“We, at Agriforetell, make digital transformation easy, accessible and affordable for farmers.”
Srishti Arora
(CEO & Co-Founder, Agriforetell)
India is a nation with an agrarian economy. Despite the fact that a large portion of the country’s population still depends on agriculture, the income of the farmers is very restricted. Exploring the voids in the agricultural sector, Srishti Arora with her Co-Founder Piyush started brainstorming on the idea of how to cope with the uncertainty and improve the unit economics in the agricultural ecosystem to make it sustainable.
After graduating from BITS Pilani in Engineering in 2016, Srishti started her career in Reliance Jio, working on location-based data analytics and Big Data R&D in the GIS department. It sparked her interest in the potential of data to change perspectives and make decisions.
“We realised that the information gap between the farmers and the final buyers is huge (mostly corporates and large traders), due to which farmers don’t have access to a broader market and sell the crops in the local market at very low prices,” mentions Srishti. Due to the low revenue margins, there is less scope for experimenting with new technology or processes – leading to very low tech penetration and a heavy disadvantage in competing with the global markets in the unit cost of production. With this problem statement in mind, the Founder duo set out to explore how technology can provide visibility and increase the efficiency of farm operations through data-driven decision-making and a scientific approach to agriculture – leading to higher yield, best quality and less usage of harmful chemicals.
With the mission to improve crop productivity and yield, Agriforetell was incepted in 2018. Srishti joined the firm as a full-time CEO in 2019. Agriforetell is a revolutionary tech platform which empowers farmers with data-driven decision-making, providing full visibility of farm operations. The company collects data from multiple resources such as ground operations, weather stations, soil parameters, drones, and satellite data. After analysing this data, Agriforetell provides actionable insights and predictions for the farmers’ benefits.
EMPOWERING FARMERS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
With the mission to improve crop productivity and yield, Agriforetell was incepted in 2018. Srishti joined the firm as a full-time CEO in 2019. Agriforetell is a revolutionary tech platform which empowers farmers with data-driven decision-making, providing full visibility of farm operations. The company collects data from multiple resources such as ground operations, weather stations, soil parameters, drones, and satellite data. After analysing this data, Agriforetell provides actionable insights and predictions for the farmers’ benefits.
The company focuses on reducing input costs and improving yield and quality with practical solutions for precision farming. Srishti iterates, “We are currently operational in the tea industry in South India, providing an integrated business intelligence suite for facilitating real-time data flow and proactive decision making.”
LEADING WITH INTEGRITY AND ETHICS
Srishti believes that leadership requires a great deal of empathy, patience accountability, and the strength to take difficult decisions. While taking any business decisions, she always tries to keep her perspective in the long-term that also aligns with the company’s vision. Keeping teamwork at the forefront of the company, the CEO says, “Major business decisions are always taken with the inputs of the entire core team of our company”.
Srishti and her skilled team keep updating themselves on the state-of-the-art technological advancements and the changing landscape of the business world.
‘WE CONTROL OUR REASONED CHOICE’
Being an entrepreneur is more than starting a company or being your own boss. Srishti says, “Entrepreneurship asks for sacrifice and dedication, and the ability to thrive in a very uncertain environment. At the end of the day, what you are working on should really matter to you on a very personal level; otherwise, it becomes difficult to weather the storms of building a business”.
One thing that inspires her throughout her journey comes from stoicism, “We control our reasoned choices and all acts that depend on that moral will. There is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all outside of your sphere of choice.” She adds, “It reminds me to focus on what is in my control – my own reasoning and my mind – and not get affected by things I can’t control.”
