Agriculture is the backbone of Indian market as around 70-75% of the population depends immediately or indirectly on agriculture. The Indian economic growth is immediately proportional to the agriculture industry expansion. The agriculture expansion has been stagnant in India and requires a technology revolution to be able to meet up with the growing inhabitants requirements of the united states. Though, metropolitan India has information technology in its reach, rural population continues to be to reap the benefits of Information Technology especially in the agriculture sector. That's where AgriWare Networks comes in and provide alternatives that can help fight this major matter.
There are various issues that Indian farmers face in day-to-day farming activities. At this time, there are forums for farmers offering assist in such matters nonetheless they are very gradual in control. AgriWare Networks provides answers to farmers for activities like identifying the parts in the plantation influenced by pests, earth normal water management, increasing output of vegetation by analyzing garden soil nutrient content, etc. which can only help them to plan their crop activities and will also lead to increase the productivity of crops.
This is the 1st service that brings IT at the farmer's land. AgriWare Systems installs the cellular sensor nodes on the land of any farmer and wiring up the required infrastructure to make this system work. After the nodes have been installed, the crops can be supervised using the program installed on the server by the farmer himself. The program is designed in such a way that even illiterate farmers can learn using it without the difficulty. Because the results are pictorial, they may be easy to interpret for taking appropriate activities.
Initially this service will be accessible to farmers of local says of Delhi as AgriWare is a Delhi-based company. The farmers will experience a great comfort credited to high levels of predictability of the crop. This may also enable them to plan their future opportunities predicated on the income from the crop. This service when deployed on a large range can help the united states to achieve greater results in the twelve-monthly GDP.
3. 0 Industry Analysis
3. 1 Future View and Trends
Information Technology (IT) in agriculture has been attracting a great deal of attention before couple of years and is likely to remain lucrative for quite some time to come. The quick changes and downward trend in prices in a variety of components of It creates it feasible to target a large size IT penetration into rural India. The Indian farmer requires well-timed and reliable resources of information for taking decisions. As weather changes, the farmer makes decisions on irrigation, making use of fertilizers etc. Usually these decisions are based on one's experience or intuition which might be unreliable. With sensor sites, the decisions can be made near maximum as the info provided is dependant on the genuine situation of the farms.
Wireless technology is one of the hottest sectors in the info Technology market. Due to the portability, affordability and stability of the wireless sensor data, this technology will become the future pattern in the Indian agriculture in approaching years.
Indian agriculture sector requires a technology revolution to be at par with the world's best crop efficiency levels. Though India produces a great deal of crops but the production per ha is low set alongside the remaining world. AgriWare Networks intends to make use of Wireless Sensor Systems, which includes not been explored in increased depths. The competitive advantage that WSN provides over other technology is they can be tailor made to match a farmer's needs. The R&D office will be continually working on expanding innovative techniques based on the customer's feedback to improve the value of services over time.
3. 2 Main competitors
TBD
3. 3 Market Segmentation
AgriWare Networks will target majorly on three customer organizations. These are the government of India, Non Authorities Organizations (NGOs) and agricultural experts.
Government of India
The agricultural techniques in India have been traditional and cumbersome. Very low percentage of the farmers is with the capacity of employing modern solutions due to the high cost of gadgets. Most the farmers seek help from the federal government to buy such accessories. Hence, AgriWare Networks considers the federal government of India as a major goal customer which already has bonds with the farmers. It blueprints to sign deal with the government to install the cordless sensor network in the farms.
Non Federal Organizations (NGO)
There are a great deal of NGOs who get in touch with farmers to help them about how crop yields can be upgraded. They inform the farmers of the latest technology being used to diminish crop/soil damage. There is also a better reach to the resource-poor farmer and for that reason AgriWare Sites considers them a fantastic customer.
Agricultural Scientists
As cordless sensor network is a topic which has been extensively explored by analysts worldwide, its applications in agriculture have grown to be a major research area. This is the reason that AgriWare Networks considers the agriculture experts to be their important customers who may choose to monitor plants for improving yield or growing hybrids of various crops by using technology.
Others
We also consider individual farmers who preserve well and are able to afford such technology to deploy the cellular sensor network in their farms. This category also contains some other clients who directly deal with AgriWare Networks with the specific requirements and the company can help them out relating with their needs.
