ICT tools for Agricultural Management Support
Solution to integrate data to facilitate agricultural management on the concept of "information anywhere and at any time."
This is a ICT solution to integrate and model agronomic data for decision making and planning in agricultural companies and ventures. It considers the following points:
Information is received and processed, then results are shown on the Web for the subscribers to the service.
The software receives data from mobile devices that are integrated with Wi-Fi, GSM, GPRS, etc..
Models of yields, crop rotation, and other are developed..
Facts
2005
| Two years ago: | 3,000 |
| Last year: | 33,000 |
| This year (forecast): | 66,000 |
| Year 2 (forecast): | 132,000 |
| Year 3 (forecast): | 264,000 |
| Two years ago: | 0 |
| Last year: | 3,000 |
| This year (forecast): | 5,000 |
| Year 2 (forecast): | 15,000 |
| Year 3 (forecast): | 30,000 |
| Two years ago: | 4 |
| Last year: | 5 |
| This year (forecast): | 9 |
| Year 2 (forecast): | 14 |
| Year 3 (forecast): | 18 |
Finance needed
| Finance needed for fixed assets (buying of machines, buildings, ...) | 6,000 |
| Finance needed for working capital (salaries, stock, rental, leasing, transport, ...) | 34,000 |
| Total finance needed (US$) | 40,000 |
How do you expect this to be financed? Please note: the total amount mentioned here should be equal to the total finance needed at the previous question.
| Own Contribution in cash | 22,000 |
| Loans (debt) | 5,000 |
| Share capital that you seek from investors (equity) | 5,000 |
| Other sources | 8,000 |
| Total finance needed (US$) | 40,000 |
The Business
The company, BST, is focus on Software development to integrate processes to Internet and mobile phones.
BST has expertise working on software tecnologies like JAVA(J2EE, J2ME), PHP, ASP.NET.
The project object of this presentation is a product orientated to facilitate a better management of agricultural business and efficient use of natural resources. It integrates information systems, comunication and mobile technology.
The project aims to offer a tool for farmers in order to facilitate decisions to manage Agriculture business.
Then it would be possible a more efficient and sustainable use of resources and more productivity.
The development of the software will be done on Open Source technology (Java, Postgre, Linux, ect). There is a team inside BST with expertise on this kind of project.
Then professionals from Agronomics (INTA and UNLP) will work on specifications, design and testing.
Also professionals from UNLP experts in software will solve critical aspects of the design and architecture of the software and integration with comunications and field devices.
The software will will run on Internet, the clients will subscribe to a service provided this way.
The pre-sales will be done with demonstrations at events and fairs.
The pre-sales and sales will be supported by a network of agents.They will have expertise on the agricultural business. They also will provide support and will be facilitators on the use of the tool.
Part of the fundings needed will be use to make a detailed marketing plan.
The object market is Small and mediun size farmers. The first stage will be done on Argentina, where farmers are consuming technology to improve business performance.
At first we are thinking on extensive agriculture, but it could be adapted for intensive agriculture
The Plan is to master the business locally and then sell the services in other countries of the region.
There are similar solutions developed in US or Europe. The advantage is the fact of being a product developed locally.
The disadvantage is given by the fact of reaching the local market after other solutions from U.S. or Europe.
Locally there are applications that show results from data gathered by mobile technology associated with precision farming, but generates no models nor analysis. This hinders the use of these tools by the producer medium.
The fact of integrating data from different sources and giving information in a friendly manner. The fact of working in the development with people from Agriculture will help to obtain this atributes.
The originality of this project lies in the fact of being a soft which receives information from different sources, then is processed, generating models for each case and eventually make available the results on the Internet for the interested people (clients). The modelling data is the central aspect to be considered for this project, because at this point is the largest source of differentiation of this proposal compared to other developments.
Farm management tends to greater professionalization and modernization for better results, value added and efficient use of resources.
Then working with tool web based allows access to a significant number of users, lower costs and better availability of information. Particularly information any time, anywhere.
Finally must be added that is very important the growing acceptance by the farming community of the need of using technology.
The Entrepreneur & Management
The company has a Direction Board consisting of:
Director - CEO, Federico Walas Mateo, who holds a Masters degree in Management Kingston University, UK.
Commercial Director, Daniel Zubik, Master of Marketing at University of Palermo
Director of Technology: systems analyst Vanessa Rosales Aybar (from Peru)
It is supposed to get technical support from Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), School of Information Systems and School of Agronomy
The different qualifications, international profile and complementation of the management Team.
Besides the three members are eager to learn, ambitious and like the exposure to challenge.
Full-time assigment. That means 45 hours a week for each member of the team.
Development
Currently there are some tools like the one proposed in this paper, but are only available to large production complexes or economic groups.
The proposed solution allows access to a significant number of users lower costs and availability of information.
Then it would be possible to improve the sustainability of soil and environment, and local economies by a better use of resources.