Saturday, December 17, 2011

efarming in server

WIKI
Site URL: http://www.techoin.com/efarmwiki

Project Management
Site URL: http://www.techoin.com/manage

efarm project around the world

http://www.my-farm.org.uk/meet-the-myfarm-staff
A farm in Cambridgeshire is being run by Internet users from all across the world.

From their computers, they decide which crops are to be grown and what livestock is to be reared.

The MyFarm project, run by the National Trust, aims to reconnect people with the countryside.

But it has been criticised by animal rights campaigners.

Marco Leitão Silva went there to see how the online farmers are running their land.

Reporter: Marco Leitao Silva;
Camera: Carlos Martin Tornero;
Edition: Carlos Martin Tornero; Marco Leitao Silva.

@City University 2011
http://www.visitmyfarm.org/

myfarm project check it

A farm in Cambridgeshire is being run by Internet users from all across the world.

From their computers, they decide which crops are to be grown and what livestock is to be reared.

The MyFarm project, run by the National Trust, aims to reconnect people with the countryside.

But it has been criticised by animal rights campaigners.

Marco Leitão Silva went there to see how the online farmers are running their land.

Reporter: Marco Leitao Silva;
Camera: Carlos Martin Tornero;
Edition: Carlos Martin Tornero; Marco Leitao Silva.

@City University 2011

Farming Watch videos

efarm for all

For Farmers

For Buyers

For Intermediaries

Wider Market Reach

Procure all grades/varieties

Better prices

Accurate Weights

Market demand data

Lower/Stable prices

Consistent quality

Accurate weights

Timely delivery

IT/MIS support

Planned capacity utilisation

Linkages to supply and markets

Income from value addition

Consistent demand

efarm knowledge

what is efarm?

Overview

What if ... the farmer's supply information is available on web ?

What if... farmers can set their own minimum prices instead of middlemen ?

What if... multiple buyers can now bid directly for the produce ?

What if ...the transport from farmer to buyer can be booked and tracked online ?

What if ... payment ,delivery and quality can be assured to ensure both parties' interests are protected ?

What if .. we simplify the agri supply chain by shrinking the digital divide ?

What if... all of this is possible with just a mobile phone ?

Today's Dreams are tomorrow's reality ...

The Agri Crisis-Why?

The 'Real' Agrarian crisis

When one mentions 'agri crisis' most people associate it with farmer suicides, monsoon failures, poor yield , GM food etc.,Contrary to popular opinion, the real crisis in Indian agriculture is not because of poor farming practices, but more because of lack of organized marketing , supply chain & distribution .

An efficient supply chain is crucial for success of any modern industry . Though the Green revolution's focus was to increase the yield , as any economist would say, increasing supply without proper knowledge of 'demand' , would never yield expected results.

Thus , India is caught in situation where we are world leaders in 'production' but still having to 'import' even essential commodities. Our cost of production is very low, but our cost of local distribution is 3 times higher than world average making international products cheaper than home grown items !

The veggie trail

The following video clip (shot on locations surrounding Theni, Maduraiand Chennai )show the typical long and archaic route farm produce s take in their journey from farm to home.

As you can see from the video , the key gaps are :

- The produce changes too many hands , but very little value addition

- Crude weighing and quality control , leading to huge variation in grades and weights

- Mostly cash transations with no IT usage to record , hence no paper trail of volume or money involved

- Huge wastge in transit and poor handling

Why is there an agri crisis ?

The following presentation addresses further questions related to :

- Why modern retailers have not been able to create an impact ?

- Why government's various farmer centric initiatives and subsidies have failed to produce result ?

- Why data is crucial for any industry ?

