Mission

Our vision is to developing a huge farming community through various lingual friendly, social networking initiatives and modernizing the entire Indian Agriculture Sector, through a unique, cost-effective solution for the farmers and the rural community as a whole.

Product Description• A Social Networking portal exclusively for farmers of different

regions of India to interact with each other without the barrier of language. Access provided via Mobile Apps and Web Platforms

• Same portal to be utilized by Agro-Firms for analysis of the best crops to be utilized for the manufacture of their products.

• In-depth analysis and expert advice for efficient usage of soil, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and other Agricultural Technologies

• Regular Weather Reports, Vendor details, Purchaser details, available markets, Insurance Policies, Government Schemes, Market Rates, Cold Storage Details and various other logistics through a Mobile based Platform.

InteractiveMedium

Product Description

Data Centers

AgroLinked Social

Network

Farmers

Agro-Based Industries

Agricultural Universities

• Connect to other farmers• Language Friendly• Post Pictures of Harvest

• Analyze regional and individual profiles of crop produce

• Sponsorship access to various other information and parameters

• Crop Profiling and Research Access for further projects

• Testing of new information and crop procedures

Logistic Details

Data Centers

Recent Develop-ments

Insurance Details & Providers

Farming Equipment Details

Schemes & Policies

Cold Storage, warehouse Details &

Providers

Transporter Details & ProvidersCurrent Market

PricesSoil Analysis

Profiles

Different Crop Details and Analysis

Insecticide Details & Providers

Fertilizer Details & Providers

Vendor Profiles

Seed Profiles, Sowing Techniques & Providers

Horticulture, Floriculture, Animal Poultry details

System Resources• System Architecture– arsDigita Community System (ACS) platform : a open-source

toolkit is used to build interactive web based applications.– Unix based platform with Oracle RDBMS.

• Development Hardware– Network of Intel based workstations running FreeBSD UNIX as

our development environment.

• Connectivity Solutions– Sun 450 Enterprise-class machines for our production

environment. – Solutions for increasing our bandwidth to the Internet as our

user base grows, preventing system slow-downs and unnecessary downtime.

Consumer Benefits

• Increase their productivity by around 15-20%.

• Obtain vendor details and purchaser details and be able to analyze the various rates, so as to derive maximum profits by growing a particular crop.

• Eliminate the trends where the vendors reap out profits from farmers by charging undue rates.

• Agro-Industries will be able to purchase good quality crops by analyzing the farmer profiles and their crops (on the web) and decrease purchasing costs by 10-15%.

• Farmers will take advantage of Social Networking.

• Revolution in the field of Agriculture and modernize it completely.

Recent Trends• A rise of 18% in use of the mobiles by rural subscribers. (Telecom Regulatory

Authority of India (TRAI)[1])

• Rising from 93.2 million users at the end of last year, there are 109.7 million rural mobile subscribers.

• Indian mobile services companies and handset vendors have identified the rural market as a new growth opportunity, as urban markets are getting saturated.

• Huge market for Mobile Value Added Services. The growth in mobile VAS is attributed to the rural market.

• With the advent of 3G services, the VAS are bound to get higher and higher. [2]

• The government has decided to extend broadband connectivity to all villages by 2012 [3]

Source: TRAI

Target MarketThere are three major layers of users that could be targeted for utilizing our product:

1. The Agricultural Community of the farmers which constitute around 58.4 % (approx) of the Indian Population.

– We aim to market the product initially in Southern India, Regions of Deccan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab.

2. The Agro-based Firms and vendors involved in selling of products like fertilizers, pesticides, crop seeds, etc. as well as those involved in purchasing of the crop products.

3. Organizations like Dairy Boards, FICCI, CCI, NGOs, Agricultural Universities etc.

Barriers to Entry• Access to expertise and excellent advices based on crop

development and protection from renowned agriculturists and students of appreciated agricultural institution at minimal rates of Rs. 100

• Access to social networking without lingual discrimination.

• Majority of farmers (located in target regions) possess mobiles. Computer & internet facilities easily available in villages of Gujarat & Maharashtra.

• The farmers will be enrolled through active help of the Gram Panchayats of the respective villages.

• Agro-based Firms would receive better quality crops for their product development.

Competitive Landscape• E-Choupal by ITC– Service provided via Internet koisks and not mobiles, which is a hindrance

to growth.– Service provided for select crops in select regions which are beneficial to

ITC for its agro-based products. (e.g. soyabean, wheat, tobacco)– Part of supply chain for ITC. Crop produced is purchased by ITC itself.

