Leadership Talk Series: Exclusive Chat with Dr. Basavaraj Girennavar, Chairman and CINO-AgriApp
February 21, 2021“It is the happiness, sense of purpose and satisfaction of helping our farmers that keeps me going”
Focus Agritech had an opportunity to interact with Dr. Basavaraj Girennavar who is the Chairman and CINO at AgriApp Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Dr.Basavaraj Girennavar is a pioneer in this field who could see the scope of information and data in the farming sector in 2016 and this thought gave birth to ‘AgriApp’. This vision has paid off as AgriApp recently crossed 1 million app downloads on Google play store.
He shared with us his views on how the farming sector has evolved over the years and how his company is now working on the technology side of agriculture after establishing a channel that helps connect with farmers. Dr.Basavaraj Girennavar has a Doctorate in Horticultural Sciences from Texas A&M University and is introducing innovations to enhance the efficacy of Agriculture sector in India.
Focus Agritech:
From starting in 2016 to being selected as top 20 Agri startups by the central government. How has this journey been for the Founding team from ideation to creating a business of so much significant value?
Dr. Basavaraj Girennavar- AgriApp:
I think it has been a phenomenal journey filled with a lot of learnings for us so far. Though the birth of AgriApp happened some time back in 2014 but before AgriApp, I started two startups namely Criyagen and Rico Winery after I relocated to India post my studies. I always had the vision of helping farmers with information, content, news, agriculture technology, etc.
This is how in 2016, I decided to put a serious effort in AgriTech and my agricultural background and studies not only helped me complete the journey with flying colours but also instilled a sense of satisfaction and happiness. One of the highlights in our journey until now has been receiving the Agri Grand Challenge Award basis our market price prediction tool using various data points like AI, ML, etc.
However, entrepreneurship is one part of the journey but it is the happiness, sense of purpose and satisfaction of helping our farmers that keeps me going. Currently we are focused on providing the right information to the farmer, enabling and empowering them to solve their problems on digital platforms and giving them access to innovative technologies like data sciences, satellite imagery, economic efficiencies, drones, etc. The pieces have started falling into place now, but again as I said the journey started a couple of years back (even before 2016) when I started doing the brickwork to set up an innovative business model.
Focus Agritech:
Making each farmer a Digitally Enabled “Agri-Entrepreneur” is the key driving force for your business. We would want to hear more about this vision and the potential that you see in technology to help you achieve these objectives.
Dr. Basavaraj Girennavar– AgriApp:
If we look closely, the farmer is already an entrepreneur but his economics, inefficiencies and lack of support from enablers is what makes him miserable. I understand this myself as I come from a farmer’s family and have studied agriculture my whole life right from my B.Sc to my PhD. Deep understanding of these issues has been the motivation for me to start an AgriTech company that helps the farmers achieve better efficiencies and volumes.
Our vision is to provide these farmers with the benefits by information exchange and awareness to make him a sustainable entrepreneur. If we look at an average farmer, his profitability is meagre, so to increase his profitability we need to make him a digitally enabled Agri-Entrepreneur. This will help him move from a low level to a high-level economic efficiency along with increasing his quality, price realisation and reach in the market.
Secondly, once our farmers are digitally enabled, they will contribute to ecological sustainability. Since our environment and ecological conditions are already facing the heat of our growing demands, ecological sustainability becomes very essential. To enable this, we have introduced our app in all the major languages used in the country.
Focus Agritech:
AgriApp is connecting the Agriculture ecosystem with the digital world while enabling and equipping the farmers with the next generation farming techniques. What has been the feedback on your platform by the end users and what is your view on the adoption of similar technologies in agriculture at large?
Dr. Basavaraj Girennavar– AgriApp:
Currently, we are at crossroads in terms of bringing technology to agriculture. If we look at some other industries like banks, telecoms, healthcare, etc. technology adoption is getting a big boost. Similarly, in agriculture this adoption is much needed as it one of those industries on which everyone depends.
