Connected Agricultural

Services Ltd.

A PROPOSAL TO:

Gregg Garett

CEO & Managing Director – CGS Advisors LLC

Bill Gracia

Manager, Strategy Services – CGS Advisors, LLC

BY :

Atul S Khiste

ISE student, Oakland University

askhiste@oakland.edu

Place Photo Here, Otherwise Delete Box

12/09/13

INTERNET OF THINGS & CONNECTED AGRICULTURAL SERVICES

Internet of Things is changing the face of all businesses by providing real

time data from intelligent systems and making best and calculated

decisions. Cross industry collaboration is considered as key for the

success in today’s business. Slowly, farming sector is also adopting these

technologies after aerospace and automobile industries. By applying

Carmany’s connected services, customers will gain a way new experience

of doing farming. ‘Carmany’ connected services Ltd. is a startup

organization which provides the connected services to farmers to help grow

their crops in cost effective way and maximize production. Also, company

aims to collaborate with other businesses in agricultural supply chain and

research organizations to define the standard programs for agricultural

production and help farmers to plan, forecast and schedule the activities for

crop plantation to the production.

OUR SERVICES

End to end implementation and support for connected irrigation system.(Valve equipped with advanced sensors network system)

Subscription based standard crop program e.g. sugarcane irrigation plug –play program

Reporting about water consumption and required amount of water

Free weather forecasting

Free bidding on goods prices to sell it to buyers

Future: Connected tractors services for tilting, harvest and spraying

Future: Connect buyers/sellers/fertilizers business

Future: Rent a farm

Future: Future crop type feasibility forecasting, (depending upon the past data gathered by system-existing customer –free service )

Future: Subsidized/cost effective services for poor farmer (In collaboration with government)

ABOUT CARMANY

CONNECTED AGRICULTURAL SERVICES LTD. _________________________________________________________________

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A critical need materializes for rehabilitation and advancement of irrigation system in India. Our research on farmer’s annual productivity shows that sometimes farming lands cannot be put into crop production because of inadequate irrigation, lack of required ingredients at required place and time. Water conservation is a serious issue for all farmers. In India, every year some farmers lie lands uncultivated because of reluctance to invest money and labor in planting, only to lose their crops due to irrigation water runs out in summer and fall. Also there is a missing link in agricultural research and other services sectors who participate in agricultural value chain. The potential benefits for farmers and other sectors relevant to agriculture from Carmany connected services outlined in this report include: Intelligent irrigation system bridging the gap between the demand and supply of water for crops; standard subscription based irrigation programs for crops; farm on rent; crop monitoring; spraying, fertilizing; connection to advanced connected farm services e.g. connected tractors, smart logistics, drones; establish the link between banks, traders, buyers and sellers of agricultural produce.

We propose a uniquely connected chain of intelligent services using control networks and information network integration of IOT technology. We use remote monitoring system with internet and wireless communication combined based on XBee technology architecture. Also it has been taken into account the system and seamless information management system is designed. The collected data by intelligent sensor system onboard is provided to different partners participating in the program based on farmer’s subscription to services offered e.g. Agricultural Research facilities, government agencies, connected tractors/drones provider, buyers of agriculture produce etc.

Part of intelligent irrigation solution we propose standard irrigation programs for particular crops as per soils type, water requirements, soil ph. content, sunlight availability, nutrients required. To collect and provide this data upfront to an off board decision making system in cloud, an intelligent valve system will be placed, equipped with required sensors network based on ZigBee mesh topology. Data comparison will be made between standard program parameters and real-time data coming from onboard connected system on farm e.g. required amount water, nutrients time to spray fertilizer etc., the decision will be made in form of operating instructions to the intelligent system onboard and feedback will be sent to the farmer via tweets/email/sms. As part of services after the seedlings nose their leaves above the soil, a small drone will hover above the field measuring NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index). The data will be sent to off board system by drones and valve system about fertilizer requirements. System will judge how much fertilizer to apply and send cost estimation to farmer and place an online order to partner fertilizer dealers. At the end of the year, the harvester will pass over those same rows to harvests the sugarcane. After harvest a work order will be placed by off board system based on farmer’s approval to registered harvesting service provider offering connected tractors. They’ll be tilling and seed planting on fields and wirelessly transmitting location data to the planter, which will use an electro-conductivity map to plant the seeds.

