climate.haqdarshak.com

There is a dire need for an intervention in India on increasing climate resilience and containing the drastic effects of the climate change

India continues to suffer the brunt of climate disasters like drought, floods, heatwaves, crop failures, landslides, tropical storms, and cyclones. 

In the last two years, the country has been hit by at least one extreme climate event every month. According to the World Risk Index 2020, India is the 4th most-at-risk country in South Asia, after Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. There is no doubt that climate change is real and its implications are disastrous. 

Climate change is disrupting weather patterns, leading to more extreme and frequent droughts and flooding events that directly threaten harvests. The warming climate is contributing to rising populations of insect pests that eat a higher share of crop yields.

Many of India’s poorest - including small farmers – are finding it harder to cope with the damage caused by severe weather. While options available in the future may be centered around climate adaptation and disaster relief, it is extremely important today to increase farmer resilience and help prepare them against the effects of climate change in the future. As the impacts of climate change mount, millions of vulnerable people face greater challenges in terms of extreme events, health effects, food security, livelihood security, water security, and cultural identity. Linking farmers and community members to the resources and support that the government and private players already set funds aside for will ensure that farmers have the necessary social security net to tide through an extreme climate event.

Government of India has established 8 missions to tackle various aspects of climate changes and significant resources including direct subsidy, technical assistance programs, skilling and training initiatives and access to marketplaces to create more market-linked incentives to promote sustainable practices. 

Union Budget 2022-23 for India has made substantial allocation for programs to improve farmer resilience, for combating climate change and promoting clean energy as follows: 

1. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEFCC) - USD 404 M
2. Scheme for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicle in India’ - USD 388 M
3. Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy - USD 920 M
4. Production-linked incentives (PLI) for manufacturing of high-efficiency Solar modules - USD 2600 M
5. Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanism (SMAM) - USD 140 M
6. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (farm development) - USD 138 M
7. PM Kisan samman nidhi (farmer welfare) - USD 9067 M
8. Jal Jeevan Mission (water) - USD 8000 M
9. PM Fasal Bima Yojana (crop insurance) - USD 2067 M
10. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY)- Per Drop More Crop - USD 533 M

Some other climate-relevant announcements made during the Budget presentation were

• Focus on agroforestry and private forestry; support to farmers belonging to Scheduled Castes / Scheduled Tribes who want to take up agroforestry

• Inclusion of energy storage in the harmonized list of infrastructure

• Promoting transit-oriented development for cities

Private entities such as large corporations, philanthropic organizations and climate action organizations are also deploying significant resources and manpower to support farmers, especially small-holders to adopt and leverage climate friendly solutions and farming practices. 

However,  there is a significant gap in awareness among farmers & agri-businesses regarding such resources and creates limitations in channeling these resources to the Agri-economy in India. Additionally, given most farmers and farm-related livelihoods are small-holder farmers or micro-businesses, their ability to access such resources without any handholding support is severely limited due to the often tedious process or the opportunity cost from lost time. 

This fragmentation in information around resources and limited availability of hand-holding support is limiting the adoption of sustainable practices and solutions in the Agri-community at scale despite multiple missions and significant funds outlay from both the government and private sector.

Climate.haqdarshak.com intends to address this information gap through a comprehensive resource repository in regional language, an dynamic search/screening engine and a digital platform that connects farmers/agri-microbusinesses with service providers with ease. 

The platform - 

• A comprehensive platform for the agri-economy, specifically farmers, to access climate action related government and private resources including direct and indirect support under one umbrella

• Resources searchable by thematic areas, benefit types, beneficiaries, missions or intended impact areas

• Mobile and Whatsapp chatbot enabled, voice/video based resources in regional language for ease of access for low-literacy communities

• Workspace for partner organizations to collaborate on research, content and resources towards climate action

• Listing of service providers/ organizations who can provide ground level hand-holding support for accessing such resources - farmers can search and request services from such entities via the platform

An team of climate experts, both in-house and from the ecosystem, will build this comprehensive repository of resources through primary and secondary research. Our technology platform will enable easy collation of such content and translations into 10+ regional languages. 

Customer facing channels such as Whatsapp-based chatbots given the extensive usage of Whatsapp for communication among the segment, user-friendly mobile app and web-based portals will be developed to enable easy discovery of resources for farmers. Platform extensions through APIs will enable extending this capability to partner platforms especially for partners who are building solutions for the farmers/agriculture sector in India. 

