Reliance Industries is looking to foray into agritech business through a combination of technology with the help of JioKrishi app and its new partnership with Facebook and JioKrishi app. The JioKrishi app will offer farm-to-fork supply chain support as well as data analytics.
The new Reliance farm-to-fork business will ensure 12-hour delivery cycle from harvest to the store by sourcing nearly 50% of all vegetables required in retail. It will benefit its own retail platforms Reliance fresh and other stores along with its upcoming e-commerce platform JioMart.
As per Bank of America (BofA) research, Reliance has partnered with grocery delivery and hyperlocal platforms such as Swiggy, Flipkart and Dunzo.
Other startups in the agri supply chain are Ninjacart, Intello Labs, Farmpal, Zomato’s Hyperpure, Bigbasket, Jumbotail, WayCool, DeHaat, KrishiHub and Kisan Network among others. However, the disruption of the whole value chain due to the outbreak of the pandemic have raised many inefficiencies.
Further, the lack of information or real-time data across the entire ecosystem has led to food wastage, poor quality of products and unclear pricing,
Reliance has also partnered with Escorts, Microsoft and Bosch to develop a small autonomous tractor to develop precision farming. The model has already been developed and can be used for seeding, tilling and spraying. It is said to have been deployed for over 65K hectares of land and with over 38.5K farmers trained in agri-allied skills.
The recently launched JioKrishi app will help farmers undertake precision farming aided by farmland data. The app, which is currently in beta mode, will use data analytics to alert the farmers about the right time to sow, irrigate, and fertilise the crops. The company believes that this will increase their productivity and yield.
Moreover, it will send alerts to farmers updating them on the weather, seasonal pests, crop loss trends, or rare attacks such as those from locusts. The company will also be leveraging its partnership with Facebook to incorporate the JioKrishi app in WhatsApp. This would allow Reliance Industries to send personalised information or alerts to the farmers.
JioKrishi could also be integrated with the company’s upcoming e-commerce platform JioMart.