In today’s market some of the services are offered by companies like Trimble, John Deere, Jain irrigation automation etc. and being used by farmers from several years. Government of India is already supporting such technology implementation by providing huge amount of subsidy on purchase of such services and equipment’s. In Indian agro market there are no such services which help farmers from planning of crop, irrigation, its growth, harvesting to the tilting of farm land and making it ready for next crop. So, farmers will have access to our low cost subscription based model and services offered in collaboration with partners already in market. Partners and other collaborating services like banks, connected tractor services will be charged based on % profit sharing /customer. This will ensure that, out of competition, our customers will get best quality services with very competitive rates. “Rent a farm” concept will also generate a good amount of revenue by sharing profit with farm owner and interested party.

Requisite system to deliver these benefits is both complex and fragmented and as such need a collective support of all stakeholders through agricultural supply chain. Agricultural research and education sector must agree to contribute their knowledge and expertise in order to ensure the benefits to farmers and stakeholder in this chain. Moreover, communication sector is playing vital role in implementing connected technology and its presence. With the help of automotive sector progressing in making smart agricultural equipment’s will also play an important role.

Critical success factors comprise environmental conditions, relationship with partners, and seamless flow of information including IT, communication, automation, suppliers, trader, buyers, and government research organizations. Combining all those factors will ensure that the content and methods of delivery of the solutions bespoke to both market and crop types aligning with cost optimization and increased productivity for farmers. On the other hand, government will also benefit through readily available real-time data collection on crops production and find a secure method of subsidy distribution for these services so that farmers can easily use these services at low cost.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Introduction:

One third of humanity is fed through an estimated 500 million smallholder farms with less than two hectares of land. In Asia and sub-Saharan Africa the dependence is even higher, where small farms produce about 70%

of the food consumed.

The small holdings are typically managed by families with very limited mechanical and technical support and with poor access to finance or lack of information about finance. It is often tough for them to make ends meet, let alone grow their business. Looking ahead, the impact of climate change, water scarcity and increasing land scarcity will make this even more difficult. With the world’s population expected to grow by 700 million in 2020, and demand for food to increase by 70% by 2050, it is clear that something has to be done to improve the efficiency of food production and distribution. The mobile communication technology already had a huge impact on society and considered as the most transformative tool for development. This communication does not have same barriers to access as other technologies and is simple, inexpensive and convenient to use. Remote areas are almost connected due to mobile technology. So, using this technology, farmers can extend mobiles use to not only be in touch with relatives but to connect with other finance companies, buyers, agricultural advisors and use that information to improve their food production and distribution. Although it is true that connected technology is changing the face of all industries but agriculture industry is slow and had been away from all that and so very few organizations are in the markets who are working on helping farmers to improve the productivity through implementation of technology at lower cost. So, there is a gap where farming business supply chain is scattered and not uniform. So with this opportunity, I propose this paper to connect silos of agricultural supply chain which includes advanced automation system to the connected services. This paper outlines some of the initial ideas. We cannot act on them without the support from partners. This paper is also an invitation for the customers, suppliers, investor’s agricultural research centers, NGO’s and those who really believe in connected technology for agricultures.

1. Need for connected services in agriculture

A critical need materializes for rehabilitation and advancement of irrigation system in India. Our research on farmer’s annual productivity shows that sometimes farming lands cannot be put into crop production because of inadequate irrigation, lack of required ingredients at required place and time. Water conservation is a serious issue for all farmers. In India, every year some farmers keep lands uncultivated because of reluctance to invest money and labor in planting, only to lose their crops due to irrigation water runs out in summer and fall. Also there is a missing link in agricultural research and other services sectors who participate in agricultural value chain. Electricity is also a one of big problem for farming. Benefits to farmers: The potential benefits for farmers and other sectors relevant to agriculture from Carmany connected services outlined in this report include: Intelligent irrigation system bridging the gap between the demand and supply of water for crops; standard subscription based irrigation programs for sugarcane crop. Future proposed services includes farm on rent; crop monitoring; spraying, fertilizing; connection to advanced connected farm services e.g. connected tractors, smart logistics, drones; establish the link between banks, traders, buyers and sellers of agricultural produce. Improved productivity with low cost would be the main benefit to the farmers using our services.

2. Market Overview

Great hardware and information companies with technology and operations that could really help growers. But surprisingly none of them actually worked together. And when these systems don’t work together, no one benefits. Not the hardware companies, not the growers, and not the people that try to help growers get the most out of their crops In today’s market some of the services are offered by companies like Trimble, John Deere, Jain irrigation automation, onfarm, Mahindra tractors etc. and being used by farmers from several years. But those are in the silos not as part of a complete system. Which probably could help farmers to understand end to end implementation of technological benefits or scope of implementation was not broad.