The core focus of our solution serves Farmers, Farmers Producers organizations (FPOs), Agri related livelihoods and micro-business. The solution will provide a platform for these segments to access information as well as assisted service for accessing government and private support/subsidy. 

Most of the programs are aimed at providing subsidies for environmentally friendly agricultural practices such as purchase of electric vehicles, solar charkha, organic farming etc. among several others.

These programs not only improve livelihoods and business opportunities for the target segment but also increase the uptake of environment friendly agricultural practices. Some of the programs provide improved technology for clean fuel such as biogas plants for cooking and solar powered pumps for irrigation, thus eliminating the dependence on conventional fuels and improving productivity. Programs promoting plantation of environment friendly crops such as bamboo, fruit trees, medicinal plants also provide monetary incentives to the farmers.

Apart from this the field agents used for assisted delivery of such programs are mostly women from the same target communities and thus the solution provides an additional source of income for these women. 

Haqdarshak has been in operation since 2016, with our citizen focused platform containing a repository of 7000+ welfare programs related to social security, health insurance, pensions, education, housing and necessary documents. Using this platform and our network of field agents we have reached to around 1.6 Mn households and unlocked benefits over Rs 17.8 billion. The platform is available in 11 local languages which enables its use throughout the country. 

In 2020 Haqdarshak launched its MSME platform which is a one-stop platform for all government welfare programs to help micro and small businesses grow. It contains 200+ MSME related resources providing services in the areas of business registration, compliance, financing and insurance. We have reached and supported over 18000 micro-businesses till date through the MSME platform.

We believe our experience in building and enabling the judicious use of these platforms over the last 6 years has uniquely positioned us to expand our expertise to build a platform with a focus on programs that build climate resilience among individuals and communities.

We have partnered with various Indian and international philanthropies as well as private businesses focused on working with farmers & agricultural sector over the past few years. In our work of supporting citizens with documentation and government welfare access, a significant portion of the 1.2M families we have reached, belong to rural India where farming/ agri-related livelihoods are the predominant occupation. Most of our programs include a detailed community needs assessment as part of the initial stages of the program.

The team at HQ brings in a diverse set of skills and capabilities both in technological projects and on-field solutions. 

Aniket Doegar is the co-founder and CEO at Haqdarshak (HQ) - An ex-Acumen and Teach For India Fellow, he leads the team with his drive towards impact at scale. Aniket has over 8 years of experience in the development sector. He has also been featured in the ‘Forbes India 30 Under 30’ list of 2019 under the Social Entrepreneurs category (2019).

Madhura Karnik, our Chief Growth Officer leads partnerships, communications and growth at HQ. With over 4 years of experience working within the development sector, she is highly adept at building strong connections with non-profits, philanthropies, and corporations within the ecosystem.

Savita Muley, Chief Product Officer -  After spending 18+ years advising and delivering technology and operating model solutions for global financial services giants, Savita is now pursuing her passion in Tech4Good to build the next-gen products for the next half billion users in India. She has spent the last 2 years at Haqdarshak refining the current welfare delivery platform & building new citizen facing channels such as portals, mobile apps and whatsapp-based solutions. 

We are looking for the following - 

1. Receive strategic advice and mentorship from climate change experts on how we can strengthen the value proposition of such a platform to the agri-community in India & abroad

2. Receive funding support to build the MVP/ part of MVP of this platform - we are currently building early prototypes, however will need to deploy costly engineering talent to build the solutions. The funding received will be deployed to hire technical resources, research & design expert to create a first version of resources library

3. Gain exposure in conferences focused on climate change to identify potential partners and collaborators as we build & scale this platform    

Haqdarshak (HQ) focuses on the end beneficiaries’ problem and has endeavored to bridge the information gap through digital solutions. The unique tech-based platform proposed above will provide citizens with specially curated climate action related program information in their local languages. A robust search/ screening engine in the platform identifies a customized list of programs most fit for the need of the customer & based on their profile. 

