A social enterprise specializing in technological solutions for the “Base of the Pyramid” market is eKutir. In its first decade, eKutir has successfully extended opportunities for a range of impoverished and marginalized communities, including over 70,000 smallholders. Farmers have gained access to crucial information, products, services and markets, increased yields and income, reduced food waste and seen steadily improving soil and ecosystem health.
eKutir’s solutions restructure Agri advisory into time-bound, easily digestible steps/recommendations delivered at the appropriate time of the cropping season. This pathway results in individually tailored, immediately actionable advice to farmers based on a combination of their progress in the growth cycle and real-time weather data.
It automates the delivery of general business acumen to farmers and create several delivery routes that cater to both literate and illiterate, smartphone-enabled and smartphone-less farmers. Let’s find out how eKutir is helping in making a change for good in the agricultural industry through the below highlights of the interview:
Brief us about the Founder/CEO of the company and the major contribution of him/her towards the development of the company.
Krishna Mishra, Group Chairman and Founder of eKutir and Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Blooom
Krishna Mishra, a social entrepreneur, and innovator is the Founder and Chairman of eKutir group of companies. He has 30 years of leadership exposure in social entrepreneurship and Bottom of Pyramid market. He has a strong experience in rural banking, agriculture, microfinance, development, and technology services. He is a Global Ashoka fellow and widely recognized for his inclusive business models and social innovation. KC has been instrumental in driving excellence from his wide range of experience in the domain of agriculture, sanitation, and clean and affordable energy for the Bottom of Pyramid population in rural areas.
eKutir is India’s first B Corp certified company and provides digital technology solutions anchored through a network of trained micro-entrepreneurs to accelerate sustainable growth in the farming communities. It has been working with smallholder farmers and impacted 74,000 farmers and improved their livelihoods.
Their human centric model has generated more than 4000 micro-entrepreneurs and has presence in India, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Haiti. KC is an alumnus of Delhi University, India and certified in “Innovative organizational model of farmers, Corporate Leadership and sustainable new generation Co-operatives” from Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership (GICA), University of Missouri, Columbia, USA. He has been inducted as “Ashoka Changemakers” Fellow in 2012.
Suvankar Mishra, Executive Director of eKutir and CEO and Co-Founder of Blooom
Suvankar Mishra is the Executive Director of eKutir and CEO & Co-Founder of Blooom. He is serial social entrepreneur, TEDx Speaker and Forbes 30 under 30 nominees. Under the leadership of Suvankar Mishra, eKutir has achieved multiple accolades. eKutir has been awarded by Facebook, Internet.org, and MIT inclusive Innovation challenges, Grand Challenges India, USAID, and BIRAC etc. The strong impact creation has been published by McGill University and IFPRI which sighted the farmers’ income levels has increased as much as 200% from using the eKutir model. Deloitte has highlighted eKutir as one of the twenty social enterprises reaching into the deep pockets of low-income, BoP communities. Suvankar is an alumnus of Stanford, Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, USA. He is an engineer from BITS, Pilani, India.
Tell us about the services you provide through your venture.
Our tech platform (Blooom)
Blooom is a comprehensive, modular tech platform that can be used via an Android mobile application and a web-based interface. Two subscription plans are available, with the more expensive option offering additional in-person services such as training and field demonstrations. Blooom consists of the following components.
Pre-Harvest
The goal of Blooom’s pre-harvest side is to increase crop productivity and sustainability, while de-risking and reducing the cost of cultivation. It enables previously disconnected smallholder farmers to access a market of vetted, high quality seeds and other agricultural inputs at discounted prices. Complemented by an inexpensive soil testing solution, a dynamic, highly context-sensitive smart farming engine provides advice on what, when and how to plant, nurture, and protect from disease, and through recurring use builds the ability to give farmers an RoI forecast for each crop.
Risk – The first pillar of our Financial Inclusion through Risk Management (FIRM) approach, this module assesses each farm based on a comprehensive list of 169 risks that may affect smallholders. Part of the process is automated based on existing data on location, size, soil quality, etc. Another part of it is based on data input by Blooom entrepreneurs or farmer collectives. One of the results is a customized risk mitigation strategy that guides farmers through the necessary steps to minimize risk factors. The other is a risk score, which helps financial institutions, assess whether they are able to provide loans and insurance to previously data-less farmers.
Plan – Plan gives farmers an overview of the required activities and nutrients for each crop before making a purchase, and once they have used the platform for a period of time, it can tell them their expected returns on investment, based on a range of factors including land size, soil quality, available inputs, season, climate, market prices and trends and farmers’ previous transactions. It warns if there is a resource gap between the requirements of the selected crop and the soil quality and inputs available for the farmer.
Seed – If one had to name the single most important component that a farmer’s fortune hinges on, it would be the seed. In developing markets, procuring high quality, soil-appropriate seeds at the right time is a very significant challenge. This module recommends farmers best fit seed based on local availability, climate, season, and data from soil analysis. It tracks farmers’ previous purchases to ensure regular seed replacement in order to prevent soil exhaustion. Once farmers have made a choice, the platform aggregates local demand to ensure the best possible price from a marketplace of vetted, trusted suppliers.
Nurture – Nurture uses data from soil testing to recommend farmers the most appropriate fertilizers for their selected crops, helps them purchase from trusted suppliers at discounted prices, and then provides them guidance on the timing, dosage and application procedure of fertilizers throughout the crop cycle. The module emphasizes organic fertilizer use and precise application to avoid excess dosage, currently common with smallholders.
Protect – This module helps farmers prevent, as well as diagnose and treat crop diseases. Similar to other components of the platform, it enables the procurement of the appropriate protective and curative products at discounted prices, and then provides guidance on the right timing, dosage and application procedures.
Please share some success stories, awards and accolades that the company has received.
The most interesting outcome and new challenge for the development of our platform came again from an unexpected outcome. In peri-urban areas in Odisha, many of our Farmer Interest Groups gradually organized themselves into “vegetable clusters,” while the poor population in the nearby urban areas was reported to consume less than 60% of its recommended vegetable intake, leading to health problems.
We have received funding to create more immediate market relationships between these farmer clusters and the urban poor, making vegetables more affordable and accessible. The core challenge of the project was connecting farmers to consumers in a direct and effective way – however, we also had a parallel mission: giving primary role to women on every side of the intervention. In the model that we have created, urban consumers could either shop in newly set up micro retail enterprises called VeggieMarts or purchase online for doorstep delivery through the Veggie Kart site and app that we connected directly with the backend that our micro entrepreneurs used.
Awards and recognitions
eKutir is India’s first Certified B Corporation accredited by the US non-profit B Lab, which measures and holds for-profit companies accountable to the highest level of social and environmental impact. Its work has been featured in a number of international journals and popular write ups.
Brief us about the future of the company or the goal it has set to mark its exceptionality in future.
Our ten-year vision: Democratizing the future of farming
In developing countries, smallholder farmers feed 60 to 80% of society, yet they are not fully a part of it. They are deprived of information, access, attention and respect. Their lives are steered by forces that they are helpless against – be it the below-market prices that buyers offer them, or the next drought or flood brought about by climate change.
Currently, most smallholders are isolated from solutions, at the mercy of an increasingly hostile environment. That is going to change. Ten years from now, farmers will act with a sense of agency, in a market defined by mutually advantageous relationships. They will see opportunities around them, and will know how to seize them. In our vision, farmers do not feel that they are ‘beneficiaries.’ They feel in control.