Due to technological difficulties and reluctance to implement technology in rural areas, a bigger part of agro industry has been overlooked. So, we will be among very few companies entering in this market and complete our purpose of helping small farm holders to improve their productivity from farming land. As per our market survey, it has been observed that, the competitors in the market could be probable partners for our company to ensure or strategic goals to reach village areas and help small farmers at low cost.

3. Agriculture market Value Chain:

Connected technology plays a vital role in agricultural value chains, different types of connected technology having different assets and weaknesses when applied to particular intrusions. The impacts of connected technology are diverse, and they influence market competitiveness in many ways. However, technology should not overshadow the people and institutions involved. While the positive impacts of connected technology are being catalogued and discussed, many rural farmers still do not have access to or the capacity to use connected technology.

Fig. Agricultural value chain

In the agricultural value chain the flow of information is received by farmer from different areas i.e. 1.Agricultural production planning 2.Agricultural maintenance services 3.retails and consumer of goods and 4. Research organizations providing standard data. All these areas cover the complete value chain of agriculture industry.

In this section, you can find a wide range of materials that look at key opportunities and challenges of connected technology in the agricultural value chain.

The above value chain helps us answer following questions regarding: 1) How the products farmer produces and reaches the final consumer. 2) The structure (economic relationships) between players in the chain. 3) How this structure is likely to change over time. 4) The key threats to the entire value chain.

The amount of detail that you include in your value chain depends in part upon the final product that you most identify with. For many producers, this is a difficult question. Just identifying where the product goes after it leaves your business is an important first step. Ask yourself, how and in what ways your production finally reaches the consumer. This question can have very different answers depending where you are located in the value chain. Grain producers will likely have many different ways in which the product reaches the final consumer and may have little control over where or how their product reaches the consumer. For these producers, the key is to identify the major channels or classes of products that reach the consumer. For instance, grains are often converted to manufactured cereal products, feed, and feed products, ethanol, etc. On the other hand, fresh fruit or vegetable growers may have a great deal of control over how their product

reaches the consumer. These growers will likely want to be much more explicit with respect to the final product that they produce, i.e., fresh apples sold at roadside stand, apples picked by consumers in the orchard, apples put in storage and sold in a retail outlet, and apples processed for juice. The key is to identify the various ways in which your product reaches the consumer. The amount of detail that you use in constructing the value chain will depend in large part upon the degree of differentiation that exists between you and your competitors. By simply considering the alternative ways in which your product reaches the final consumer, you can begin looking for ways to differentiate yourself from your direct competitors and making your product more attractive to members of certain value chains. For instance, look for ways to add value not only to the businesses you directly supply but to their customers as well. Also, you may begin to see opportunities for end markets that play to your strengths

So there are so many opportunities for connected technology to connect all these silos of information in agro value chain. Our company will be using all the available opportunities in future.

3.1 Scope of connected services Opportunities: Opportunities for connected technology is mainly in supporting smallholder farmers in the through end to end production and marketing processes, and improving the transport and aggregation of agricultural produce

Scope of connectivity opportunity has identified five major levers

Irrigation Automation (Water conservation)

Improving access to financial services for farmers

Provision of agricultural information

Building strong communication with agricultural market value chain players

Enhancing access to markets

As per our operations strategy, we plan to launch this company as connected wireless irrigation system. Future plans will use all above opportunities in respective business channels.

4. Basic Solution Design / Architecture -

Part of intelligent irrigation solution we propose standard irrigation programs for particular crops as per soils type, water requirements, soil ph. content, sunlight availability, nutrients required. To collect and provide this data upfront to an off board decision making system in cloud, an intelligent valve system will be placed, equipped with required sensors network based on XBee mesh topology. Data comparison will be made between standard program parameters and real-time data coming from onboard connected system on farm e.g. required amount water, nutrients time to spray fertilizer etc., the decision will be made in form of operating instructions to the intelligent system onboard and feedback will be sent to the farmer via tweets/email/sms. As part of services after the seedlings nose their leaves above the soil, a small drone will hover above the field measuring NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index). The data will be sent to off