Another unique part of the solution are the field agents identified from the community and trained to reach out to citizens, in this case farmers and FPOs and provide step-by-step hand holding support on availing the benefits of the identified programs. Haqdarshak has developed a successful model to enable community members to act as change agents through its robust training programs and who are provided access to the platform to deliver support services in their communities. The platform can be extended to existing community agents who can provide the necessary support to the respective communities

We envision this platform to drive awareness, effective implementation and further collaboration across government, corporates and non-profits. Some of the impact goals we aim to achieve are:

-Increased awareness about climate-focused programs, better uptake of sustainable practices

-Improved livelihoods and business opportunities for target segment

-Additional livelihood options for HQ women agents to earn from services

-Effective collaborations to implement programs at scale 

-Data on ground challenges, uptake, and effectiveness for better program design & delivery

We will look at following metrics to measure impact and progress - 

1. Number of platform visitors & engagement duration

2. Number of programs curated and published via the platform

3. Number of partners/ collaborations associated with the platform

4. Number of partners actively using the platform to deliver information or services to farmers

5. Most importantly, number of farmers reached and serviced either directly or through partners

6. Total value of subsidies channeled

Our solution facilitates adoption of programs and practices that counter climate change and support environment friendly practices by ensuring ‘last-mile’ service delivery of government programs related to these causes. Our Theory of Change works on the idea of using technology as an enabler for information dissemination through our on-field network of agents who provide last-mile support to the beneficiaries in accessing benefits of welfare programs. 

The beneficiaries are reached through awareness camps or door-to-door services and made aware of the government programs that they are entitled to. They are also provided with support in application procedure until benefits are received. Through this platform farmers and agri-ecosystem players will be made aware of the various climate action related government programs and their benefits. They will be encouraged to adopt climate friendly practices through subsidies or incentives. 

The field agents are identified from the community which builds trust among the beneficiaries and makes it easier for the agents to reach out to them. The agents either charge a nominal fee for their service to the beneficiary, or are paid a stipend for their work. This creates sustainable livelihoods leading to improved quality of life for the agents. Agents trained on the climate action platform will be able to link farmers and other agri stakeholders in the community to relevant government programs and earn sustainable income.

At the core of this solution is a structured repository of programs standardized and translated into regional languages 

The search engine is a proprietary engine that determines the list of relevant programs not just based on text-matching but also based on the farmers’ socio-economic background through a dynamic rules engine. 

As we get further technology & funding support, we would like to implement modern technologies such as NLP, voice-based search & voice assistance to enable further accessibility of the information to farmers.

At Haqdarshak, we believe talent does not distinguish between genders and this shows in our people’s policies and recruitment strategies. We are committed to ensuring non-discrimination against any gender to ensure parity. Over 50% of our organization’s leadership team comprises women. 

Additionally, we recognize the severe gender gap in financial inclusion in India. In an effort to do our part, close to 50% of the community-level field agents whom we have trained over the last 6 years have been women. Our interventions have directly and indirectly impacted many women across the country and increased their participation in economic activities.

Our team is spread across 27 states in India and comprises staff from each state fluent in their local languages. Our operations across the country are carried out without any bias towards the beneficiaries’ gender, caste, religion or political beliefs. Identification of field agents is done solely on the basis of eligibility criteria pertaining to a minimum educational qualification and fluency in the local language. 

The climate.haqdarshak.com platform MVP will offer information to farmers free of cost. These users will be primary beneficiaries from the platform. 

Ecosystem partners such as corporates/ philanthropies who would like to design and deploy programs to tackle climate change will be another set of customers for the platform as they will have the option to subscribe to the platform for a fee. 

We are also looking to enable a marketplace for service providers, experts and climate action orgs who are looking to deliver services to farming communities in India as the platform evolves and we are able to generate sufficient demand for such services from farmers. 

In the short term, we are looking for grants and funding support to build the MVP. 

As we implement and grow, our revenue model will be a mix of B2B revenue from platform subscriptions and service fee for interventions we design & execute, along with B2C services where farmers can pay a small fee to access more customized information and services.

We will look to raise equity investments in the scale up phase where significant resources will be invested to reach millions of farmers geographically spread out across rural India

We have a commercial contract for farmer-focused content on welfare programs for farmers with a large private corporation

We are designing a multi-year program to improve lives of farmers in MP in partnership with a large international philanthropy

We are also collaborating with a climate action org in India on a joint intervention to provide last mile support to apply for & receive subsidy benefits focused on incentivizing sustainable farming in eastern part of India

Each of these early experiments validates our hypothesis of potential business models that can evolve around a dedicated platform.