Farmers are a cautious lot, especially the ones with small holdings, who dread change for the fear
of failure, believes Suresh Sundararajan, President and Group head, Olam. Add to that an ecosystem
where they’re unable to sustain themselves without a struggle, leave alone earning well. On the
other
hand, there is a growing number of customers who are asking more about the food that is put on their
table. End customers have questions about the source, process, packaging, among other things.
Questions on fair pricing too have started gaining traction.
“We see a lot of opportunities, at the first line and the last mile,” Suresh Sundararajan tells
Raja
Shah, SVP and Industry Head, CMT, Infosys, in a conversation on the sidelines of Infosys’ 2020 APAC
Confluence. He talks about how in the first mile, with technology, Olam’s 30-year old food and
agri-business is working towards creating a community platform where farmers can not only share best
practices, but where they can also get answers about selling their produce, buying inputs, getting
financing, getting advice on crop calendar, among other things.
“Imagine it's a form book… where you have millions of farmers around the world, coming onto the
platform to get all their advises to sell their produce and benefit from that,” he says, adding that
at the other end of the supply chain, there can be an increased focus on traceability and
sustainability.
He is also of the strong opinion that small-holder farming is the future of agriculture, and
technology is an essential means to get to the destination. It fits in perfectly with Olam’s
corporate
purpose - to reimagine global agriculture and food systems.
Olam partnered with Infosys to create Olam Farmer Information System (“OFIS”), which helps gather,
analyze and advise farmers on best practices. “Today we have approximately half a million farmers on
that platform. We gather rich information about the farmers … And that's very powerful,” says
Sundararajan.
“These community programs, in essence, helps to improve a farmer's life. And when our customers see
that they're also excited and they want to partner with Olam so that they can use our platform to
reach out to the farmers or to create an impact to the farmers,” he says.
The challenges are, however, still quite big, says Sundararajan, who counts, poor infrastructure,
poor connectivity, and poor smartphone ownership, among others, as concerns that need to be
addressed.
“We are trying to work with partners in the ecosystem, to see how we can engage digitally with
farmers
use that and provide sustainability and traceability solutions to customers,” he says.