WhyIsThereAnAgriCrisis.pdf

View more presentations from efarm123

it also outlines simple solutions , which form the basis of the efarm model

The eFarm Solution

eFarm's solution takes a more holistic approach , addressing the key needs and pain points of all stakeholders in the agri supply chain - farmers, transporters , intermediaries end consumers - to evolve a sustainable , transparent and efficient new distribution mechanism. It operates in the B2B space and serves bulk consumers of agri produce such as hotels, caterers, retail chains , food processing industries and vegetable vendors, and also runs a retail outlet for the Indian army.

eFarm's solution is based on following key strategies :

Develop a IT based backbone for data gathering, analysis ,planning and monitoring the entire operation
Setup low cost collection centres close to villages in partnership with farmers for organised collection and grading
Setup distribution centres in metros , close to customer location , for final delivery
Train intermediaries like transport operators in proper handling of perishables to reduce transit wastage
Map the demand and supply and ensure just in time distribution

eFarm is currently operational in Chennai and sources from over 1500 farmers in surrounding areas of tamilnadu .

The presentation below gives an overview of the eFarm solution .

HowDoesItWork.pdf

View more presentations from efarm123

Summary

Identify farmer's production details in advance
Identify the demand from customers in advance
Aggregate the demand by produce type and identify the best source of supply
Use a simple, IT driven order matching system to determine right sourcing & logistics strategy to fulfill the order.
Minimise wastage by procuring only what is required
Fix rates based on overall operational costs and margins taking into account all members in the supply chain

Immediate distribution through different marketing channels (bulk orders, door delivery, hand carts, walk-ins) to reduce need for storage/deep freezing etc.,

Technology

Cost of production calculator
Agri SCM
Billing & Accounting & InventoryManagement (MS accounting)
demand/supply simulation (SCM)
POS solution - in Tamil
Digital image recognition for agri produce

Operations

Planning:

Identify supply regions around key metro area
Identify farmers groups and clusters
Gather farmers cultivation data
Gather customers demand requirements
Match demand and supply and plan for procurement
Setup collection centres in procurement areas and train local villagers in key tasks
Setup distribution centres within key metro areas and train staff for local distribution

Daily operations :

Aggregate each day's orders requirments
Procure from collection centres based on demand
Sort/Grade produce into broad categories
Transport from collection centre to distribution centre(at metro) through truck
Unload and check quality of arrivals
Weigh and bag as per customer specifications
Transport to customer premises through local distribution vehicles
Gather customer feedback and record issues if any

Price fixation

We work on two broad models

Market based pricing :

We use certain common benchmarks like TNAU/INDG website , Chennai CMDA website data as baseline to arrive at both farmer and customer
Farmer and customer pricing are linked to market prices, say a certain percentage +/- the daily rates based on the processing/distance/eFarm's costs.

Cost of production based pricing :

Where farmers cost of production and margins are stable and mutually ageeable, we can do stable pricing all the way to end customers.
Similarly, if customers have certain fixed price bugets for procurement, we can work backwards to arrive at best source points to meet that criteria.

P.S : Currently we recommend this for farmers and customers who have had atleast 6 months working relationship with us as it takes some efort mutually to understand the benefits of such stable pricing model.

Major Sourcing Regions

Pondicherry/Dindivanam
Kancheepuram
Krishnagiri, Hosur •
Kodaikanal Thanjavur
Ooty/Mettupalayam
Theni/Cumbum
Nellore, AP

Consulting : Home

As we operate in the field of procurement and distribution of farm produce and perishables , efarm interacts with wide cross section of stakeholders for our own operations. One key gap we find is that though there is a lot of focus to produce an item, not much planning is done with regards to its marketing. Also aspects such as storage, transport costs are not adequately worked out before ventures are started. Hence , several ambitious projects for improving livelihoods for farmers, SHGs etc., often have not become sustainable and long term viable .

Most consultants currently in the field are primarily agricultural scientists who may be aware of the production side but not very competent in the management aspects such as marketing, branding,supply chain planning and technology adoption which are crucial for scaling up an idea.

eFarm offers consulting in following key areas.

Farm Planning and Management

Planning what to grow, when to grow, when to harvest, past price trends are very key for a successful farm.We advice farmers on planning the cultivation based on market demands , cost of production, price fixation, sorting/grading, farm automation and forward linkages to ensure viability of farm.

Marketing

Marketing of farm produce - raw or processed has been a key challenge . As customers are typically in cities , key aspects like demand planning, packaging, branding are often key aspects to plan prior to even starting manufacture.