• Thomson Reuters has been updating over 1 lakh farmers in the country with the latest market trends, weather forecast, and crop information via its SMS-based service.– Costly to the range of Rs 60 per month– No social networking initiatives and no interactive mechanism

• Nokia launched its Life Tools service in June, after a pilot project in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The service offers agriculture information, education, and entertainment targeted at people in rural areas.

Growth Opportunities

• Product Expansion– Reach out to other subsidiary fields like poultry farming, honey

industry, silk industry etc.– Implementation in the Fish Industry.

• Market Expansion– Currently aimed exclusively towards India, due to its huge

untapped market potential.– Market expansion would be carried out after 5 years aiming

different countries which have a huge chunk of revenue generated from such sectors.

– Agro-social Networking in true sense.

• New Avenues– AgroClinics and AgroBanks Development.

Marketing & Strategies Three major stages of operation:

• Stage 1: Developing of the entire Solution using Web 2.0 & Mobile 2.0 Technologies and Deployment of the system using Cloud Computing Concepts. (Startup Phase)

• Stage 2: Initial Enrollment of the Farmers, Agro-based Firms, Dairy Boards, Farming Institutes etc. for the access to the system.

• Stage 3: Development of Data Centers to serve first at the regional level and then at the state level.

The enrollment of the farmers to the system, as well as marketing of the scheme among the rural population is done via the Gram Panchayats as well as NGOs of the region.

Marketing PlanPhase Target Markets Type of Marketing Strategies

Phase I(Gujarat &

Maharashtra)

B2C Groundnut, Garlic, Mango Rural

B2B Oil firms, Mango vendors etc.(June 2011- September 2011)

Organizational

Phase II(Punjab & Haryana)

B2C Soyabean, Wheat, etc. Rural

B2B Firms like ITC and Parle(October 2011–February 2012)

Organizational

Phase III(Deccan &

South India)

B2C Coffee, Coriander Rural

B2B Nescafe etc.(March 2012 onwards)

Organizational

Phase IV B2C Rice Rural

B2B (June 2012 - September 2012) Organizational

Types of Marketing Strategies Employed:Rural: Trips to target villages, Radio, TV, Wall Paintings, Phone Calls, Product Demonstration

Organizational: Trips to partners, Personal Contacts, Letters, Email, Phone Calls, Written Correspondences

Revenues• Sponsorships– Our Industry partners will pay to get the right to sponsor key content

areas on the site.

• Enrollment Charges– Farmers who would be enrolled would have to pay Rs. 100 annually.

(micro-finance rates)

• Research & Development Charges– Various Agro-Universities will be able to acquire our data for their own

separate sponsored projects, at specific rates, considering that the projects would in turn be helpful back to the agricultural communities.

• Advertising– For rental of the Web ‘real estate’ by relevant brands, revenue would

be generated from them.

Expenses

• Marketing Expenses: – Advertising to farmers, firms, and universities. – Expenses for market research, public relations, and promotional

activities.

• Content Development:– Development of the entire social networking initiative.– Need to acquire and license content from a variety of sources.

• Operations– Included in this category are the expenses involved in conducting online

surveys as well as the contracting expenses necessary to deploy the portal.

• General and Administrative (G&A)– Other organizational charges

Startup Phase Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase IV

Population of Target Market 0 33592876 9903508 50901159 62313585

Total Registered Users 0 200000 300000 300000 350000

Linked Agro-Firms 0 35 55 60 70

Linked Agro-universities 0 20 15 30 25

Data Centers 0 40 35 25 20

Revenues

Enrollment 0 20000000 30000000 30000000 35000000

Sponsorship 0 11740295 14276460 7142160 26722430

Research and Development 0 1553140 2922285 3507690 4292050

Advertising 0 40000 100000 200000 450000

Total 0 33333435 47298745 40849850 66464480

Expenses

Marketing 200000 4000000 5000000 5000000 5000000

Content Development 200000 200000 200000 200000 200000

Operations 550000 1000000 1000000 1000000 1000000

G&A 50000 3000000 4000000 5000000 6500000

Total 1000000 8200000 10200000 11200000 12700000

Net Flow -1000000 25133435 37098745 29649850 53764480

Taxes (30%) 0 7540030 11129623 8894955 16129344

Cash Flow -1000000 17593404 25969121 20754895 37635136

Startup Phase Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase IV

-5000000

0

5000000

10000000

15000000

20000000

25000000

30000000

35000000

40000000

Initial Investment: Rs. 10000000 (To be covered by bank loans and investments)Returns generated after Phase I to cover up all dues

Long-Term Financial Strategies• Venture Capital & Angel Investment– We seek to partner with venture capital industry leaders that would provide both

financial assistance as well as industry, legal, technological and marketing insights.

