BRIEF ABOUT FarmERP
Computer engineers Sanjay Borkar and Santosh Shinde started FarmERP as Farm Management Software in 2001. Though numerous cyberspace firms made a blast during the dotcom boom, technology in agriculture was unheard of.
Pune-based FarmERP was amongst the earliest enterprises in the world to bring software to agriculture. In over a decennary, it has provided 1.3 million farmers directly and indirectly. Now, it is eyeing to tap into B2C growth channels like e-commerce and farm finance. In 2007, Farm Management Software was retitled as FarmERP.
THEIR JOURNEY
Though, Sanjay and Santosh, both hailing from agricultural families, were persuaded that technology could be used to make farming inevitable and worthwhile like many other businesses.
They started by creating multilingual computer-based training (CBT) sets for farmers, grower associations, NGOs, government agencies, and agricultural institutes. Farm Management Software gained its first customers in 2004 while doing a project for the Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra.
“It was extremely difficult in the beginning. But we managed to find some progressive farmers who agreed to try our product that could help them manage their farms efficiently and save time, resources, and money,” says Sanjay.
The initial edition of the product empowered cultivators to enter and output data of farms, enhance success rate, and bring about ecological farming practices.
Nevertheless, in pre-Flipkart India, operating a tech startup, particularly in an traditional industry sector like agriculture, was no mean task. “Selling directly to farmers was very difficult and getting money from them was even tougher. So, we targeted corporates, and got our first opportunity in Oman in 2010,” the founder discloses.
In 2011 ,Sanjay said, “We want FarmERP to be the [MS] Office package for farmers, and we’re confident that we’ll get there. It’s just a matter of time of funding.”
Interannual growth of FarmERP
Throughout the last 10 years, FarmERP’s smart agricultural systems have been installed at over 600,000 acres of farmland in 25 countries, including India, the US, and markets in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
It has helped 1.3 million peasants directly or indirectly and assisted them accomplish higher productivity, revenues, viability, and traceability. The size of their landholding ranges from 10 acres and 300 acres.
FarmERP’s plan consists of 23 modules that service 12 industry verticals, including farms and plantations, contract farmers, biotechnology companies, packhouses and exporters, greenhouses and nurseries, agribusinesses and retailers, Agri research and development organisations, crop insurance companies, FPOs, NGOs, government institutions, and farm input companies. They have executed our ERP system in agriculture and all allied industries.
Without revealing figures, Sanjay asserts FarmERP’s profits have grown 65 percent since March 2020. “We invested in product development and marketing post the pandemic. We look to reach Rs 100 crore revenues by 2023,” he says.
It encompasses 24 organic and standard vegetable crops, and cultivators are given end-to-end results, with the finest practices on harvesting, climate-smart advisory on crop nutrition, irrigation, pest management, and disease control.
FarmERP has also joined with Go4Fresh and Nexton Foods for purchasing and guaranteeing consistency and prosperity for vegetable planters in India and Southeast Asia. “Because of the short crop duration, vegetable farmers need an accurate execution plan backed up with resource availability and knowledge,” Sanjay says.
Building SaaS for global agriculture
FarmERP’s presentation basically resolves four crucial points: food safety, traceability, sustainability, and climate resilience. These are in line with two of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Zero Hunger and Climate Change.
Its future-ready platform encapsulates the whole production to buy data in the agricultural value chain. From grower reporting and farm mapping to inventory supervision and quality control (cleaning, grading, packing) to food traceability and exports — the startup has built an end-to-end digital farming solution.
“The company will use the funds to combine the FarmERP platform with Climate Resilient Intelligence. It will also be used to enter new markets and geographies to solve the problems agriculture faces in those regions,” Sanjay said.
For FarmERP, if the last decennary was about developing its SaaS platform worldwide, the latter one could be about invading the Indian market with its customer products.