3. 4 Industry forecast
Currently, IT in Indian agriculture is a flourishing market. The competitive advantage that WSN provides over other technology is that they can be tailor made to match a farmer's needs. The R&D office will be continuously working on expanding new techniques based on the customers' opinions to enhance the value of services in the long run. AgriWare Networks foresee their strengths as the ability to provide customers with more than acceptable results and therefore capture the marketplace steadily. This will be accomplished by investing continually in the research to explore existing trouble spots and coming up with reliable and scalable solutions.
4. 0 Description of Venture
4. 1 Product
AgriWare Systems offers a wireless sensor network infrastructure to be deployed in the farms. With regards to the size of the plantation and the variability of various parameters like ground moisture, temperature, humidness and luminous depth from indicate point, the number of sensor nodes to be set up can be made the decision. All the sensor nodes send the accumulated data to a central foundation station where the activities in the farm are watched and appropriate activities are taken. The nodes have receptors to sense all these variables, RFID tagging service to be incorporated in future. The software is developed remember the literacy degree of the farmers as the end users. It has an easy-to-use visual user interface (GUI) with touchscreen interface, so that farmers can operate the machine without alternative party intervention following the installation of the machine.
The features provided by the program will include a menu of different guidelines being checked by the system. By touching an easily differentiable icon of the parameter, a map of the plantation will be presented showing the variant of this parameter. For example - soil moisture content content of the complete farm will be represented on a map with blue locations with enough normal water content, red region for dried out areas and green region for modest water content. With regards to the nutrient content of the earth, an icon familiar to the farmer will be shown representing the kind of fertilizer to be employed.
4. 2 Service
The service provided by AgriWare Networks includes installation of the entire network system, deployment of nodes in the farm and software to interpret the gathered data so that important action can be executed. AgriWare Sites will also provide support for hardware and software maintenance on the subscription basis explained in the prices strategy section.
4. 3 Size of business
Initially AgriWare Networks plans to sell the assistance to the federal government that will be deployed by the farmers of a few neighbouring villages. AgriWare Networks is determined to enhance its services predicated on the opinions from the farmers and surveying other potential crop problems. Within a span of 24 months, AgriWare Networks needs to make its services open to at least 6-7 says of India and desires significant improvement in the crop creation because of the deployment. This enterprise will steadily move to record the countrywide market.
In a course of 3 years AgriWare networks projects to broaden its sales offices to major locations for the ease of marketing and distribution. That is important to understand the customer requirements of that area and deliver services capable of meeting them. The study, development and maintenance staff will continue steadily to grow as we penetrate in to the Indian market.
4. 4 Competitive Advantage
AgriWare Systems is the first company in India to offer WSN solution for agricultural purposes. There exists another group which is discovering WSN technology for agriculture nevertheless they are currently in the study phase. This gives AgriWare Networks huge opportunity to gain a substantial market talk about while others peep into the market. Another competitive border that WSN provides over any technology is they can be tailor made to suit a farmers need. The AgriWare Networks' R&D staff is proficient, self-motivated and ardent to cater to the customer needs in an efficient and timely manner. As its customers provide reviews, AgriWare Networks will continuously make an effort to bring the most advanced technology in its hardware and software solutions to stay competitive in this market.
5. 0 Milestones
5. 1 Prototype Design
The hardware team will continue to work on the prototype design for the hardware from the starting of calendar year one and the estimated time of completion is 8 weeks. This phase will require 2 hardware technicians.
5. 2 Software Development
The software team will work on developing the necessary software to be operate on the sensor nodes and the central bottom station based on the machine requirements. This stage will start from in the first month of season one and approximated time of completion is 90 days. This phase will demand 2 software technical engineers.
5. 3 Examining and Bug Fixing
The combined tests of the hardware and software on prototypes begins right from the start of fourth month of season one and shall continue for two months. In this stage, the hardware and software clubs can do the tests and bug mending.
5. 4 Manufacturing
After the tests is completed, the final hardware will go in for the creation process and the first batch is expected to prepare yourself in two months.
5. 5 Marketing
While the hardware is getting constructed, the sales and marketing team will actively take on promoting the product by organizing presentations of the prototype and create a market before the final release. The original marketing is expected to begin from the sixth month of 12 months one. The advance bookings may also be done in this period.
