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HomePosts Tagged "rural"
Agrotech, Machinery - Pre-harvesting, R&D, World

Agricultural drones are helping farmers to address labour shortage and reduce costs

Across Vietnam’s Mekong River delta, drones flying above the field to perform farm works have been gradually adopted in the rice paddies. Vietnam becomes one of the fast-growing markets for XAG Agricultural Drone, helping farmers address labour shortage and reduce costs. In the meantime, drone pilot is seen as the new favoured career for rural youth, who can harness technology to make a good fortune in the agriculture sector.

“With two XAG P100 agricultural drones, two small teams consisting of only 4 to 6 people can finish the fieldwork much faster and easier. While the drone sprays evenly and penetrate the rice crops more quickly, it can also spread seeds and fertilizers. Our service has helped him reduce labour cost and improve the yields.”said by 30-year-old Khuong, KPT’s co-founder.

The introduction of agricultural drone has changed the tune of young generation on rural development, it provides a decent work opportunity for rural youth who can build a new type of business like the KPT Fly Team or join as a drone pilot. They have become the new rising force to strengthen Vietnam’s role as ‘rice bowl’ of the world. The KPT Fly Team was established in 2021 by a group of young engineers with experience in rice cultivation. They provide services to farmers in the Mekong River delta, using XAG’s drones to handle pests, sow seeds, and spread fertilizers.

XAG’s agricultural drone is well credited for the level of its automation and precision, but what impresses KPT the most is the company’s agricultural ecosystem. From remote sensing drone to unmanned ground vehicle, XAG has also developed multiple types of products to focus on farmer’s various needs. More technologies will be applied on farm to yield a bright future.

Agricultural drones are helping farmers to address

India, Start ups

Harvesting Farmer Network (HFN), a leading agriculture technology platform in India, has raised $4 million from Social Capital, a Silicon Valley-based technology investment firm managed by Chamath Palihapitiya. This is the first institutional round raised by HFN, which will be used to reach more than 120 million smallholder farmers across India, as well as explore opportunities in India’s rural markets.

HFN helps smallholder farmers (defined by the UN as a farmer owning less than 2 hectare of land) in India to increase their income by empowering them with a collective bargaining platform. Through HFN’s platform, farmers are able to buy farm inputs, access financial services such as loans and insurance, as well as sell their crops to national and international customers enabling them to scale and grow their businesses.

Founded by Ruchit Garg during COVID-19, HFN was created to reduce the friction between farmers and buyers, initially by enabling them to connect directly on Twitter. Since then, more than $500 million of crops, consisting of over 360 crop varieties, have been listed on HFN’s digital platform from every state across India. These crops have been sold domestically as well as to international markets. A global agricultural powerhouse, India produces more than $275 billion of crops annually.

As of August 2022, more than 3.7 million farmers are digitally connected to the HFN platform, witnessing a 2.5X increase in their crop earnings. Recently, many forward-thinking farmers have even launched offline centres known as “HFN Kisan Centres” to help fellow local farmers sell their crops and buy staple inputs such as seeds and fertiliser at affordable prices.

Ruchit G Garg, Founder CEO of HFN, said: “At HFN, our goal is to help farmers realise their full potential by reducing the plethora of inefficiencies across the agriculture value chain. Simple and widely-available technologies like WhatsApp and Twitter have allowed us to create massive data-driven farmer co-operatives, which allows farmers to negotiate better rates for farm inputs and more competitive prices for outputs.”

Jay Zaveri, Partner at Social Capital, said: “India is one of the bread baskets of the world and we’re excited to partner with HFN to bring a safe, secure, and empowering platform to the more than 120 million smallholder farmers across India. Our goal is to enable Indian households to access high-quality farm produce and for farmers to build a profitable livelihood through HFN.”

HFN plans to use the new funding to rapidly expand its footprint across India, and over the next 12 months, it expects to connect farmers in every single one of India’s 708 districts across the country.

Harvesting Farmer Network (HFN), a leading agriculture