We advice farmers, NGOs/SHGs on the basics of sales and marketing techniques, price fixation, contracts etc., with key focus on perishables.

Sourcing of Farm Produce

Industries and businesses based on steady supply of farm produce are often impacted by erratic fluctuations in supply, pricing and quality. As most of India's agri supply chain is still mandi driven , 'backward linkage' has been a key challenge for even corporate buyers. Also, with increasing global focus on traceability of the produce to track down potential food based epidemics , it is vital to have better planned approach to sourcing.

A well planned supply chain is very essential for a successful agro-based industry.eFarm assists buyers in identifying potential supply regions, target farmers , arrive at cost of procurement , simulate 'what if' scenarios in the supply chain to identify potential failures prior to happening .

IT implementations in Agriculture / Food Industry / Retail

One of the key reasons why other manufacturing and service industries have performed better is their IT adoption across the enterprise. Whereas in agriculture there is very little usage of IT, hence there is very little data or accurate information about farmers supply or consumer's demand . The supply chain also is planned in very adhoc manner, and is left to human errors in judgement.

Key reasons being that the primary user base is predominantly less educated/aged and has not shown interests in adopting technology. The IT companies also have traditionally preferred to deal with single large customer rather than group of smaller customers.

eFarm has been building very simple IT tools , which are mobile based and are easy for even illiterate users to learn. The backend platforms are based on modern internet technologies which run on SAAS/Cloud and shared across multiple users - reducing the costs and improving ROI.eFarm assists end users in deploying these tools to manage their agri businesses and also tie in to our eFarmDirect trading platform.

Efarm india very close

http://www.efarm.in/

efarming india contact if needed

E-farming India

G1-5D, Srila Park Pride Beside Sri Chaitanya College Hydernagar, Hyderabad 500049, Andhra Pradesh

p: 8978994834

http://www.e-farmingindia.com

tamilnadu Farming Links get datas

http://tawn.tnau.ac.in/

Get the Pdf
http://www.tnau.ac.in/tech/acpen.pdf

more Links
http://www.e-extension.gov.ph/efarming

efarming 40 years after

e-farming, what the hell is that?

Current mood:crappy

Introduction

The integration of Information Technology (IT) into farming industries has lagged in comparison to other sectors of the economy, there has been a slow adoption rate to utilizing the internet and integrating IT into business operations and transactions. However, in recent years farmers have proved they do have the confidence to leave the old ways behind and grab the technology bull by the horns as such. The broadening variety and availability of specialist farming technologies has allowed for increased efficiency in production and sales areas, and increasing adoption of existing technologies such as the internet has allowed for the more efficient management of information and lower transaction costs. For a country as agriculturally focused as New Zealand, the application of IT into business processes not only positively affects the farmers themselves but the economy as a whole.

What is E-farming

"E-farming" can be described as the integration and utilization of information technology in farming related operations. The requirement for e-farming initiatives came about because "farming is an information rich activity" (Swain, 2002). The best way to manage information is through the use of IT, hence the foundation of e-farming.

The incorporation of IT into farming involves the integration of many different technologies, with each positively impacting the efficiency in how farms conduct themselves. This includes adoption of the internet, information systems and management, GPS technologies and automating various activities through the use of IT.

Traditional methods of farming incorporated little to no use of IT and some farms still stand by this today, despite the potential for dramatically increasing operations efficiency. With agriculture arguably being the most traditional industry, it is easy to see how the use of IT in conducting business is lagging in comparison to other industries. However, with the increasing availability of specialist IT equipment coupled with increasing marketing for these products, farmers are becoming more aware of the benefits that can be gained utilizing IT.

History

The history of e-farming is relatively short due to the nature of the industry and work ethic of the people involved. Farming is a traditional trade and therefore operations involved in production have largely remained habitual in nature, as hard working as they may be. The need for information management and sharing however has been recognized for a long time; in 1928, H.M. Dixon believed that "30-50 actual farm records in every country every year furnish a helpful guide to the country agent… This should be the ultimate goal toward which farm management extension should be directed" (Dixon, 1928, p378). Fortunately, in this day and age farmers do have the ability to apply IT into their operations and transactions, however, certain factors have delayed the integration of IT.

