Farmsio
Bridging the gap between commerce and communities for economic and societal prosperity…
Purposeful, optimistic, collaborative, transparent, and fair – come to our mind when we look at the company profile of Farmsio. Innovative Zone couldn’t help but recognize the organization for its amazing job to bring substantial value to the lives of the farming community.
For this, a special interview session was arranged with its leadership panel- Krishna Srinivasan (Founder and CEO) & Venkatesh Sivaraman (Co-founder and CSO). They happened to share inspiring insights based on their years of corporate experience and acumen that left us amazed and gave us ‘food for thought’ to ponder over. To get to know more about our ‘cover story star’, dive into this exclusive narrative and see what they have to say about their innovative offerings for which they are being applauded globally.
THE PREFACE
Farmsio owns the repute of being a reliable Climate Tech platform that drives sustainable development and profi table business within the agriculture value chain. This integrated platform is dedicated to carving an impactful ecosystem by digitizing and exchanging essential data. All the tailored analytics are translated into scorecards and dashboards that provide intelligent decision-making tools for all stakeholders.
Smart operations are accompanied by the modular approach optimized as per the changing climate. Headquartered in the UK, Farmsio comprises Technologists, Agriculture specialists and Remote sensing GIS scientists. With a robust global leadership team, they are committed to sustainable development, regenerative practices, and climate resilience.
THE CORE MOTIVATION
The founders hail from traditional farming backgrounds where they have been working in the tech sector in the UK. They have been colleagues in different banking institutions. The duo observed that technology has been the key driver in transforming several industries. Every time they visit India, farmers’ plight worsened day by day where they are imposed with restrictions to survive on government-introduced subsidies and fragile existence. Taken aback by the scenario, both the founders decided to make determined strides to improve the livelihoods of the farmers and develop resilience to climate change while serving them with empowerment opportunities.
They wanted farmers to run their cultivation on a regular basis. Of innumerable challenges faced by small-size farmers, the most prominent one is poor access to finance and the inability to get quality inputs like seeds & fertilizers. Inability to market the products effectively and the uncertain climatic condition pose the drawbacks that push them below the poverty line. Hence, Farmsio was born with a sheer intent to address the farmers’ challenges with proper deployment of technology. Moreover, with years of experience in the financial sector and driven by passion and purpose, the duo came up with this innovative venture.
WHAT IS UNIQUE?
Several Agritech initiatives have made Farmsio stand out from the rest of the businesses. These are specific to a few segments of the value network like Targeted at specific crops and value chains, the farmers are benefited from various points. The founding partners recognized that to address the whole Agri value network a broader approach was needed that could be adopted for specific crop varieties.
Moreover, the solution needs to be a composite ecosystem to address the interconnectivity needed to address each segment of the value chain. What makes the platform stand out in the niche is its integration with the specific practices and products that were needed to be climate resilient. A promise to help farmers when it comes to uncertain climatic conditions while making agriculture a commercially profitable proposition- is what they strive for.
A TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM- FARMSIO
Needless to mention, Farmsio has established a tech ecosystem. Utilizing technology for good- is their tech-driven motto. “Any ecosystem is defined as interconnected elements having intrinsic value but the interconnectedness enhances this value manifold and the value of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Our technology ecosystem connects the multiple stakeholders in the agri-food network allowing them all to play their part in developing the industry to be sustainable and regenerative,” affirmed the duo. Both of them are optimistic that their climate data solutions can serve the agriculture industry in achieving Net Positive operations with improved business performance.
FARM MANAGEMENT AND CLIMATE DATA SOLUTIONS
With their modular approach, they integrate a SaaS subscription model based on the features and functionalities that are required by the respective clients. All the Trade & Financial Transactions executed on the platform attract value-based commission charges. What is noteworthy is the fact that their technology is designed to scale climate and social impact by increasing the involvement of the small size farmers. Today, they are serving a broad range of B2B customers and stakeholders, allowing each to use the platform for their operations creating an impact throughout the agriculture value chain. On that note, the key focus areas are as follows-
- Farmer Organisations: Digitizing their entire value chain to address future challenges through a climate tech platform. Supporting farms to improve productivity, access new markets, and build resilience through regenerative agriculture. Improving profitability and tapping into new value streams and sources of finance.
