Translations

EKUTIR, the digitalization of crops to better feed the planet

7. Community involvement

Community development

Sector Services

Year 2018

Country India

Transmitter

Context

Founded in 2009 in India, eKutir is a for-profit social enterprise with a vision to provide equal opportunities and sustainable development to people at the base of pyramid by easy access and use of information and knowledge. It has created a kind, integrated, data-driven platform to empower poor farmers and created new jobs in rural areas. With the help of over 400 micro-entrepreneurs, eKutir’s 74,000 farmers have seen average yield increases of 75% and income increases of 100%.

As the world population continues growing, more food are needed to feed our human-beings. Therefore, eKutir designed Blooom, a digital platform that provides a smart and effective solution, allowing small farmers to grow food easier and better. Blooom enables small farmers in developing countries to be competitive and have access to a great network. At the meanwhile, it also provides benefits to all the supply chain until final customers.

Objectives

fostering participation of farmers and base of pyramid communities in collective decision making and empowerment
improving lives, reducing poverty and securing food and production.
sharing knowledge, building partnerships, and mentoring last-mile social entrepreneurs to realize the transformative potential of Knowledge and ICT platform.

APPROACH

This practice can be achieved with Bloom, a digital platform with a mobile front end used to engage with small farmers and web engaged back end to aggregate data, transaction and enable interactions with markets and financial situations. eKutir co-design the solutions with smallholders to address all the challenges that they face. It gives farmers access to everything, including information, finance, inputs, markets etc. that can help them thrive as independent agro-entrepreneurs.

How does Blooom work:

The platform informs farmers what is best to grow on their land by providing necessary analysis and information
Before farmers would spend on seeds and other suppliers, the platform informs them with expected return on investment (ROI)for each crop that is available in their region
Once famers decide what to grow, the platform informs farmers with timely best practices throughout the growth cycle
The platform connects farmer with a marketplace of examined vendors who offer high-quality seeds and other sustainable input and enables many farmers to secure loans and insurance
The platform informs farmers direct access to domestic markets and the company also support them to export their products
For illiterate farmers or those who are simply lack of a smartphone, they are helped by professional trained Bloom entrepreneurs.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

eKutir is the first Indian certificated B corp
eKutir requires a subscription fee, which small farmers will to pay in order to make transactions and get incentives using Blooom platform
every part of the supply chain gets benefits from this model, creating a great network from producers to final customers

Benefits

Yields were increased by 75% on average
Small famers’ income was doubled
Food waste was cut in half
Food & waster security, sanitation, gender quality were improved
More job opportunities were generated