One of the main factors that have hindered the implementation of IT strategies in farming has been the general location of farms – rural areas. Access to such technology as the computers and internet is generally lower in rural areas as well as well as wireless network availability, even electricity has proved unreliable in certain areas.

It has only been in more recent years that the adoption of IT has noticeably increased. A 2003 National Agricultural Statistics Service- U.S. Department of Agriculture (NASS-USDA) report showed that 58% of U.S. farm households had access to a computer whereas in 1997 only 38% had access. The same report also stated that internet access of farm households was up from 43% in 2001 to 48% in 2003.

Todays farmer is using IT to his/her advantage, increased up take has resulted in increased profits with decreased work time. Infact its become apparent that the average farmer can get as much done by 9am now as in a full day in the post-war 1940's (Becherer, 1999).

Applications of E-farming

The applications of e-farming go far beyond that of just utilizing a computer to manage information. Many technologies are currently present regarding the application of e-farming. These include the utilization of the internet in conducting business and gathering information, harnessing positioning system technology to manage arable property and applying automation to processing activities.

Information management is a key business benefit of e-farming. The collection and analysis of data and information to produce knowledge aids to competitive advantage. This is shown in the recent 2003 NASS-USDA report stating that the U.S. average for the use of computers for business by farms with sales over $250,000 was 67%, in contrast to 20% for farms with sales less than $10,000 (Doye, 2004, p762). If judging by these results, one would assume e-farming is more present in farms showing signs of success.

With the increasing demand for specialist farming IT information systems, firms have emerged specializing in meeting this need. John Deere is a company that has seen this opportunity and addressed it, with massive success world-wide. John Deere has focused on supplying solutions for both information management and physical operations on farms, these come under John Deeres "technology support package" for farmers and large scale contractors called Agriculture Management Solutions (AMS).

"AMS is designed to provide customers with the ability to collect, interpret, distribute and apply such information on farms, resulting in improved financial returns". This system is a total package for farmers. It links data obtained through GPS positioning technology to FieldDoc which automatically records and documents all data, and this can be imported and analyzed using John Deere's specific desktop computer software JOffice (Hempstead, 2003, p50). It is specialized IS management systems like these that best define the advantages that can be obtained through e-farming.

The inclusion of the internet as an IT stradegy in farming is also proving a valuable management tool. The use of the internet in farming is adding a new dimension to how farming products are sold. In a study of U.S.farm households in 2003, 48% of farms had access to the internet and from these 24% used the internet as a management tool with 98% reporting information gathering as the dominant use (Doye, 2004, p763) A number of farm equipment dealers use a "click and mortar" or completely virtual approach in conducting business. "MachineFinder-dot-com" is a company sponsored site whereby famers can sell and buy farm machinery world-wide, with there being over 15,000 registered members (Becherer, 1999).

Another example of how the application of the internet benefits farmers can be seen in the VantagePoint network, acting as "a kind of silo in cyberspace" (Becherer, 1999). It is a service that allows farmers to collect, store and reference a full array of data about their farming operation, acting as an internet based data-warehouse. VantagePoint functions as a server and acts as an interface to organize and present data, with members also being able to view aggregated data from neighboring locations. This illustrates the act of transforming information to knowledge. Verified knowledge of the industry helps farmers make better informed decisions and aids to increasing competitive advantage.

Essentially farming occurs in a global market, and the internet provides a means of interaction within the market. In 1999 it was stated that "roughly one fourth of farm receipts today come from overseas sales" (Becherer, 1999), and this has greatly come as a result of the increasing adoption of the internet in facilitating transactions.