5. 6 Product Release
The product release is targeted to take place in the ninth month of season one.
6. 0 Development and Production
AgriWare Sites provides cellular sensor network infrastructure in the farms. The issues mixed up in production and development of the sensor nodes are mentioned in this section
6. 1 Production and Service Process
AgriWare Networks provides the structure design of the sensor nodes to a third party and the processing is done by a third party such as IBM. The structure design includes deciding the positioning of various sensors on the panel which might become an important issue if not looked after. For instance, the heat sensor must be placed at the advantage of the mother board so that it picks up ambiance temperature as opposed to the heat produced by the other components up to speed.
The various detectors attached in the node collects data and send the info to the base station through intermediate nodes via cellular links. Only the nodes near the base stop send the info directly. That is done to save the power consumed in transferring data over long ranges. Also, the study reveals that it is sufficient to acquire data at an interval of 3 min during daytime and 10-15 min during night time scheduled to less activity in the latter case. The nodes are deployed at a distance of 10 m from the other person and at a height of 1 1. 5 m from the ground so that the wireless range is not damaged when the vegetation are fully harvested. Since the sensor nodes will be deployed in wide open farms with sufficient amount of available solar technology, we include solar cells in the node and so providing back up to the power powered cells.
6. 2 Quality Control System
AgriWare Networks programs to make prototypes of the hardware to guarantee the sensor nodes haven't any major issues. The assessment will be done in a small nursery flower by deploying nodes at various points. Stress testing of the hardware will be performed in order to prove that system is usable. The prototype network system will also be analyzed to ensure that the deployed nodes may survive the tough conditions in the farms and achieve client satisfaction. Software will be consistently improved to rectify any insects that are reported through the testing phase.
6. 3 Individuals resources
Development and Testing phase:
In the development and evaluation stage, we needed the following personnel:
2 Hardware Engineer for building layout and placement of various components on the mother board.
2 Software Engineer for expanding software to be run on the nodes and the central basic station.
Deployment and Marketing stage:
2 Marketing Personnel to reach out the third party manufacturers and clients.
1 Hardware Engineer to explore impressive design alternatives from customer feedback.
1 Software Engineer to fix bugs and maintain the program.
7. 0 Marketing
7. 1 Pricing strategy
AgriWare Networks will provide a lot of options to the clients while selling the merchandise. The customer can make to have the entire system installed within an area as large as 25 ha or as small as 1 ha. The entire system involves sensor nodes, monitoring server and the software. With this deal AgriWare Sites offers initially 1 year of free of maintenance of cost to appeal to the clients.
The pricing technique for all the the different parts of the whole system is as follows:
As it is clear that the expense of monitoring server, software and set up would remain the same irrespective of how big is the farm, AgriWare Networks would recommend several farmers to set up this technique collectively. This will not only utilize the server to its maximum capacity but also make the system affordable to the whole group. That is another strategy AgriWare Systems will use to get small farmers.
The maintenance support is renewable and the rates is as practices:
This strategy of heavy discount rates is to entice farmers to renew their software for more features and get help from AgriWare Sites cost free in case of trouble. Often, if the customer chooses never to have maintenance support and requires on the travel help, the charges applicable would be 250 for every case raised.
7. 2 Advertising Strategy
AgriWare Networks is situated in New Delhi, the capital of India and the place has a great deal of dynamic NGOs around. Also, the central administration ministers are located in New Delhi. To promote the merchandise, AgriWare Sites will execute several workshops and demonstrations inviting Government officials, NGOs and Analysts. The demos will show that the merchandise can be made-to-order to focus on different problems e. g. areas which demand better drinking water management.
AgriWare Sites will also show its system to various condition governments which have the major area under cultivation like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh etc. Each one of these states surround New Delhi which also makes it easier for the sales force to visit these areas and hold demonstrations and presentations before the in charge ministers to promote the merchandise.
AgriWare Networks will also use radio adverts especially during program focusing on agriculture like "Krishi Vikas" to get farmers with huge landholdings and self-capability to afford the system. As tv sets are within a good reach of the rural populace, AgriWare Systems will also use television advertisements to draw in the clients.
To focus on farmers with small landholdings, AgriWare Systems will encourage buying the product collectively. Since this is an enormous capital investment for the farmers AgriWare Systems will also provide EMI options to the farmers at an extremely low interest of 5%.
