Krishak Mitra

1.The New Idea

Krishak Mitra is a tool that will alleviate information and knowledge disadvantages for the 65 million+ small and marginal farmers living in India. Krishak Mitra utilizes IT in order to improve the capacities of Indian farmers to make economically optimal and environment-friendly decisions. By providing structured, critical agriculture information through their decision-making software, Krishak Mitra will improve the livelihoods of small and marginal Indian farmers.

2.The Problem

Due to the dysfunctional Agriculture Support Systems currently being employed in India, the farmers’ knowledge and information needs are far from being met. The public agriculture information system is simply not appropriately designed to help the farmers.

Small farmers in India lack proper information on how to develop an agriculture strategy, thus relying on herd-like approach on when and what crops to grow. Farmers do not have adequate access to the latest market & industry developments and best farm management practices. For this reason, farming decisions continue to be driven by herd-like mentality and do not take into consideration the individual resources of farmers.

3.The Strategy

Krishak Mitra is targeting small farmers associated government agencies, rural kiosks and social organizations. They intend to collect fees from the sales of decision-making software to IT kiosks that provides relevant rural information, which effectively update the farmers about latest industry and market developments. Krishak Mitra plans to utilize the rapidly expanding network of Rural IT-kiosks in India in order to reach their target and work towards their social mission.

Through this valuable resource, farmers are able to make economically optimal decisions through better selection of inputs, crops and improved farm management. This tool will empower the farmers to make decisions based on market and technical inputs.

Krishak Mitra plans to use their technology to improve the decision-making capabilities of 65 million+ small and marginal farmer households in India and ultimately become the most preferred information and knowledge solutions provider to the Indian farming community by 2015.

4.The Person

Raghvendra Singh is a postgraduate in management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), and a graduate in Electronics and Communications Engineering. Raghvendra has successfully completed the course on "Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Frame Work" conducted by the World Bank Institute. With an inclination towards novel and cutting-edge ideas, Raghvendra has conceptualized and executed assignments in upcoming areas like commodity price risk management, weather-based crop insurance, urban management, and cooperative governance with prestigious institutions like Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), The World Bank, Participatory Research in India (PRIA), National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA).

Raghvendra has acquired a well-balanced understanding of village economics and the rural psyche through substantial first-hand experience in villages of nine states of India. He has honed his skills in risk management progressively, starting with design of crop insurance products (weather-based and composite) for Agriculture Insurance Company of India and moving on to commodity price risk management initiatives. Raghvendra keen insights in the domain of weather insurance products came to the fore during the India Crop Insurance Project where he was associated with The World Bank for development of weather insurance products for more than eleven crops (field/horticultural for both Kharif and Rabi season). Prior to this project, Raghvendra had played a pivotal role in the conceptualization and implementation of weather insurance pilots conducted by frontline voluntary organizations like FWWB-India, AKRSP (I) and leading seed companies like Pioneer Hybrid International and JK Seeds. In addition to his work in agriculture production risk management, Raghvendra has carried out a wide variety of assignments in commodity marketing and business research. He has also gained in-depth understanding of price risk management issues in agriculture during his work on a novel project for investigating the efficacy of commodity futures for price risk management. This initiative is being carried out with Cotton farmers in Saurashtra and involves multiple stakeholders viz. Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), NABARD, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India (AKRSP(I)), & Sajjata Sangh (a network of more than 25 leading NGOs of Gujarat). Raghvendra has proven project management skills evident from the wide variety of field assignments he has coordinated successfully. He has recently been involved with Wipro Infotech for the business planning of the leading insurance company of India in agricultural insurance and for suggesting an appropriate Information Technology plan to streamline and automate its operations. By virtue of his considerable experience in agribusiness and academic background in Information and Communication Technologies, Raghvendra has a keen acumen for conceptualizing and guiding the development of innovative IT-based applications for agribusiness. He is credited with the design of the world's first IT-based tool for automation of weather insurance product development process as part of his consulting assignment with The World Bank.