board system on cloud by drones and valve system about fertilizer requirements for processing. System will judge how much fertilizer to apply and send cost estimation to farmer and place an online order to partner fertilizer dealers. As part of future strategy we plan to provide following additional services which can be implemented easily using the following solution architecture e.g. at the end of the year, the harvester will pass over those same rows to harvests the sugarcane. After harvest a work order will be placed by off board system based on farmer’s approval to registered harvesting service provider offering connected tractors. Connected tractors be tilling and seed planting on fields and wirelessly transmitting location data to the planter, which will use an electro-conductivity map to plant the seeds. 4.1 Solution Workflow Customer calls from a toll-free number to our help center which note down and using ERP system solve the enquiries. Help center would be the point of contact for farmers and an immediate representative will be assigned from comity of engineers to actually gather information from costing and implementation point of view. As per the requirement a quote will be given to farmer with cost options. In this transition the help centers job would be to help the customer to understand the type of solution that we offer and provide an estimated quote with mid-tier decision comities approval. Mid-tier decision making comity and reporting systems job would be to provide all required information for converting an enquiry into a customer. This mid-tier comity will gather all information from partners providing irrigation system. E.g. Representative will be assigned to work with partner/supplier Company to put a customer order as per farmer’s requirement. (Before making this decision irrigation system components will be stored as inventory and if the components are already in inventory, deployment personnel will be sent to the site where the deployment needs to be done. After survey a final technical requirement will be made and provided to control system for building the system in-house and testing it. During this transition the customer will be informed on all steps through phone calls or sms. Connected Sugarcane irrigation program. This program will offer customer a whole new experience about growing sugarcane and managing production using connected irrigation system. Deployment personals will deploy the automation system with intelligent valves placed on particular areas. Depending upon the type of land, soil ph value, sunlight& environmental conditions in region, a standard software program will be generated and loaded by connected system to the local controllers at farm central location. Local controller will receive the current data from valve and sensors around it and send back signals to main system for decision and adjustments to controller program according to current data. Main system over the cloud will send back signals to take necessary action. E.g. shutdown the valve at location3 and open valve at location 4/ (ask farmer for permission to irrigate a portion of crop, which requires water and close the water supply at other location, which is over irrigated.)As per the laboratory data and standards for sugarcane crop, a list of best suitable fertilizers will be sent to farmer. Upon farmer’s approval, order will be placed to nearest partner dealer. Similarly other services will be provided in collaboration with partners.

Fig. Functional architecture of connected sugarcane irrigation solution

4.2 On board system Architecture and working Following is the system level architecture for wireless irrigation system for standard sugarcane program crop.

Fig. Solar powered wireless irrigation system architecture for sugarcane program

Standard

Parameters

For

Sugarcane

Irrigation

Small

Drone

Hovering

NDVI information

exchange

upfront to knowledge

center

4.3 Main Characteristics: Main controller controls up to 20 irrigation zones, 1 wired pump, 3 wireless pumps, and 8 master valves. One zone with one sensor controls up to 4 valves. Total control up to 160 valves. All field controllers are solar powered. Bidirectional wireless communication distance between the main controller and controllers in the field is greater than 500 meters in open space. Only moisture sensor based control, no timer control. 4.4 Main controller features:

1. Control system display shows in sequence, for each zone: Control mode for the zone. Either moisture sensor based, or plus forbidden irrigation

period. Current moisture level collected by moisture sensor in the field. Present dry/wet control levels. Wireless sensor #, communication status, battery status. Wireless valve controller #, communication status, battery status, auto/manual,

open/close status. Zone failure notice. Current water pump#, communications good, battery level, auto/manual, open/close

state. Master valve #, communications good, battery level, auto/manual, open/close state.

2. Adjust dry/wet moisture control levels for all the irrigation zones.

3. Set and adjust 7 day forbidden irrigation period for all irrigation zones, with

different schedule for each day of a week..

4. Manually open/close each field valve from the main controller to realize

manual remote control, or manually open/close valves from the field

for convenience.

5. Choose moisture level or moisture level + forbidden time irrigation control modes

for each zone from the main controller.

6. Check previous irrigation events, history of moisture levels and failure notices.

7. Set up maximum number of valves opened simultaneously to assure adequate

water supply.

8. New field controller can be registered while remote by the main controller.

9. System contains a clock and calendar.

10. If irrigating and rain happens at same time, system will automatically close the

valve after moisture level reaches the set wet level.

11. System applies to any soil type to obtain accurate, repeatable irrigation, keeping

the soil moisture in the set range.

4.5 Main Benefits

Integrated pump and solar/AC powered pumps with onboard control system

Multiple irrigation system operation

Engineered to save energy, water and labor

Delivered as a factory-assembled unit for fast installation

Consistent water delivery

Higher yields through more uniform water application

Immediate energy savings

Surge-free pressure regulation

Control system onboard matches pump output to demand and supply of water

Complete installation and service

Higher returns—saves up

4.6 Help center service

As part of solution and company workflow, we have a support center for farmers, which will be the starting point for all enquires and consulting. Also, all farmers will benefit from this help center to know the best price for their crops in the market and receive contacts from different buyers providing best price. Farmer calls customer support center and receive quotes from different buyers. Farmer has option to negotiate on price (This will be a mobile call conversion directly with buyer).Once the deal is finalized, farmer will redirected to transportation service for good transportation should a farmer ask for it.