- Input Sellers & Agri Services: Planning, monitoring, and achieving operational scale and with real-time insights on the effects of climate change on crops. Providing input sellers with visibility into farm and crop performance to improve supply chain flows. Make smarter decisions with flexible digital tools to evaluate risk in real-time and avoid losses.
- Food Industries & Traders: Addressing sustainable sourcing with full traceability, and effectively managing multi-crop, multi-region procurement.
- Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI): Unlocking and tracking climate finance for farmers and agri-business with data-driven insights. Flexible digital tools to evaluate risk in real-time and assess climate vulnerability data. Build climate risk and crop parameters into credit scoring and incentivise sustainable farming practices.
- Development Agencies & Policymakers: Measuring the impact of large-scale projects on smallholder farmers with insights into sustainable development and climate change. Helping with monitoring and evaluation of climate change projects and effectively driving positive climate actions in regenerative agriculture and forestry. Engaging in large-scale projects with more than a million farmers and addressing multiple geographies and value chains.
THE IMPACT SCALE
Today, our agricultural systems are collapsing from food supply to the livelihoods of our farmers have been devastated. So many factors are responsible for this scenario- climate change, drought, flooding, and wildfires impacting over 90% of 570 million global farms. The multiplying world population has been estimated to grow over 8.5 billion by 2030, imposing the demand for improved Agri produce and food production. But day by day, Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), land biodiversity, soil fertility, and yield are being depleted due to the current agriculture practices. It is a huge concern that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
Crop yield volatility is making sustainable farming expensive, and the farmers are facing tougher regulations, new farming methods, and increasing pressure to reduce GHG Emissions. We all recognize that changes must be made now to limit global warming to 1.5˚C. Making smarter decisions is the need of the hour to mitigate the drastic impact on the environment. Therefore, Farmsio platform offers the tools to the agri-food value network stakeholders to make smarter informed decisions to mitigate climate risk and to reduce the agriculture industry Greenhouse gas emissions, claimed the leaders.
INSIGHTS ON INNOVATION
As per the luminaries, the best innovation that emerged from the target group serves to come up with something out-of-the-box. While working in a close association with all their stakeholders, they ensure a holistic approach to provide business with the greater good.
“Our modular solution can be tailored to the needs of each customer. As mentioned, we always work closely with all of our stakeholders. Farmsio was set up to help the smallholder farmers in particular but also all the stakeholders in the agricultural value network. This needs strong collaboration from all parties, and we work hard to always make sure these partnerships thrive, “quoted the co-founders.
R&D PROMINENCE
Farmsio has been well-acclaimed to keep R&D at the forefront of its operations. Since its inception, R&D has worked in favour of them.
“We need to understand how to resolve these existing problems of supporting the Climate and still providing for a commercially viable set of practices for the farmers. The Research will be driven by the two key differentiators of Climate and Technology. Study and incorporate practices to support farmers to adopt regenerative and sustainable farming methods towards better climate outcomes,”
commented the founding partners. A considerable investment in improved technological innovations that allows them to integrate and endorse beneficial practices is at the heart of their R&D process.
A VIBRANT LEADERSHIP
Spearheading a global tech company, both the leaders highly favour flexi working. They believe that each human being has a right to a balanced lifestyle. Moreover, they greatly value diversity in their workplace and are in persistent pursuit of making everyone hone their respective skills for a brighter future ahead. Every person associated with them knows their respective place in the organization where they strive to perform their level best in their designations. Every employee at Farmsio believes in the vision set forth by the leaders that have been propelling them towards greater heights.
NOTCHES ON THE BELT
Farmsio’s reputation has been expanded in leaps and bounds across its targeted space. And in this phenomenal journey, it has witnessed numerous accomplishments out of which a few have been mentioned below-
- Farmsio has been selected as a Leading Climate Innovator Start-up by the Climate Innovation Forum and exhibited at the Climate Innovation Forum, part of London Climate Action Week.
- Farmsio is working as a partner with Nature.org to address the problem of Stubble burning.
THE FUTURE OUTLOOK
The futuristic vision for Farmsio is to emerge as a global leader in the Climate Tech space with strategic collaborations across the various areas of the Agri value network. Organizationally, they are foreseeing the company maturing into an insightful service provider that deals with the climate impact of farming. While carrying forward the company to several key growth stages towards an IPO, they are enlisting multiple visionaries and strategic partners to drive the organization towards the aspired goals.