Our vision is to seamlessly integrate next generation tools, technologies and techniques to digital platforms. In order to achieve this goal, we have to really develop and revamp the technology and its use in agriculture. This is where AgriApp comes into picture by bringing technocrats to build agriculture specific use cases. We have recently enabled drone deployment for crop protection and have received several positive feedbacks from the users. To give you an example, one of the farmers used our drone six times in 1 month for pesticide spraying and crop protection. We have also launched a project called ‘Bio-Bharma’ where we have collaborated with one of the European Space agencies to provide satellite insights to farmers.
Focus Agritech:
What is the role you would expect Government bodies and regulators to play to give a boost to the Agri Inputs Industry in India?
Dr. Basavaraj Girennavar– AgriApp:
The government has always played a big and critical role in agriculture and continues to do the same. The current government is doing some great work and good things are happening in not only Agritech but also the entire startup ecosystem.
My wish list for the government is to firstly open up the data set like Aadhar Livelihood stack and state governments should release data of actual ground problems being faced by farmers. This will help startups like us to better serve the farmers. For example, Fintech services are being provided seamlessly with the use of Aadhar data sets, similarly AgriTech can also be a beneficiary of the same. Secondly, I want the government to be quick, time-bound and agile in their decision-making and lastly to bring good rules and regulations that promote AgriTech startups to come up the rank and give back to the society.
Focus Agritech:
The genesis of AgriApp is based on the gamut of problems farmers are facing in the country ranging from solving food, fiber, fertilizer, fuel and feed challenges. Having set up a successful business, what are few of your CSR initiatives for the farmers including employment opportunities for farmers?
Dr. Basavaraj Girennavar– AgriApp:
We have a foundation called Art for Agriculture Foundation, where we provide lesser-privileged farmers the benefits of INM& IPM, i.e. Integrated Nutrients and Integrated Pest Management. We connect with them, train them, give them the product, provide awareness and spend a significant amount of our resources to give them inputs that enhance their economic activity by 5-10 lacs.
Happy Crop is one of another initiatives that goes beyond the farmers and includes the entire value chain. Our mission is to make every crop being grown in our country happy. This requires a consolidated effort from all the stakeholders, a scientific approach and a digital platform. We are also a big fan of Reforestation and conduct various awareness and tree plantation drives. Though we are not that big to have a significant CSR budget but yes, we try our best to give back to the society and farmers through our small yet continuous efforts.
Focus Agritech:
During this pandemic we saw Agriculture was the only sector that showed signs of resilience and growth. What is the future that you see for India with so many Agritech companies & Agri-Entrepreneurs coming up on the horizon?
Dr. Basavaraj Girennavar– AgriApp:
The pandemic has been a big disruptor for normal life but more so for agriculture. But that said, we have to understand that agriculture is a primary sector and it was due to the efforts of farmers, government and other stakeholders that agriculture was able to sustain during the pandemic. Another interesting thing that happened during the pandemic was that many people started going back to the farms to derive the joy of Mother Nature. People spend more time in their farms and animals away from all the social responsibilities. This helped in bringing the farmers and the industry closer to each other, which had been missing all this while.
The consumption not going down also gave impetus to agriculture. The fertilizers and subsidiary industry also did a good job. Good monsoons last year also played a major role in achieving phenomenal agricultural output. The pandemic also opened new opportunities for startups to connect farms with families and helped them scale up their businesses and get the necessary traction.
Overall, I can say that this industry is going to be a focused industry for the next decade. We are already seeing positive signs with Agritech startups getting traction and funding from large VC funds.
Vote of Thanks!
Focus Agritech would like to thank Dr. Basavaraj Girennavar for sharing his diverse thoughts on the state of Indian Agriculture, Immense possibilities for the future and AgriApp’s vision to build a data driven sustainable future for the farmers. We wish him the very best for his future endeavors and would continue to collaborate with the firm to bring ‘Digital Transformation in India’.
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