• Brand Partnerships– Partnerships with traditional brands seeking to purchase high-quality agricultural

products for their own product lines are being looked into.

• Government Loans– Government of India is very keen to develop the agricultural sector with the help of IT

ventures and it can be approached for loan on successful achievement of targets

• IPO– An IPO would clearly benefit the company by allowing us to leverage the additional

resources and market valuation to purchase additional information, and increase company credibility.

• Franchising– Expansion in the fields of development of AgroBanks and AgroClinics could be

facilitated by franchising them.

Risks• Financial Risks– Seasonal patterns of spending by advertisers and sponsors and trends in

advertising rates.– Fluctuations in expected revenues from our strategic relationships.

• Content Delivery Risks– Experience temporary system interruptions due to power and

telecommunications failures– Vulnerability to breaches in our security and natural disasters. – Outsourcing the server hosting function to a third party may leave some

systems interruptions outside of our control.

• Other Risks– Privacy Issues– Minor Risks of penetration of product due to political problems, as well as

hindrance in the implementation due to opposition from various other forces and the orthodox mindset of the farmers.

Potential Exit Scenarios• Initial Public Offering: We seek to go public within 5 years of

operations. The funds used will both help create liquidity for investors as well as allow for additional capital to develop our international strategy.

• Acquisition Merger with Private or Public Company: There are several key companies like ITC, Du Pont etc. which are based on Agricultural products. Many have worked on alternative solutions but lack the special features we have.

• Government Collaboration: Indian Government is constantly working out schemes for the betterment of agriculture in the country. It tends to utilize the IT Bubble to maximize the revenue generated from the agriculture sector.

Appendix

1. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/168354/indias_rural_mobile_phone_users_hit_100_million.html

2. http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/15/over-100-million-rural-mobile-subscribers-in-india-opportunity-for-mvas/

3. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/All-villages-to-be-broadband-enabled/articleshow/4763505.cms

4. http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/top_stories/107120201.asp

State wise classification of Cultivators (Data Accumulated from Agricultural Census)

States\Uts Cultivators (Main and Marginal)

Agricultural Labour (Main and Marginal)

Male Cultivators (Main and Marginal)

Male Agricultural Labour (Main and Marginal)

Female Cultivators (Main and Marginal)

Female Agricultural Labour (Main and Marginal)

India 127201525 106719640 85357781 57303658 41843744 49415982Jammu & Kashmir 1591514 246421 1004535 190339 586979 56082Himachal Pradesh 1954870 94171 834312 55658 1120558 38513Punjab 2065067 1489861 1762869 1104140 302198 385721Chandigarh 2141 563 1687 461 454 102Uttarakhand 1570116 259683 684422 190494 885694 69189Haryana 3018014 1278821 1855547 717133 1162467 561688

Delhi 37431 15773 26840 11224 10591 4549

Rajasthan 13140066 2523719 7062726 1055332 6077340 1468387

Uttar Pradesh 22167562 13400911 17479887 8245599 4687675 5155312Bihar 8193621 13417744 6457265 8730251 1736356 4687493

Sikkim 131258 17000 70107 8762 61151 8238Arunachal Pradesh 279300 18840 136336 10329 142964 8511Nagaland 548845 30907 270927 15985 277918 14922Manipur 379705 113630 214282 49928 165423 63702Mizoram 256332 26783 130497 12775 125835 14008Tripura 313300 276132 220962 162640 92338 113492Meghalaya 467010 171694 255018 90888 211992 80806Assam 3730773 1263532 2634068 832508 1096705 431024West Bengal 5653922 7362957 4655210 5080236 998712 2282721Jharkhand 3889506 2851297 2405371 1485322 1484135 1365975Orissa 4247661 4999104 3347691 2587196 899970 2411908Chhattisgarh 4311131 3091358 2466477 1262559 1844654 1828799Madhya Pradesh 11037906 7400670 6882776 3518368 4155130 3882302Gujarat 5802681 5161658 3906697 2509651 1895984 2652007Daman & Diu 4034 1323 2008 347 2026 976Andhra Pradesh 7859534 13832152 5201564 6453741 2657970 7378411Maharashtra 11813275 10815262 6680696 4924034 5132579 5891228Karnataka 6883856 6226942 4832840 2620927 2051016 3606015Kerala 724155 1620851 602038 1078354 122117 542497Tamil Nadu 5116039 8637630 3262489 4256360 1853550 4381270Pondicherry 10900 72251 9637 42117 1263 30134