Introduction
Neurafarm is participating in the Cultivhacktion | Innovative Agriculture Hackathon(click here), a hackathon event organized by the World Bank Group, Microsoft, Tanihub Group, in partnership with the MoA and other key players in the digital agriculture sector. The hackathon aims to demonstrate the value of agriculture data and digital technologies in addressing the key challenges in Indonesia’s agri-food sector as well as build the capacities of young innovators, to develop digital solutions for agriculture.
Through this event, Neurafarm hopes to share our work to wider audiences.
Background
Human population is climbing steadily toward 10 billion by 2050 (FAO) and the demand for food is increasing rapidly. All in the midst of unprecedented climate change that will tax even the most resilient systems. Today’s food and agricultural systems are accountable for a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of global freshwater use. Those same systems deplete soils, water quality, and natural habitats all across the world. At the same time, up to 40% of global yield is lost due crops disease and pest annually (Source: https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1402920/icode/). This is a threat for global food security and also financial burden for farmers like Mr. Ace in Sumedang, West Java, whose yield was decreased from 200kg to 40kg because of pests & diseases (more than 80% loss). Mr. Ace is not alone, there are more than 34 million smallholders in Indonesia who are prone to similar problem.
Existing Solutions
Plant disease & pests can be mitigated, but existing solutions are limited. When it comes to disease & pests, it takes some time for the symptoms to manifest. It’s also take a long time for farmers to get answers when they consult with agriculture extension agents because there’s only 67,000 agriculture extension agents to help farmers. It’s also challenging to find the best products for treatment because there are thousands of active ingredients out there. Current solutions are not scalable.
Neurafarm Solutions
At Neurafarm, we believe that the power of innovation and technology can solve the world’s biggest challenges of food security. That’s why we build Dokter Tania, AI-powered super app that allows farmer to identify disease through image. Farmers can get comprehensive diagnosis, treatment recommendation, product recommendation, and access to thousands of disease management all in a single app.
The only thing that the farmers need to do is just take a picture of a plant that looks unhealthy, or upload it from their gallery and send it to Dokter Tania, and then our AI will be able to tell what kind of disease that affects the plant, how to treat it, and recommending the best products for treatment.
Toko Tania: Farm Supply Shop that acts as human interface for farmers
Neurafarm’s Farm Supply Shop Network in Bandung Area
Farmers can also visit offline farm supply shop network where they can get access to wide-range of products and services including Paylater. So farmers can can get the products and then pay it later at harvest. So far, there are 17 farm supply shop in Bandung Area joining our partnership program. They will act as human interface and provide O2O experience for farmers.
Super App for Farmers
Dokter Tania provides comprehensive tools to help farmers on their day-to-day activities including:
1. Disease Radar
Through Disease Radar, farmers can see what’s happening in their surroundings and also what’s happening all across Indonesia: the most trending disease, in what area, at what time, and what kind of crops. This way, farmers can react accordingly and plan mitigation way before it affects them.
Disease Radar can help farmers to see the most trending diseases & pests around them.
2. Fertilizer Calculator
One of the biggest component in farming cost structure is inputs. Traditionally, farmers use their experience to decide the amount of fertilizer and what type of products that they use in each farming cycle. However, it often leads to excessive use of chemical which not only taking a huge chunk of cost from farmers’ pocket, but also harmful for the environment and us as consumer. Through fertilizer calculator feature, farmers can calculate fertilizer usage recommendation. They can also use our Soil Testing service which only costs $6/sample for better results. Our customers can reduce inputs cost by up to 30% and save millions of Rupiahs by using this service.
Fertilizer Calculator feature helps farmers to apply the right amount of fertilizer. They can also opt for using Know Your Soil service for only $6/sample.
3. Cultivation Guidance
Through Dokter Tania, farmers can also access 1400+ disease management recommendation in more than 140+ commodities. Dokter Tania provides the most comprehensive information and best-in-class recommendations. Including recommendation for treatment using mechanical control, biological control, and chemical control, linked to Toko Tania (online and offline).
Farmers can access disease management guidance in 1400+ diseases and 140+ commodities.
4. Market Insights
Farmers often lack access to information regarding price and its trend. This often leads to failure in gaining profit. Farmers can better anticipate demand if they get updated information in price and commodities (what other farmers are planting now), the trend, and others. Dokter Tania provides price information in important commodities in 34 provinces in Indonesia, alongside market insights, and trends.
Market Insights feature help farmers to identify trend and demand.
5. My Fields
Neurafarm realizes that disease management is not complete without disease & pests prevention. Scalability is our utmost priority, our goals to become Indonesia #1 agriculture data capture and information provider drives us towards building a new feature called My Fields where farmers can register their fields by drawing polygon. Farmers will receive daily recommendation regarding weather (and predictions for the next 4 days), hourly spraying recommendation, and personalized daily recommendations. In the past 2 months alone, there are more than 1000 fields have been registered to the platform, amounting to 3000+ hectares of land covered. Next phase development would include satellite imagery data to determine vegetation index so that farmers can reap more benefit by using Dokter Tania on a daily basis.
Neurafarm’s Impact
Dokter Tania has been used by more than 18,000 farmers from 200+ cities in Indonesia. These farmers collectively manage more than 15,000+ hectares of land. From the piloting that we conducted at Cimenyan & Lembang, Indonesia, timely guidance and intervention can help farmers increase their profit/hectare/season by up to USD 900. Imagine the impact we could make if we can do this at scale.
Neurafarm’s Vision
Neurafarm has always had a big vision: to help achieve food security and build more resilient and sustainable agriculture ecosystem. Neurafarm believes that innovation and technology can solve the world’s biggest challenges in the agriculture sector. Starting from Dokter Tania as our initial entry, Neurafarm aims to build an ecosystem around Dokter Tania to provide end-to-end solution for farmers.
By democratizing technology to farmers, now we are able to collect previously wasted data and information in the agriculture sector. With more data, soon we’ll be able to help farmers to cope with plant & disease better, give personalized recommendation at all stages of work, predicting the emergence of pest & disease in the future, and more. Beyond disease & pest and stakeholders within the sector, technology and data can streamline information & insights to the other verticals and empower stakeholders such as agri-inputs companies, financial institutions, and government to create better policy and improve farm sustainability.
Going forward, Neurafarm’s strategy is to empower farmers and businesses to grow more, reach more audience, and distribute better.
Do you share the same vision? Let’s support Neurafarm’s journey to build more resilient and sustainable agriculture ecosystem in Indonesia & beyond through technology.
Cheers,
Febi Agil Ifdillah (CEO Neurafarm)