Positioning system technology is becoming more popular among more hi-tech and commercial farming operations. The most widely used position sensor that is used in practice is satellite based Global Positioning System (GPS) technology (Stombaugh, Shearer, 2000, p6). Farms specializing in growing crops are most benefited my the use of such technology, and even using basic GPS equipment can obtain position information to within 100 meters of an actual position. Using Differential GPS (DGPS), farmers can obtain positioning information to reach a position accuracy of about 1 meter, however, this comes with a subscription fee. For even more accurate information required for speacilised farming applications, Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS can get to with 1cm of the actual position (Stombaugh, Shearer, 2000, p6). The advantages of having a positioning system being a farmer is the ability to locate and observe farm assets without having to be out in the field. Thus as a result, farmers can obtain information more efficiently and make decisions based on easily accessible findings.

An example of the application of satellite positioning systems in farming can be seen in John Deere's implementation of the "StarFire" system. It uses GPS technology linked with electronics to provide steering assistance to mobile machinery such as crawler tractors and combine harvesters (Hempstead, 2003, p50). This enhances timeliness, productivity and efficiency as well as "improving the accuracy of key operations such as spraying and fertilizer spreading" (Hempstead, 2003, p50).

Advantages and Potential Disadvantages

The advantages of electronic farming go far beyond just "making things easier". More so, e-farming adds value to assets and makes operation and transaction activities more constructive.

Information management through the use of IT (PC's, Internet and specialized information management systems) makes farmers more informed and provides knowledge which can be utilized in making imperative business decisions.

IT implemented in operations such as the use of positioning technology incorporated with electronic machinery lessens the requirement for human employment. This decreases costs as well as cuts out the "operator fatigue" syndrome, not leading to decreasing productivity as the working day progresses (Hempstead, 2003, p50).

The advantages of using the internet can also prove a positive feature of e-farming. Not only for collecting relevant business information, the internet can provide a hub for farmers to sell and purchase goods and machinery. This decreases transaction costs by cutting out supply chain components and can offer farmers access to a broader market than what they might normally expect at the local farmers stockyard sale.

Largely, e-farming presents only advantages in terms of strengthening a farming operations competitive advantage. However there is one general obstacle proving to be disadvantageous in relation to applying e-farming initiatives – user resistance. A proportion of farmers can arguably be seen as having more traditional and idealistic work ethics, i.e., having a "hard days work" approach to conducting operations. Consequently, farmers have a poor technology knowledge base and are resistant to change. As a result, farmers "move with the times" using other non IT related methods such as using hybrid seeds and genetically improved cropping strategies – not requiring any new management skills. In a study by Hoag, Ascough, and Frasier, it was found that "difficulty to learn was a significant obstacle to computer adoption" in relation to farmers (Doye, 2004). This leads to farmers requiring new skills and in turn high learning costs are incurred.

E-farming in New Zealand

New Zealand is an agriculturally focused country, and the farming sector has only increased in value over time. As a percentage of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the agriculture sector has increased from being about 14% in 1986-1987 to 16.6% percent in 1999-2000 and has continued to increase (Lambie, 2005). Aiding to the rise and success of the sector has been the implementation of e-farming.

The Honorary Paul Swain, whose parliamentary responsibilities for New Zealand include being the associate minister of information technology, stated that New Zealand is one of the global leaders for the implementation of e-farming applications.

In terms of New Zealand farmers using the internet as an e-farming strategy, the opportunities are all there. Companies like Fonterra and Alliance have been providing historical trend information and "day to day farm production information" to farmers on-line for a considerable time (Swain, 2002).

Because the agriculture sector in such an important part of New Zealand's economy, the government has been supplying tens of millions of dollars in providing broadband internet services to rural regions and surrounding schools (Swain, 2002). This promotes the use of e-farming initiatives and is in turn establishing the farmers of tomorrow to be more technologically savvy than the farmers of today.

The Future of E-farming

The direction e-farming is heading is clear - an escalating increase in adoption resulting in more hi-tech farms. As stated earlier the acceptance and adoption of e-farming initiatives has shown to be increasing as time progresses. Farming households have increasing access to computers and internet access, and the range of e-farming products available is increasing as shown by the initiatives of John Deere.

