TECHNOLOGY ▶▶▶
From tradition to technology – empowering India’s farmers
India is a country where traditional and modern farming practices are very much intertwined. With milk demand on the rise, there are still many challenges dairy farmers face. Helping to tackle some of these challenges head on is the award-winning Indian agtech company MoooFarm.
BY ZANA VAN DIJK A
gtech company MoooFarm has already trained an impressive 15,000 plus dairy farmers, bridging the technology gap to help usher marginalised dairy farmers into the 21st
century. MoooFarm founder
Param Singh and co-founder Aashna Singh wanted to make dairy farming in India more efficient. With 75 million dairy farms in the country, the two founders saw an opportunity to bring much-needed skills and knowledge to farmers. MoooFarm emphasises aspects like alleviating poverty and ensuring gender equality in dairy farming. It initially started with Project Mooo, a pilot project, which was launched in 2018.
Increase income Dairy farmers in India are dealing with challenges such as low
market prices, low extension services and low milk produc- tion. Param says, “When we started out it was clear that in India low milk production was a major issue.” Milk production is far below European averages, as in India it is only about 4 litres/cow/day. With their goals in sight, Param and Aashna launched Mooo- Farm, a dairy farm management app (available on the An- droid platform from the GooglePlay store). Farmers can calcu- late costs and revenue, map the breeding life cycle of cattle, access real time solutions and view learning options to critical problems, and it allows farm data to be kept in one place. Farmers can also reach suppliers (feed and fodder), connect virtually with service providers (veterinarians) on demand, and are able to contact a toll-free call centre 24/7 for assis- tance. The start-up aims to increase the income of one million farmers in India by 2022 – with every third being a woman farmer, as gender equality is at the top of the agenda.
MoooFarm founder Param Singh. 14
MoooFarm co-founder Aashna Singh. ▶DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 7, No. 3, 2020
Technology in rural India MoooFarm relies on a network of village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs) who visit the farmer households and offer ICT training to farmers and ensure successful implementation and usage of the mobile app. “We started to look at breed management and health management technology and how we could solve current farm challenges with technology,” says Aashna. In India there is a lack of a national database or record keeping. “With the app, farmers have access to a digitised breeding cycle whereby they receive alerts at a particular time. They can, for instance, view a 10-minute video to solve a particular problem,” says Param. The e-learning platform was launched to assist in best practices on farm. The start-up also keeps a record of all the important data that can be used. “We believe we are one of very few companies globally that records farm data, and in exchange farmers are rewarded with ‘Mooo- Points’ through a digital wallet. This is an incentive for farm- ers and they can redeem points for discounts and/or internet data,” says Aashna. “We want to ensure that 75 million dairy farms get their advice from a qualified veterinarian and you can’t possibly imagine that without the use of technology.”
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