For any industry, minimising wastage is a challenge. For a sector as massive as agriculture, this becomes even more critical as every decision farmers make will affect not just the planet, but also their own livelihood.

How to tackle this problem?

Probably, India-based precision startup Fasal could help here.

An end-to-end farming app, Fasal helps horticulture farmers make smart decisions in order to maximise their yields and minimise wastage of resources, thus building a more sustainable farming culture.

What to grow?

“When a farmer wants to grow something, the first thing that he/she needs to do is make a decision about four or five things. For example, if one wants to grow a tomato, one needs to make a decision about what variety will be best suited to his weather conditions,” Fasal co-founder Shailendra Tiwari says in an interview with e27.

In his observation, farm-level decisions essentially involve thinking about irrigation, fertilisers, disease management, pest management and climate risk management. Once all these are done, the next set of decisions are made close to the harvest period about whom to sell and at what price, etc.

Although it may seem easy, these decisions are complex in nature and require plenty of predictions and analysis. Due to the lack of smart technology, most farmers are largely making these decisions based on guesswork.

“Fasal comes in handy when it comes to making a decision. A farmer with the help of Fasal can easily understand what crops are best suitable for him, when he should start growing the crop, when and how much should be irrigated and which disease comes when,” he explains.

Also Read: What Asia’s smallholder farmers really need and why startups should lead this uncontested race

Fasal Kranti

The agritech startup recently launched Fasal Kranti, a plug-and-play IoT- and sensors-based system, which helps farmers reduce their cost of cultivation and improving their per-acre yield and quality of produce.

Its sensors can monitor micro-climatic factors such as rainfall, wind speed, wind direction, LUX (unit of illuminance), solar intensity, micro-climatic factors such as temperature, humidity, leaf wetness, and below the soil parameters like soil temperature and soil moisture at multiple levels.

Fully assembled in India, the device — priced at INR 30,000 (US$407) — helps farmers in precisely managing irrigation based on specific crops at a specific stage, protecting them right from the roots of the plants and hence improving the quality of yield.

Fasal, which in October last year raised US$1.6 million led by Omnivore and Wavemaker Partners, claims that by using its device, farmers can minimise chemical residue, water usage and spray costs to up to 50 per cent.

Water-saving in irrigation will also lead to saving clean water for sanitation and other purposes, making it sustainable for the environment.

Other than having useful properties, the device has also been put together in a way that is easy to use.

Also Read: Israeli agriculture technology Phytech harvests its Series A

Once Fasal Kranti is purchased, it is deployed in a box in a completely assembled manner. All the farmer has to do is take out the device from their box and install it on the ground.

Fasal has been deployed on 10,000 acres so far.

Fasal’s rural economy vision

Despite being the second-largest producer of horticulture commodities, India (a US$3.4-billion precision agri and farm management market) fails to export even two to three per cent of its produce due to lack of quality.

By helping in the production of better quality yield, Fasal aims to improve the country’s broader rural economy and ease the life of farmers.

“We believe that in the next five to 10 years when we have deployed millions of these devices across the farms, the farms and villages may look very different. Our food will be a lot safer. We would be consuming probably half of the water that India is consuming for agriculture. Our farmers would be making a lot more money than they are doing right now,” he added.

And the moment the farmers have some more money in their hand as compared to the current situation, it is going to bring a lot of change in a rural economy.

“We believe the villages and the farmers’ standard of living may look very different. If the farmer is going to save costs in buying land, he will probably put that money in their children’s education that is going to usher a new era,” Tiwari said.

Follow your soul mission

On being asked about advice for startup founders, Tiwari humbly refused to offer any but he shared that entrepreneurship is not an easy road and sucks the life out of a person.

Also Read: What Asia’s smallholder farmers really need and why startups should lead this uncontested race

“But at the same time if you have genuinely found your calling, and believe what you are doing actually resonates with your soul, even the toughest of days won’t take you to a place where you wonder why you are doing this. You will be able to serve people nobody would have imagined you could, you will be able to build technology nobody would have imagined you could and you would be able to impact lives in ways that you will only recognise and understand after years,”.

“So however difficult it may seem, if you have truly found your calling, just go with it and then let time unfold and let time decide but give it your best,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: Fasal

 

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