The increasing amount of IT education is also positively affecting the impact e-farming is having in the farming sector. As new educated farmers emerge with the knowledge and drive to implement IT into their farming operation and transaction methods, e-farming will also develop. In fact, farmers cannot afford to be left behind and lose out on the competitive advantages that can be gained through e-farming. As bigger more commercial farming operations fully utilize e-farming initiatives, the only way more local farming households can compete will be to jump on the bandwagon.

The only factor stalling the current future development of e-farming strategies is the user resistance of a small number of established traditional farms. However, even these groups are feeling the pressure to move with the times as to not be left behind.

The future of e-farming is confidently clear. Farmers must develop the employment of IT initiatives, and proof of that is shown by increasing adoption rates to technology illustrated in studies presented earlier. It will not be too long before the use of IT in conducting business operations and transactions is equally adept as in other industries.

Recommendations

However there were technology strategies that were not discussed and it is this author's recommendation that they be implemented and developed as e-farming initiatives.

The integration of wireless network technology should be applied as a means of coordination of operations within the working area. More notably, employing a Wireless Area Network (WAN) or utilizing the Global Area Network (GAN) to aid voice and data communication among farm employees is recommended.

The integration of WAN technologies would more effectively facilitate the sharing of information among staff, and thus build a more informed employee base. Communication through a WAN can be conducted via the use of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) mobile devices. Data regarding work activities can be immediately transferred to a shared database and changes in daily processes can be immediately notified to workers in the field.

The reason a WAN would prove immediately useful in some instances is the inability to access other networks as some rural locations are out of range. If the rural area is generally flat then Line of Sight (LOS) wireless technology can be utilized. If the rural area is hilly in nature, then non-Line of Sight (NLOS) wireless technology can be utilized.

References:

All farming is global: Attuned, technologically, environmentally, aware agriculture sector. H W Becherer. Vital Speeches of the Day. New York: Jul 1, 1999.Vol.65, Iss. 18; pg. 568, 3 pgs

John Deere's system. Anonymous. Appropriate Technology. Hemel Hempstead: Mar 2003.Vol.30, Iss. 1; pg. 50

The use of electronic technology in teaching farm record keeping. Damona Doye. American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Malden: Aug 2004.Vol.86, Iss. 3; pg. 762

E-farming – A Platform for Business Success. Hon Paul Swain. http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=14289. 14/06/2002.

Miracle Down Under: How New Zealand Farmers Prosper without Subsidies of Protection. Thomas Lambie. Center for trade policy studies: Free Trade Bulletin. Washington D.C. February 2005. Iss. 16.

Equipment technologies for precision agriculture .T S Stombaugh, S Shearer. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. Ankeny: First Quarter 2000.Vol.55, Iss. 1; pg. 6, 6 pgs

efarming

Introduction

What is E-farming

History

Applications of E-farming

Advantages and Potential Disadvantages

The advantages of electronic farming go far beyond just "making things easier". More so, e-farming adds value to assets and makes operation and transaction activities more constructive.

E-farming in New Zealand

The Future of E-farming

Recommendations

However there were technology strategies that were not discussed and it is this author's recommendation that they be implemented and developed as e-farming initiatives.

References:

All farming is global: Attuned, technologically, environmentally, aware agriculture sector. H W Becherer. Vital Speeches of the Day. New York: Jul 1, 1999.Vol.65, Iss. 18; pg. 568, 3 pgs

John Deere's system. Anonymous. Appropriate Technology. Hemel Hempstead: Mar 2003.Vol.30, Iss. 1; pg. 50

The use of electronic technology in teaching farm record keeping. Damona Doye. American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Malden: Aug 2004.Vol.86, Iss. 3; pg. 762

E-farming – A Platform for Business Success. Hon Paul Swain. http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=14289. 14/06/2002.

Miracle Down Under: How New Zealand Farmers Prosper without Subsidies of Protection. Thomas Lambie. Center for trade policy studies: Free Trade Bulletin. Washington D.C. February 2005. Iss. 16.