Fig. Free help center

5. Economic Model for Solution

In today’s market some of the services are offered by companies like Trimble, John Deere, Jain irrigation automation etc. and being used by farmers from several years. Government of India is already supporting such technology implementation by providing huge amount of subsidy on purchase of such services and equipment’s. In Indian agro market there are no such services which help farmers from planning of crop, irrigation, its growth, harvesting to the tilting of farm land and making it ready for next crop. So, farmers will have access to our low cost subscription based model and services offered in collaboration with partners already in market. Partners and other collaborating services like banks, connected tractor services will be charged based on % profit sharing /customer. This will ensure that, out of competition, our customers will get best quality

services with very competitive rates. “Rent a farm” concept will also generate a good amount of revenue by sharing profit with farm owner and interested party partners.

Apart from subscription based solution, we will provide a free service to all customers about best prices to sell the crops to buyers. Help center will redirect the farmers to best buyers in the market. Based on the customer base we will charge the buyers to be a part of our system an official buyer. Also, the transportation partners will share the profit on percentage basis.

Based on the market survey and existing competitors following table shows the services offered with approximate price which is likely to change depending on the requirement and implementation alternatives.

Fig. services model (current and future services)

6. Integration Model for Solution

Requisite system to deliver these benefits is both complex and fragmented and as such need a collective support of all stakeholders through agricultural supply chain. Agricultural research and education sector must agree to contribute their knowledge and expertise in order to ensure the benefits to farmers and stakeholder in this chain. Moreover, communication sector is playing vital role in implementing connected technology and its presence. With the help of automotive sector progressing in making smart agricultural equipment’s will also play an important role. Currently as part our goto market strategy we put forward only automated wireless irrigation system which is powered by solar. For this solution to become a perfect solution for small farm holders and particularly rural areas where there is problems with electricity power this will be a perfect solution.

In order to keep the cost for this implementation low, government involvement plays very important role in setting up policies for lowering the taxes and providing subsidy to farmers to adopt this technology.

We will work together with following partners as a system to take this solution to a new level. - Communication Industry (Vodaphone Inc) - Irrigation Automation (Jain Irrigation system pvt. Ltd) - Central Government of India Renewable energy and water management department - Wireless technology providers (Anc-technology) - Low scale solar technology provider (Anc-technology)

Partners identified:

7. Go-to-Market Strategy for Solution –

Although, the market is very big and covers many channels for business; considering all risks and funds for startup, we plan to enter the market as a connected irrigation system company providing end to end implementation with low cost and advanced technology in the market. We plan to launch following standard plug and play irrigation program i.e. Also we will be providing a free help center for farmers about trading the goods in market. This free service will help us building the connection with farmers who may turn into future customer. So the free service would be a channel to reach farmers.

Our target customers are from village area and farmers owning 5-20 hectares

of land. We plan to partner local social media for advertisements. For the village and remote side areas, we will be advertising our services by visiting the places directly. Our subject matters will present our services at events like agro-expos and agricultural universities. Apart from a free call center, to make farmers aware of services and benefits, we will be providing demo on the site and the orders for implementation will collected onsite. This will ensure that the customer will get exactly what they wants .With very less exposure to social media; direct marketing is the best option for us to reach out to our customers in the village. I future with the customer base, based on existing services, we will use that contacts to provide future advanced services as up gradation to the existing services. As per our operations strategy, we plan to launch this startup company services in Punjab and Gujarat states in India, where most of the sugarcane production is done. Later on we will expand and scale up the model in different states.

8. Implementation Risks and Mitigation Strategy –

Critical success factors comprise environmental conditions, relationship with partners, and seamless flow of information including IT, communication, automation, suppliers, trader, buyers, and government research organizations. Combining all those factors will ensure that the content and methods of delivery of the solutions bespoke to both market and crop types aligning with cost optimization and increased productivity for farmers. On the other hand, government will also benefit through readily available real-time data collection on crops production and find a secure method of subsidy distribution for these services so that farmers can easily use these services at low cost. So, the market scope is large and very few companies are experienced in this market. As per our strategy, we will be the first to launch this type of services in India which will actually make a positive impact on farming industry which will lead from small scale to large scale farmers and so the economy.

Connected Agricultural

Services Ltd.

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