Smart Farm India

Smart Farm India aims to double the incomes of <2Ha farmers and other producers such as fishing communities and beekeepers which will reduce hunger and empower small producers.

70% of the world’s population depend on small producers and subsistence farmers for much of their nutrition. Smart Farm India provides the keys to increasing their productivity and climate resilience:

Controlled Environment Agriculture CEA (+pisci-culture) is the only sure way to significantly increase production on small plots of land, whilst conserving water and other inputs.

Chill Chain Management CCM reduces wastage currently 30% for Vegetables and 20% for fish. There is also a limited market for crop surpluses with the same harvest period, this period can be extended with cold storage and food drying facilities so extending crop life.

Marketing strategies build the knowledge and skills to create markets linkages and reduce food wastage.

↑Resilience, ↑ Productivity ↑ Incomes = ↓Hunger 

The small farmer <2 Ha of land, is the most vulnerable in Indian rural society and makes up 58% of rural households or approx. 700 million people, who depend on agriculture for their means of livelihood. Technology and progress is not creating a better quality of life for them but rather the big farmer and a single mishap, be it the weather, an accident or a health condition, drives them to moneylenders so many small farmers are committing suicide. (DASF)

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change identified rural India as one of the most climate sensitive societies in the world.

• Controlled environment agriculture reduces water use gives resilience to heat and effective use of nutrients and pest control
• Zero environment impact cold storage and freezing increases the shelf life of crops reducing food wastage and energy use
• Improved fish farming techniques make them less prone to climate impact due to drying out of natural water sources and provides additional water
• Producer group development enables a better understanding of climate impact encouraging sharing of resources, and facilities

NB India’s hunger ranking of 102 out of 117 food insecure countries is shocking for what will be the world’s most populous country!

There is no "solution" to the challenges faced by small farmers, no single solution anyway what is needed is a social and economic eco-system supported by affordable technologies and a good knowledge base. There are many organisations trying to find the "solution" our approach is slightly different. We are bringing together a range of ideas, technologies and partners to deliver an environmentally and commercially sustainable model. It doesn't offer a single solutions but draws on all of the key ingredients required to increase food production by creating prosperous producers. 

For example we are working on a Chill Chain Management solutions with a university along with several companies and NGO's alongside this we are developing a fish farming project and implementing a marketing strategy for a bee-keeping co-operative which we have developed over the last 8 years. We are aiming to trial a controlled environment (affordable greenhouse) solution with two other partners and we will underpin this with training to ensure long term viability. 

We will find ways to configure theses ingredients to suite local circumstances and we will create videos and other media shared through our website which will help us to build new partnerships and disseminate our model widely.

The pilot project is working with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the areas of Daspalla Block, Odisha where the projects are situated they form 80% of the population. Most of the women undertake labouring work, are weakly represented politically and, as a result, lack equality of opportunity in terms of payment for their labour and decision-making.

Despite progress in child and maternal indicators, Odisha continues to be plagued by a high level of malnutrition.

Half of the under-five children from tribal communities in Odisha are underweight, and 46% are stunted. The infant mortality rate amongst tribal groups in the region is the 4th highest in India.

Our main project partner Jeevan Rekah Parishad (JRP) has worked closely with this community for 15 years, they understand the local needs the barriers to progress by working with the community solutions can be found.

Our model offers a robust commercially viable local strategy while sharing the ideas widely through our new websites, videos, and online media, to reach other undernourished areas of India and beyond. 

NB India’s hunger ranking of 102 out of 117 food insecure countries is shocking for what will be the world’s most populous country!

Our model of approach addresses all of the key elements.

Food security and nutrition for a particularly vulnerable and food insecure population identified as being especially impacted by rapid climate change. 

The technologies frequently exist to address these problems but the real innovation is to make them affordable and accessible to marginal farmers.

Our aim is to address this challenge through a process of focusing knowledge and expertise and to then widely disseminate the solutions and models which emerge across a range of platforms, such as online media, virtual site visits.

This will grow our partner base and business model.

The Smart Farm model operates at three levels, firstly by creating truly innovative technologies, secondly by combining existing technologies in new ways that complement each other and finally by bringing together partners to pool knowledge and expertise.

In the example of solar powered refrigeration both the designs we are pursuing have elements that are entirely new utilising the skills and knowledge of specialised partners, to deliver a solar cooling unit for both vegetables and fish but also uses surplus heat to dry vegetables. This is combined with developing climate resilient pisci-culture and crops with external innovation from other organisations who are pioneering low cost agricultural technologies such as controlled environment (greenhouses). This is based on research with universities, NGO’s, corporate and public bodies.

The common factors are low impact sustainable energy use, ensuring that the cost of such technologies make them accessible and affordable for small producers which is the key innovative challenge along with the support that enables producers to derive the maximum benefits. Producer groups are given training and support to maximize benefits ensuring long-term viability.

Our model is based on many years of research into ideas that are being developed by universities other NGO’s, the corporate and public sectors. 

Our team of 12 experienced innovators brings skills and knowledge from each of these sectors.

Various technologies are being developed with different partners including low cost greenhouses with environmental controls. Fish farming techniques with climate resilience adaptations. Go to markets strategies using digital media and producer group development. To give a more detailed example of our Chill Chain management technology-

The novelty of this process is to deliver premium product quality for fish and produce food at low carbon emissions.
The design includes thermal inertia to ensure that the plant continues to work effectively over night.The plant will consist of a 20 ft container with a sealed insulated partition. One side will be for veg and the other side for fish. The container will be chilled using a refrigeration system using R290 (Propane) [Ozone Depleting Potential, ODP = 0 , and GWP-AR$ =3] This practice is a proven concept and reliable and has an energy efficiency. The refrigerated R290 will cool brine which will during daylight feed an evaporator in the chill room. Additionally chilled water (0 deg C) Ice bank with a gravity re-circulation will be located on the roof of the container to freeze water to produce ice water at 0 deg C. During the day the chill room will be cooled by a brine air cooled evaporator. During the no sun period the chilled water from the ice bank will feed a bank of radiators which will gravity feed and cool the chill room keeping the walls at 0 deg C  until the solar power takes over and the cycle is repeated. 