7. 3 Sales estimate
AgriWare Networks will create revenues by advertising the product which has varying number of nodes with respect to the area of the deployment. The sales estimate is done assuming that the complete system is deployed within an average portion of 5 ha. A location of 5 ha will require around 200 sensor nodes. The below table summarizes the sales estimation for three years of the merchandise.
8. 0 SWOT Analysis
8. 1 Strengths
1. A separate, self-motivated and well-versed personnel including the executive team, executive team, sales and marketing team.
2. The convenience of the use of the software for almost all of the illiterate farmers.
3. A clear vision to meet up with the mission of getting the best of Information Technology at resource poor Indian farmer.
8. 2 Weakness
1. Since AgriWare Systems is a startup company, sufficient budget aren't available instantly.
2. Brand name is not identified.
8. 3 Opportunity
1. Currently, there is absolutely no other company which provides WSN solution for agriculture.
2. A engaging need to improve the crop production to have the ability to cater to the increasing requirements of the country.
3. The downward pattern in the costs of electric goods provides an opportunity to make products affordable to our customers.
8. 4 Threat
1. Since this is the first product of its kind in the domains of agriculture, customer response is unpredictable.
2. The major customer of AgriWare Systems is the federal government and being truly a startup company, to be sell the product on a huge scale to the federal government is a obstacle alone.
9. 0 Organization
9. 1 Form of ownership
AgriWare Networks has been founded and owned or operated by Mr. Aman Kumar, Mr. Tanish Agrawal and Ms Pinky Agrawal in relationship. The percentage owned by each is really as below:
9. 2 Key workers, positions and responsibilities
Aman Kumar is the CEO and marketing brain of the business. He is accountable for the planning, coordinating and handling the job. He has decision-making power over all the key matters like money and alternative party communications. He's also accountable for planning the presentations and strategies for capturing the market.
Tanish Agrawal is the chief technical official of the company. He's not only in charge of mentoring and guiding the hardware team as a designer but also for taking care of it. His job description includes positioning regular meetings with the executive team including the software team to keep tabs on the progress of the project.
Pinky Agrawal is the agricultural scientist of the business. Her job includes providing data to the software team to build up sturdy software by studying the data from the sensors. She actually is also accountable for undertaking the agricultural research required by the company as inputs to develop the product.
9. 3 Track record of Entrepreneurs
Aman Kumar graduated in the field of Gadgets and Communication Executive from IIT Delhi. He later signed up with IIM, Bangalore to do MBA in Financing. He was associated with Cisco Systems for one year as the Funding Supervisor, Mu Sigma Inc for just two years as Business Analyst before joining AgriWare Sites.
Tanish Agrawal graduated from DA-IICT with specialization in Wireless Sensor Networks. He is a Master's scholar in Embedded Systems Design at University of Lugano. He's experienced in hardware software codesign of Embedded Systems.
Pinky Agrawal graduated from University or college of Agricultural Sciences. She contains a MSc. level in Agriculture Knowledge. Her thesis work was to use Information Technology for early diagnosis natural cotton crop diseases in areas surrounding Hyderabad and Warangal. Cotton is one of the major crops in these areas and has experienced a great deal of damage before couple of years.
Identify and discuss advisors, consultants and outdoors board members
10. 0 Financial Plan
Provide opening balance sheet
Provide three years forecast income statements
Provide three years forecast balance sheets
Provide 12 months monthly cashflow statement
11. 0 Critical Hazards and Mitigation
11. 1 Risks
AgriWare Systems considers the next factors as major risk for the business enterprise:
1. Processing of sensor nodes at IBM might be afflicted because of IBM inner priorities?
2. The orthodox view of the rural people towards using conventional techniques for agriculture can be considered a gating concern.
3. The subsidy provided by the federal government might not be good enough for the farmers to buy the product.
11. 2 Risk Mitigation
To avoid developing issues in one supplier (IBM), AgriWare Sites will establish relations with another similar vendor (AMCC/Broadcom), so that in case of problems from one vendor, the market still continues on from the made item from the other merchant.
To change the orthodox prospect, the television advert will demonstrate the simplicity of the technology and reliable results of product.
AgriWare Networks will give EMI options to the farmers with an extremely low interest rate of 5%.
