Agri-Business (Hiring Of Tractors and Implements for Small and Marginal Farmers)
The BMI session conducted in Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), on 21st August 2019, was graced by the presence of Mr. Cyril Rex Fernando, Senior Vice-President of Tractors and Farmers Equipment Limited. The informative and thought-provoking session was on “Hiring of tractors and implements for small and marginal farmers.”
Mr. Fernando gave an introduction about “JFarm Services App,” a CSR initiative of TAFE, which is a mobile app aggregator platform that facilitates hiring of tractors and modern farm machinery for the farmers. There are around 20 crore farmers with no access to tractors. This would be beneficial for them, as they would have access to heavy farm equipment without capital investment. He added that this initiative has impacted the lives of over 85,000 farmers across 10 states in India, clocking over 405,000 hours in hired farm machinery usage, since its inception in 2017. Currently, JFarm Services operates in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu – making farm equipment viable and affordable to all.
The JFarm Services App is being integrated with the Uzhavan app of Tamil Nadu Government to offer farmer’s information on tractor and farm machinery rental services, the unique Farmer-2-Farmer feature allows farmers to rent their existing tractors and farm equipment to other farmers seeking to hire them. Through this integration with the Uzhavan app, JFarm Services along with the Tamil Nadu government will offer customized solutions to increase farm mechanization amidst small and marginal farmers, especially those below the poverty line. Discussing about marketing for JFarm Services, it includes developing loyalty programs, advertisements and receives feedbacks from both the renter and the rentee, for further improvements.
The Beyond Management Initiative (BMI) session offers a unique opportunity for students to listen and interact with experts from diverse fields and thereby benefit from their significant experiences and valuable insights. The BMI lecture series are held every Wednesday in LIBA.