At Krishify, we’ve been dedicated to transforming agriculture since 2019. With over 5 million personalised advisories and a growing user base of 12 million farmers, our journey has been one of constant evolution. Now, our blend of technology and on-ground interventions—the ‘phygital approach’—is making a significant difference in farming, particularly in crops like chilli and cotton across Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone, Barwani, and Dhar districts.
What’s In This Case Study?
Growing chilli and cotton is challenging, requiring constant monitoring and timely interventions from pre-sowing to harvest. To address these complexities, we identified 2200+ farmers from Madhya Pradesh (majorly from Khargone, Barwani, and Dhar) who were actively engaging on our Krishify app. This case study highlights how our phygital approach helped these farmers increase yields, reduce input costs, and improve sustainability.
How It All Started!
On the Digital front, Krishify’s mobile platform became a central hub for farmers, providing them with advisory services, weather alerts, educational content (text/videos) and input suggestions. Within the app, we built dedicated communities for chilli and cotton farmers, where our expert agronomists, termed ‘Krishi Mitras’ and ‘Fasal Doctors’, provided real-time advice. Farmers were able to interact with agronomists through queries, image uploads, and call-back requests, ensuring personalised solutions.
On the Physical front, we conducted field visits and demonstrations, showing farmers how to apply the knowledge shared via the app. Select farms were transformed into ‘SMART PLOTS,’ monitored through satellite technology for real-time insights, enabling early identification of anomalies and proactive advisory dissemination.
The Phygital Approach in Action
- Community Engagement: We provided personalised advisories to over 2200 farmers, with agronomists addressing concerns within 30 minutes.
- Field Visits and Demos: Based on farmer queries, we arranged on-field demonstrations and geo-mapped plots for better data collection and progress tracking.
- SMART PLOTS: Using satellite data and geofencing, we closely monitored crops, offering preventive solutions to potential risks.
- Digital CRM Integration: Our web-based CRM tracked every interaction, agricultural practice, advisory, and farm detail, ensuring complete transparency and traceability.
Key Findings & Project Outcomes
- Local Insights & Increased Awareness: In the Khargone region, particularly in the Patidar belt, farmers tend to have larger landholdings and are more aware of key issues, resulting in high-quality chilli production. Input costs in this region range from ₹80,000 to ₹1.2 lakh per acre. Meanwhile, the Yadav belt, with smaller landholdings and less awareness, has input costs of ₹60,000 to ₹80,000 per acre. Our efforts helped bridge this gap, educating farmers on common issues like black thrips and wilting.
- Disease & Pest Management: Common challenges for farmers in 2024 included wilting, blight, die-back, black thrips, mites, and cutworms. Through our community-driven advisory system, farmers collectively managed these issues, reducing unnecessary sprays and improving crop health.
- Product Demonstrations & Feedback Sharing: We conducted product demonstrations to show farmers how to effectively apply inputs in their fields. After the demos, we shared the results within the community, encouraging knowledge-sharing and enabling farmers to adopt best practices.
- Improved Sustainability: Focus group meetings and individual interventions helped farmers reduce input costs while maintaining high yield quality. This led to noticeable increases in production, thanks to better resource management.
By offering physical demonstrations, sharing product results in the digital community, and promoting real-time feedback loops, we created a collaborative environment where farmers could learn from each other’s experiences.
Conclusion
Krishify’s phygital approach has successfully boosted crop yields, reduced input costs, and improved disease management in chilli and cotton farming across Khargone, Barwani, and Dhar. By combining technology with physical interventions, we continue to foster agricultural innovation, helping farmers become more productive and sustainable.
As we move forward, we plan to extend our phygital model to other crops. Any businesses looking to collaborate with Krishify to leverage this model are welcome to join us in driving positive change in agriculture.
