which provides some incubatory cushion to efforts like ours. Third, our technology partners – developers, message gateway providers, hardware junkies who help innovate. Our promoters with their conviction and scepticism, insights and expertise that they bring to shape the idea. And firmly, finally, it is the user who gives us their mind space by remembering I am Kisan and in trusting us to give them information that helps them take better decisions. We hope Shuttleworth will also join us in this journey!