      

Verification under development but based on tried and tested technologies. 

Detailed theory of change is under development a working group is currently evolving this. In summary-

Our aim is to double the incomes of small farmers and producers by increasing and diversifying their productive capacity at a higher quality.

Key outputs:

Small scale affordable controlled environment agriculture units (Food Production Units).

Fish farming models and pilot schemes which are environmentally sustainable and climate change resilient.

Chill chain management using innovative low carbon equipment + local skills training and development.

Go to market models, strategies, training modules and videos.

Training for the future- training which offers digital empowerment whilst strengthening producer groups.

"Smartfarmindia" website providing training resources and access to partners.

Outcomes.

Higher crop yield and diversity (>100%) with improved quality parameters, resilient to climate change and using minimal water and essential inputs. Simple and affordable digital data collection to fine tune production.

Higher yield fish farming with improved tolerance to high temperatures and environmental risks largely mitigated.

More reliable pricing for producers, with produce being better aligned to market conditions.

Strengthened digitally empowered producer groups ensuring long term commercial viability and environmental sustainability.

Easy data collection.

Stage 1

Pilot project is being developed 180 farmer/fishing community households covering 10 villages in around Kuanria Dam in Daspalla, Nayagarh, Odisha.

Plus initially 16-20 farmers in the districts of Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.

This projects is expected to developed in other areas in 20/21 subject to Covid restrictions.

Stage 2 21/22

Model project established and rolled out with 2-3 other partners, social media, website, videos and other linkages including virtual field visits.

Stage 3  22/23 and beyond

Scaled up to 20 partners so 2-3000 farmers followed by widespread dissemination...

Subject to Covid restrictions

Year 1-2 

Establish first pilot projects, encompassing fish farming, bee-keeping and vegetable production linked to trialling chill change management plant.

Various greenhouse structures trialled with SCAD farm science centre.

Market linkages training and development further established, including online media. 

Project website "smartfarmindia" fully operational.

Digital empowerment and producer group support programme established.

Years 2-5

Robust project model and programme established to a point where it can be established as an India wide showcase. Beyond this we will seek to disseminate these ideas with partners in other regions.

Since we are delivering this by building and establishing a broad partnership base there are few limits to what can be achieved. This includes, companies, universities and farm science centres, NGO's, govt. agencies as well as individual innovators, local farmers/producer and their producer groups.

We see our role as mainly logistical facilitating a large group of innovators and implementing partners. However the key constraint is organisational capacity though we are rapidly increasing this as our volunteer teams strengthen.

There are of course many technical barriers which will need to be overcome as this works develops. We address this by engaging with the most promising initiatives and the best qualified practitioners within each key element of our outline model.

Logistical and organisational capacity with impose certain practical constraints although we feel this will grow organically as we attract new partners and additional funding. 

See above

Staff 3 part time

Freelancers 3

Innovators, volunteers and other collaborators 14+

Our team is a focused on several working groups which change as the needs evolve currently

Smart Farm Core Group made up from our partner (this group co-ordinates the various projects for which there may be smaller working groups)

Communications Group (website and social media)

Social science working group

Theory of change working group

Others as needed

We have a strong core team from who bring a wide range skills and experience from different backgrounds. This enables us to provide unique solutions to challenging and longstanding problems.

Current core team members-

Mark Roberts Director 30 years experience of project leadership and development supported by EU, UN, DfID, Council of Europe and many others

Doug Marriott B.Sc., C.Eng., C.Sci., FIEE., FIET., FInstR., MinstPet., MEI. FIFST., FRSA. 25 years experience of engineering and environmental projects in India formerly director of engineering at Safeway plc and now CEO of Doug Marriott Associates

Richard Gupwell board member and former CEO and chair of European Inst for Asian Studies

Dr George Matthew, Chairman of the Institute for Social Sciences http://www.issin.org/conatct.asp 

Gopal Rao strategic partner and former head of international finance Oxfam GB former VP of Oxfam America

Libby Cooper board member consultant and founder of the Charities Evaluation Service

Eunice Leons Masters IDS many year working with local NGO's in India researcher on CSR impacts.

Samir S Barve, Msc, Bsc, Consulting Engineer

Dr Mishra, Director of JRP delivery partner PhD 25 years exp.

Plus

Team at SCAD/farm science centre working in Tamil Nadu

+ communications team, researchers, and volunteers

+ various company teams inc. VK enterprises (refrigeration)

Current collaborating partners- each partner helping us to develop and implement different aspects of our smart farm programme.

(note this list is evolving rapidly)

Doug Marriott Associates 

Jeevan Rekha Parishad (Odisha)

SCAD Tamil Nadu inc. SCAD farm science centre

WK Industries (India)

Institute for Social Sciences (India)

Brunel University

Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology

Smart Farm (Odisha)

Local Panchayats and groups 

+ other companies and ngo's developing various relevant technologies.

Under development this will include a finance and marketing plan.

Extract (see below)

Raising the profile of our initiative helping to provide planning guidance and some financial support.

We aim to create a permanent self sustaining and well regulated programme partnerships network by 2021.

This will include partners in more regions and from a greater number of companies, ngo's, universities and other agencies.

We are open to any partnerships opportunities which may be relevant.