Futuristic Roadmap of Farmers

A Case Study by IBM

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Case Overview
The Indian Agriculture Industry has seen crises in-spite of the huge potential. The unique
challenges are
 Reduced acerage (90% of farmers in India have less than one acre)
 Reduced crop yields
 Lack of access to markets
 Lack of knowledge about latest agriculture practices and market supply demand means they
are unable to plan their crop before the season start and end up growing crops which will
lead to a glut in the market i.e. grow onions when there is already a surplus of onions in
market.
 Low access to formal credit and dependency on borrowing working capital from
moneylenders at high rates i.e. millions getting trapped into a debt trap.

Government is trying to support the farmers by providing certain fertilizers at high subsidy
(Urea) which has led to overuse of chemicals and further affecting soil quality and future yield.
The Government has also tried to provide free electricity which has led to unsustainable farming
practices i.e. overuse of water. This leads to introspections around:
 What solutions could be implemented to transform the Indian Agriculture System which will
be impactful as well as create sustainable development?
 What kind of technology innovation will be required to scale up the future growth?
 How can you help farmers to plan his crop cycle using technology?
 How would the solution help the farmers in his day-to-day life?
Futuristic Roadmap of the Farmer Journey
Unfortunately, the present farming journey is often complicated and overwhelming. There are
many steps from the time the farmer plans a crop and finally earns revenue. Throughout this
journey, which can often be an emotional one for the farmer and family members, they interact
with different stakeholders.

Expected Deliverables/Outcomes
Devise a roadmap with short and medium-term goals which focuses on the farmer “journey”
using below inclusive list of parameters:
What will the transformed life of a farmer look like?
What kind of solutions envisaged for crop planning?
How to make farmer aware and educate them on judicious usage of chemicals and water?
How to help small farmers access the market better?

Format
The case analysis document must be in MS Word/PDF format
Must not exceed 2000 words (excluding exhibits and excel sheets)
Must use the font Arial with text size of 11

References
Yara and IBM join forces to transform the future of farming