RURAL MARKETING & MANAGEMENT

BHARATH-AGRI CASE STUDY

NAME: BHASKAR SAHA

REGISTRATION: 20PGPM013
Q1. How has the Indian agriculture industry evolved, and what is the current state?

Answer: In the 1950s, India's agriculture was sluggish and increasing steadily. Crop growth
was about 0.4 percent, and grain yield was about 0.1 percent. In 1950-51, India produced
around 50 million tonnes of food grain, but this was insufficient to feed our 350 million
people. As a result, India was forced to import food crops. The farms were known for their
poor yields, which hovered around 580 kilogrammes per hectare.

When India imported 18,000 tonnes of High Yield Variety (HYV) seeds from Mexico in the
1960s, it ushered in the green revolution period. The HYV seeds, along with increased
fertiliser and irrigation use, resulted in a major increase in demand, ushering India into the
Green Revolution era. By the early 1970s, India had achieved food stability and was reducing
its reliance on imports of food grains.

The ground breaking work of our agricultural scientists, as well as the audacity of an Indian
farmer who took the risk of adopting new technology, made the green revolution
unavoidable. From the 1980s to the 2000s, India's cereal production increased. The
government introduced economic reforms that promoted exports. In these two decades, India
turned itself from a net importer of agricultural products to a net exporter. Today, our country
is the largest producer of spices, pulses, milk, tea, cashew, jute, etc., and the second-largest
producer of wheat, rice, fruits and vegetables, sugarcane, cotton, and oilseeds.

So, we may claim that with the right combination of technologies and government policies,
Indian agriculture has progressed from 69.3 million tonnes in the fiscal year 1960-61 to
264.35 tonnes in the fiscal year 2013-14. The growing population became a key driver for
agricultural products and with time, rising urban and rural incomes also gave a boost to
attractive opportunities in the Indian agricultural sector. In this essay, we discuss how the
Indian agriculture industry has transformed since the 1950s by delving into various policies
and reforms, especially in the last 5 years, when the transformation has occurred at an
exponential pace and witnessed disruptive breakthroughs. The agricultural sector in India
went from a stagnant import-dependent industry to a growing self-reliant and exporting
industry.

Q2. What is BharathAgri’s current strategy?

Answer: BharatAgri’s current strategy was targeting three segments, the farmers, the
business enterprises, and the local dealers.
Strategy toward Farmers: BharatAgri developed various advisory services for farmers. They
developed an app for their clients (farmers) which would provide them with –

i. Customized suggestions on crops suitable for their region-specific area

 ii. Detailed report on follow crop-specific disease and pest management schedules
iii. Instructions on how to apply fertilizer at various stages of the crop cycle,
including the forms and amounts of fertilizer to use, as well as when they should
be applied.
iv. Various timely reminders and follow-up suggestions through interactive voice
response service and SMS channels.

Strategy toward Business: BharatAgri targeted the B2B segment. They provided their
client organization with dashboards through their app, which provided-

v. Real-time updates on the farmer production cycle

vi. Help with farmer tracking, farmer management,
vii. Data analytics software for companies and organizations that engaged with
multiple farmers.
viii. Information about various requirements for firms
ix. Consolidated status of all farmers in terms of crop diversity, productivity, and
yield estimates in a specified geography.

Strategy towards local dealers: BharatAgri gave coupons to dealership shops in villages,
each worth 80, who provided agricultural input to local farmers. These dealers were
expected to inform farmers about BharatAgri's advisory services and hand out the
coupons.
The deal was - If a farmer subscribed to BharatAgri's services through a dealer, the dealer
would receive 50 against the coupon and the farmer would receive a discount of 30 on
products purchased at the dealership.
Initially, the corporation saw these distributors as competitors because local farmers
relied heavily on them for advice on appropriate fertilizers, pesticides, and so on. Later, in
their new approach, they included these dealers as allies by telling them that as farmers'
incomes grow, so will their purchases of higher-value goods from the dealers.

Q3. What is BharathAgri’s current business ?

Answer: The Business model of BharatAgri was consisting of two factors which mainly
generated revenues for them. Farmers and enterprises these are the three mediums through
which BharatAgri conducted their business.

 Farmers:
Initially, BharatAgri paid farmers depending on the type of crop involved for a season of
advisory. Farmers growing fruits and spices, for example, were charged 5,000 per season,
grains and pulses were charged 2,000, and vegetables were charged 3,000.
The pricing was based on the number of activities involved in the cultivation of a particular
type of crop. However, they found it very difficult to implement this business model.
Bharat Agri conducted market research in January 2019 to refine its business model. Farmers'
ability to pay for consulting services ranged from $500 to $1,000 per season per acre of land
under cultivation, according to the company. So, BharatAgri started charging farmers 800 per
acre for a season of advisory when the crop had a cycle of fewer than 6 months. And charged
600 separately for soil testing.

 Enterprises:
BharatAgri also catered to the business-to-business (B2B) market, including the Bharat Agri
Enterprise app, which was a farmer monitoring, farmer management, and data analytics
software for companies and organizations that worked with multiple farmers.
The BharatAgri Enterprise framework included a dashboard that enabled client organizations
to receive real-time updates on farmer production cycles. B2B clients could adapt the
dashboard to their unique needs. The dashboard displayed a combined status of all farmers in
terms of crop diversity, productivity, and yield estimates in a given geography. It provided
companies with information about the requirements of fertilizers and micro-nutrients in
various farms. These are the major segments of services that BharatAgri provides to its
enterprise clients.

Major enterprise clients for BharatAgri:

 The state government of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh
 World bank
 Fertilizer manufacturing companies
 Banks
 Charitable organization
So, BharatAgri would charge these clients for the range of services that they provide.
Q4. How would you evaluate BharathAgri’s performance to date? Should the company
change its current strategy or business model?

Answer: BharatAgri's success to date, in my opinion, has been very successful.

BharatAgri currently has 75 full-time employees working in fields such as information technology,
marketing and delivery, agronomy, and customer service.
BharatAgri did face some obstacles at first. They were able to resolve these challenges and had now
formed a strong foundation for their agritech business.
BharatAgri's current plan is very effective, and they need not make any significant adjustments to
their method. The only small adjustment they could make is to determine if they should provide two
separate applications for businesses and farmers, or whether one app should cover all functions.

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