Equipment technologies for precision agriculture .T S Stombaugh, S Shearer. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. Ankeny: First Quarter 2000.Vol.55, Iss. 1; pg. 6, 6 pgs

A REVIEW OF A.I.D. EXPERIENCE WITH
FARMING SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND EXTENSION PROJECTS

Modern e-farming system

Visvesvaraya technological university Belgum - 590010 Shrishyla educational trust (r), bheemasamudra-577 520 G . M . Institute of technology Davangere-577 006, karnataka Department of electronics and communication final year b. E . (2009-10) A project synopsis on Modern e-farming system (submitted to karnataka state council for science & technology (kscst) bangalore) Dr. S . G . Hiremath prof. D . Basavalingappa b. E(e & c), m. Tech, ph. D, m. Tech(is), miste, fie misi, miste, fie, fiete Principal

ieee papers

Incorporating business value models into organic e-farming system

On the development of China's electronics farm constraints - IEEE

Web farming as a support for e-business systems

efarming system

http://efarming.net/Login.aspx

links found

http://www.e-farmingindia.com/index.html

EFarming

eFarm co-founder Venkat Subramanian stands barefoot on the ground floor of a three-storey building, pointing energetically to neatly sorted piles of potatoes, onions and coconuts.

"This is our Wipro, our Infosys and Tata," Subramanian says, gesturing at each in turn. "We have top business school graduates who plot their prices like they'd analyse the stock market, which is how we can guarantee a good price to our clients."

Around him, men in brown uniforms are sorting through blue and red milk crates of produce, carefully picking out the spoiled specimens and arranging the rest by size and quality.

"We treat everyone in our distribution chain like they're from the Fortune 500—whether they're a big hotel chain or a farmer," Subramanian says.

A former architect and information technology professional-turned entrepreneur, Subramanian co-founded eFarm with his wife Srivalli Krishnan to address one of the biggest challenges affecting Indian farmers—a broken supply chain.

The Chennai-based start-up streamlines the rural-to-urban supply chain through a combination of technological innovations and on-the-ground logistics while providing farmers the tools to help them improve the quality of their produce and reliability of their yields, allowing them to earn higher profits.

It does so by networking with local non-governmental organizations and agricultural universities to get farmers up-to-date information on farming techniques, training and access to reliable labour pools.

Currently, Subramanian explains, the bulk of India's agricultural produce reaches the consumer through an unreliable and informal chain of middle men, each of whom takes a cut of the proceeds, leaving farmers vulnerable to exploitation and resulting in unstable prices and unreliable quality.

"Farmers' problems begin the moment their harvest ends," says Subramanian.

"When I was in the US, I saw that India has the potential to apply the same sort of technology and processes that are used in the US to some of the basic issues here in India—and that it could be profitable," he says.

His solution was eFarm, which, only in its third year, has broken even. Subramanian estimates it will start generating profit from November.

eFarm is one of a growing number of Indian businesses that are adopting models to generate a social return—traditionally the realm of NGOs, strategic philanthropy and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives—while also turning a profit.

eFarm founder Subramanian found he was able to radically increase productivity by using low-cost technical solutions and tapping an underused pool of talent—people with disabilities.

One of his first stumbling blocks was finding people to staff his back-end operations. "No good IT graduates were interested in working for an agricultural start-up," he says.

So he hired highly trained people who also happened to have disabilities. His office manager Rajender is blind, as is his computer programmer, using inexpensive voice-reading software to help read emails and work online. A number of staff—coconut shuckers—for example—have polio.

"I find them to be much more productive and loyal, and they inspire the rest of my staff," Subramanian says.

