Farmer (Kisan) Talks and Survey
We have been working with farmers for the past 6 months in the Maharashtra, Andhra and Telangana region of India to understand the ground realities, their pain points, and their expectations from agri-tech companies.
We decided to conduct a survey, and also video interview a few farmers. We summarise the survey results below, and you can follow us on YouTube to hear the farmer interviews in our Kisan Talks series –
Sources of Data: Primary source of data was through personal interaction, phone call with nearby farmers and google form questionnaire via phone to farmer organisations. Survey conducted over the months of June and July 2020.
Demographics –
We surveyed over 160 farmers across 3 states in India. Majority of the survey responder were Male, with around 50% being below the age of 35.
A little more than half of the demography of respondents had higher education of graduation/post-graduation, while only less than 3% were illiterate
Household incomes (yearly) varied from 50,000 INR to greater than 20 Lakhs INR. It was also noticed, that there was no correlation to household income and land size the farmers held.
Many large (>10 acre) land farmers also showed <1 lakh house hold income. It was also discussed with many that they tend to underplay the income levels and or were not comfortable sharing the ranges to us
Crops grown:
A wide variety of crops were grown by these farmers and on average 2–3 growing cycles were followed in a year (Summer, Kharif and Rabi season). The most popular crop from this was Banana, closely followed by Maize and Grapes.
The average land size for banana farms was around 5 acres, while average land holdings of grapes farmers was around 10 acres
Smart Phone penetration, agricultural news and social media usage for agriculture
In the last 3–5 years, there has been a great penetration of smart phones in this sector. Over 80% of the farmers we surveyed had and used smart phones regularly. While a high number of respondents still prefer newspaper as their primary source of agri-information, the trends are slowing shifting towards usage of internet to get agri related information and guidance.
Of the smart phone users, a huge number of them also relied on mediums like Whatsapp and Facebook to get agriculture-related knowledge. While there has been a high penetration of smart phones and social media, the usage of Agri- apps for getting agri specific information has been low, primarily driven by lack of knowledge of such apps, and secondly the respondents also felt that the apps were too complex to use.
For the 26% that did use apps for agri specific use, it was mostly for weather information, followed by crop advisory and pest management. Some of the commonly used apps were Accu Weather, Plantix, Google Weather. While farmers used some of these apps, many farmers expect better technology, with more accurate data and information specific to their farms
In some districts, there was correlation seen between agri app usage and the type of crops being grown. For example, all grapes farmers surveyed had smart phones, and majority used some app or the other for managing their crops.
There were no direct trends seen between household income and smartphone penetration.
Irrigation and Water Management
Of the farmers surveyed, a majority of them had some form of irrigation set-up in their field, and only 3% relied on rain as the only source of water for irrigation.
Irrigation was primarily from wells in the farm, and a few depended on canals and farm ponds as well as the source of water. Generally, for Kharif crops (monsoon) like soybeans, maize, rice and groundnut farmers tend to follow rain-fed farming. All farmers used look and feel methods (check by hand, their experience or when soil shows cracks), as a check for soil moisture conditions for irrigation.
Majority had electric pumps and over 50% of them ran their pumps for over 5 hours on a regular basis. Diesel pumps/Tractor Operated pumps are used to lift river or canal water to refill well in those regions where water level reduces. Farmers have 3 HP to 12 HP motors, Farmers with small acres land using low HP motors, 5 and 7 HP motors are common in larger farms.
Technology usage, penetration and expectations
Only around 30% of the farmers used different technologies in their farms, such as harvester, seed cum ferti drill, sprayers, fertilisation units etc. Of this almost 85% did not take any subsidy in buying these products. As most of the subsidy are on ISI products, they feel that these products are too costly and the process is hectic for the farmers. Farmers prefer to buy local cheap products for irrigation motors etc. Small farmers are positive on buying devices if subsidy is provided.
From the need for new technology. Farmers are in general very positive towards new technology. More than 90% of them know and understand that water and weather play’s a medium to high impact on the crop outcome, but believe that they are not having accurate, specific and quality technology that can help them at the farm level.
Not only are they positive towards new technology, they are also willing to pay, if it gives them the results.
Summary and Observations
1. Even within regions, districts, there is a huge variety in the demographics of the farmers.
2. There is still a much higher representation of male farmers over female farmers.
3. There is a general rise in the education levels, and around half the farming population is less than 35 years of age.
4. There is a vast diversification of crops, even within regions, and across different land sizes
5. There is a good penetration of smart phones in this sector. With more and more farmers are educated, making technology penetration easier
6. While a good number of farmers use social media, there is still a low penetration of agri-apps amongst the smart phone users
7. A good number of farmers rely on some irrigation technology, yet they rely on traditional look and feel methods to know how much to irrigate and when to irrigate their crops.
8. Certain high value crops like grapes, orchids, there were higher investment from the farmers on technologies.
9. Farmers are positive towards new technology, but want technology that is accurate, of good quality and reasonably priced.
While this is quite a small section of the farmers in India, we do believe it is a start in understanding the demographics, technology penetration and interest towards precision farming technologies.
We at GramworkX help in precision farming including integrating field data, weather patterns to drive agronomic advice to farmers and yield forecasting. We are building smart products at affordable prices for the farmers for a sustainable tomorrow. This company was born from the desire to be ready for an agricultural transformation which has its core values at poverty reduction, food security and improved nutrition. Our solution helps in quantifying and providing analytical insights into water consumption patterns across fields and soil types and providing data support systems into the amount of water required for irrigation. This will enable optimal water consumption using automation and capability building tools to enable resource management. We aim to bring predictability to farming.
Contributors: Rahul Palkhede, Thundla Hari Krishna, Sumeet Kokku from URICM, Gandhinagar
