Driving Commercialization, Digital Transformation and Ease of Doing Business for Farmer Organizations

Digital Transformation

Data Driven Agriculture for Advisory & Market Linkages, Digitization of Data & Records,

Business Intelligence for Compliance’s

Facilitating Farmer Producer Organizations to move into Digital Space.

Current state of affairs –

  • FPOs are registered under different statutes are required to comply with certain requirements with regard to preparation and publication of financial statements
  • Reduced mobility and social distancing norms severely affected the training and capacity building activities. The agony is further magnified due to lack of ability in attracting and retaining rural professionals with most of them leaving the FPOs high and dry in critical situations like Covid-19.
  • Banks reported inability to process loan applications due to their restricted ability to travel for physical verification and other documentation process.
  • Unable to provide need based advisory services to its farmer members due to lack of farmers data in digital form.

These are some of the major issues , FPOs in rural areas face today.

eFresh Technology Solutions

eFresh based on the ground realties in rural areas, the nature of transactions and the skill sets of staff working at the FPOs,  leveraged customized , simpler and  user friendly technologies for different needs of the FPOs . Guidance documents for statutory compliances are part of the solutions.

eFresh technologies will aid in digitizing all the data.   It will help regularly update   financial information  as required by the financial institutions, investors ,auditors , promoters. In addition, provision of need based online advisory services, prediction of agri inputs required and expected farm output can also be made.

eQMS
A Quality Management System solution for managing governance, risks , compliances and business
  • Maintains all FPO records in digital format.
  • Provides tracing, retrieval of records or data on-demand online.
  • Facilitates the maintenance of records as per statutory requirements. Matters concerning expiry of licenses, stock insurance and maintenance of inventory are made easy .
  • Addresses human resource related issues in an orderly manner to ensure continuity.
  • For grant providers, it will enable easy access to utilization of funds. Examples: Capacity building programs and other related activities.
eMerchant
Comprehensive accounting suite with point of sale for FDC's/FPO's

The need

  • In rural areas ,there is a shortage of professional accountants to handle the general accounting software’s like Tally to improve the business efficiencies of FPOs
  • Banks reported inability to process loan application requests due to their restricted ability to travel for physical verification of stocks and other documentation process.
  • Present practices of using dash boards for business analytics and development is also lacking.
  • Limitations in online access to the lenders of financial data related to the funds utilization by FPOs is common

 
Solution

We have customized eMerchant software to meet the needs of the FPO in better financial management. Key aspects like purchases, sales, expenses, fixed assets ,other income, procurement of farm output from its members, farm machinery hiring  GST, income tax compliances are addressed in a simple manner. The software is user friendly and  helps the management to improve the business operations through data analytics. Auditors/ lenders  can complete the digital audits using the remote access. Profitability statements can be generated any time and from anywhere.  A novel feature is to get real time view of the financial status .

eFreshfdc.com
e-commerce site for agro input products

With our vision to reach the farmers at their doorstep at the FDC locations, eFresh launched its first e-Commerce Platform  (www.efreshfdc.com ) at FDC, Jagitial, Telangana State

Based on the experience of the FDCs, eFresh has ventured into a e-commerce mode to usher in ease of doing business for the farmers and the stakeholders. Both information accesses from the comforts of home and product delivery at the doorstep can be facilitated through this initiative.

 

A key feature will be the availability of services through the online mode. Creating awareness about the product to the services can be followed up to help the farmers make informed choices on advance booking, placing purchase orders and payment through digital mode.

 

For eFresh, the huge advantage will be to reduce the crowding in the Physical store with products, better space utilization, maximizing the offerings in each store and also extend various financial, marketing and advisory services through a phased manner over time.

 

Going forward, this platform can be made available at other potential FDCs

eFarmery
Online knowledge portal providing good agricultural practices

The prime focus is to bridge the skill and learning gap in the FPO eco system.  This will used for capacity building of Board of Directors , management staff at FPOs and the farmers visiting the FPO premises.

  • It is connected to the smart TV placed at FDCs
  • Showcasing the success stories of the farmers in different farm related activities
  • Host the range of agri inputs and other farmers related products to create awareness to FPO and its members.
  • Popularizing good agricultural practices and latest organic and ecofriendly farm methods
  • Providing real time agri commodities prices
  • Facilitating ease of doing transactions like purchase of products
  • Listing of important upcoming agricultural  events
  • Hosting govt schemes and policies
  • New technology updates
My Farmer Application
FPO member management

Through My Farmer App, FPO’s collect and manage member farmers of the FPO. The objective is to facilitate the  FPO to project agri inputs requirements, to provide crop based advisory services and  to know the expected farm output and enable establishing market linkages .