While the concept of shared value may have originated in the West, Indian companies may be uniquely positioned to adopt it as a business strategy

Friday, December 16, 2011

Re: Created for project discussion

https://efarming.wiki.zoho.com/neoProgrammar/

https://efarming.wiki.zoho.com/
efarming.blogspot.com
http://e-farming.wikispaces.com/

Going To Create Github

Mohammed Tabraiz Ali

Mohammed Yaser

Ibadur Rahman

1.	Name of the Project	e- Farming
2.	Objective/ Vision	The main objective of this project is build a website which will help farmers from Indian villages too sell their products to different cities. Here if suppose some village farmers want to use this facility and want to learn how is it possible and how they can use e-farming to sell their products, If they have knowledge of computer then they can directly register in the site and sell their product otherwise they can contact company's computer professional who will schedule classes to teach them basics of computers and internet like how they can open this site and register with it and sell their products online etc. On the other side, wholesaler from town can also register and buy products as per their needs.
1.	Users of the System	i. Director – Admin ii. Users – Farmers, wholesaler who wants to buy product directly from Farmers iii. Computer professionals iv. any other users
3.	Functional Requirements (Atleast Eight)	i.People can register in the site for some basic e learning like if some user wants to learn how to operate computer, they can go and learn it from the site. (It will be just HTML page with all basic courses on how to operate computer). ii.Site should also be available in Hindi and local languages as per States. iii.While registering there should be option of selecting whether one who is registering is farmer or wholesaler • If user select as farmer then there should be option to select whether he wants to take lesson or if he is already familiar with online buying and selling then he can directly go to sell his products. • If user select as wholesaler then he needs to fill all details as per requirement – place, shop address, which product he wants to buy, quantity etc. v. Admin should be able to see all record from any users. vi. The records shown for selling should be available in a format of Quantity name , Quantity available, price. vii. The database should be robust enough to handle all the online transactions which will be happening parallely. viii. The data should be stored inside database such that when queried with different parameters the query should retrieve the results quickly , for example – there should be in build query for farmers to view what all products they are selling and how many have been sold + the quantity left. Another query must be there for wholesaler to query for products and also drill down the results in the result page to view how much quantity of that product is available with single farmer in case they are interested in single lot. ix. There should be facility of scheduling classes for farmers who enrolled for basic courses. x. Automatic transfer of mails to company's computer professional(teachers) if some user(farmer) enrolled for basic course.
1.	Non-functional requirements (Atleast Four)	i. Secure access of confidential data (user’s details). SSL can be used. ii. 24 X 7 availability iii.Better component design to get better performance at peak time iv.Flexible service based architecture will be highly desirable for future extension
4.	Optional features	11 1. Available in English and Hindi language 3. Contextual error-correction. 4. Browser testing and support for IE, Mozila, and Firefox.
5.	User interface priorities	A. Professional look and feel B. Use of AJAX atleast with all registration forms C. Browser testing and support for IE, NN, Mozila, and Firefox. D. Use of Graphical tool like JASPER to show strategic data to admin E. Reports exportable in .XLS, .PDF or any other desirable format
6.	Reports	i. Daily report of enrollment to Admin. ii. Monthly report of enrollment as per states to Admin iii. Work hours uses of Computer professionals on a monthly basis to Admin
7.	Other important issues	None
8.	Team Size		2 – 4 members
9.	Technologies to be used		UML, J2EE, XML, e-Forms, AJAX, Web 2.0, Web-services, SOA
10.	Tools to be Used		· ROSE/RSA / WebSphere Modeler · Eclipse/ RAD / Lotus Forms Designer / Portlet Factory · WebSphere Portal/ WAS/ WAS CE / WPS · DB2 Express – ‘C’ or DB2 UDB · Tivoli CDP/TSM / Tivoli Directory Server · Linux will be the preferred OS.
11.	Final Deliverable must include		A. Online or offline help to above said users, Application deployment executive and developer B. Application archive ( .war/.ear ) with source code C. Database backup and DDL Script D. Complete Source code
12.	Advantages of using XML		I. Because of the use of XForms which generate XML data as input, its easy to consume (gather) all user information in a single XML document and store it as a single entity without breaking it up into pieces as done is case of relational database. II. Since the data will be stored in a single XML document, its easy to fetch it using a simple XQuery without any complex joins III. Since the data is stored as XML, it is very easy to construct SOAP messages from this XML content as no relational to XML transformation is required. IV. Use of XSLT to report data in multiple format is now possible because of the XML data model. V. XML Indexes can be used to further increase the XQUERY performance.