Project Summary: Describe your contribution in one sentence

Aunkur is a digital agronomic advisory service that enables climate-vulnerable small farmers to understand soil quality, weather conditions, and market demand using precision technologies and produce accordingly.

What are the additional countries or territories of impact?

Myanmar, Indonesia, Least developed African countries.

Challenge Focus: What topic does your project most directly relate to?

Website URL(s) or social media handles

https://www.ipageglobal.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/ipageglobal

The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve?

Among 16M farmers in Bangladesh, roughly 9.7M live in climate-vulnerable zones like coastal and low-lying areas, which makes these farmers highly vulnerable to climate change, exposing them to adversities such as salinization of soil and groundwater, flash floods, and drought. 

Farmers in coastal zones lack quantifiable data of soil salinity, pH level, and correct agricultural knowledge to produce crops suitable for those regions. Government soil testing labs are inadequate and follow a cumbersome process that takes 12-15 days to get a soil sample tested, leading farmers to apply lime/gypsum out of their hunch as a part of their salinity amendment approach. Small farmers in the river-basins & wetlands follow the same guess-dependant fertilization rate as plain lands. But they could easily save up to 20% of their input cost if they could understand their soil condition after the heavy silt assertion- a natural soil restoration process done by tidal floods. Unregulated application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides without proper knowledge of soil, weather, and plant-needs severely damages soil health and pollutes sub-surface water sources everywhere.

Lack of access to actionable and timely data on soil, weather, and good agricultural practices is the core of the farmers' plights in Bangladesh's climate-vulnerable zones.

Your connection and commitment: How close are you to the problem and/or the community impacted?

Small farmers in Bangladesh rely on guess-dependant and traditional practices to understand their soil health, crop suitability, and weather conditions. The government's soil testing facilities are slow the sampling process is tedious. Therefore farmers do not even take that hassle. Public extension services are yet entirely human-centric and inadequate. For instance, the average ratio between number of farmers & public extension workers = 1200: 1!

Our locally developed, low-cost, digital soil testing devices are easy to operate, display results in local language, and are operated through our local franchise partners (mostly local NGOs). We train our partners on how to use our device and generate prescriptions. Then they visit smallholder's fields, register them on our system using service app, issue RFID farmers' cards, test their soil, and provide site & crop-specific prescriptions within 5-10 minutes. Farmers registered on our system also receives automated advisory texts from our advisory system containing crop-specific actionable information on good agricultural practices, disease & infestation forecasts, and management.

Thus, we equip the local community with our cutting-edge technology to serve the marginal farmers with the right information at the right time. We also organize periodic training for the farmers to help them change their behavioral blocks toward optimal practices and get higher returns.

I belong to a climate-victim farmer family. Only my sibling and I had the chance to receive modern education and were inspired to choose a career path other than agriculture due to its financial uncertainty. Hence, I have devoted myself to changing that status quo by improving small farmers' professional expertise through homegrown technology & talent integration.

Your approach: How are you enabling other people to identify as green changemakers? How are you influencing them to get involved in your initiative or care about the issue you are addressing?

Credible community access is essential to implement new trends and technology in rural areas. By partnering with local NGOs, we effectively do that to promote our 'Aunkur' advisory solution among small farmers. Local NGO members are deeply committed to supporting their communities, and our digital farm advisory tools empower them to impact the communities they belong to significantly. Although initially, it was challenging for local NGOs, too, to encourage farmers to adopt soil tests and digital advice. Now, we often see our subscribed farmers communicate their land fertility among themselves based on our tests. Their children even read advisory texts for their parents, demonstrating a slow but remarkable behavioral change.

This change has occurred because our solution has reduced chemical fertilizer and pesticide use by at least 25% and infestation losses by 15%. Our advice on soil salinity management and variety selection based on rapid soil testing has improved farmers' yields by 12%. These results motivate franchisees to render solutions to more farmers. Our soil-testing-based system has attracted government attention, leading to collaboration with iPAGE. A deputy director from the extension department advises on enhancing existing human-centric extension works with our precision technology. iPAGE has trained 10 government workers to use our tool, transitioning public extension services to a tech-enabled approach.

Our site & crop-specific recommendations (e.g., advising DAP instead of TSP fertilizers to reduce Urea use by 25%) blended with training on Good Agricultural Practices contributes to the gross reduction of GHG by a 240 kg eqv CO2 per acre, soil health retention and responsible consumption of natural resources for crop production.

Community involvement: How is your approach involving community participation, especially the historically marginalized groups?

Local NGOs are the centrioles of rural development and community engagement. Even local government agencies prefer to partner with such stakeholders for greater exposure to rural communities. 

From a strategic standpoint, we are partnering with such organizations, specifically with NGOs with micro-credit experience, because of their deep-lying monitoring & evaluation skill. Because of a few recent government regulations, these NGOs are now struggling to secure micro-credit funds from Banks and are trying to find sustainable business models to survive. It has allowed us to devise a sustainable and scalable social business model utilizing their experience and community exposure.

While these NGO franchise partners engage their portfolio credit-consumer farmers with our digital advisory service, we capture significant traceable data on farmers' practices. Using those data, we connect farmers with B2B stakeholders (Banks, Large Consumers, etc.) directly. For such successful matchmaking, we charge commissions to the B2B stakeholders and share revenue with the Franchisees. Thus, the bigger the farmer base our franchisees bring into the advisory system, the greater the scope of matchmaking and the higher the commission-earning opportunity appears. So far, it seems to be a scalable strategy to engage farmers through franchisors in the face of evolving local regulatory scenarios. 

Your Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions already out there? How is your approach original and innovative? We are particularly interested in solutions that use regenerative approaches.

iPAGE has always had an impact-first mindset focused on empowering farmers by disseminating actionable information. This has been our core activity since inception.

First, we introduced a cost-effective soil testing solution and a dynamic advisory system. Then we devised a farm-traceability mechanism to monitor and analyze farmers' farming activities. We recently deployed automated weather stations to capture real-time data around our farmers' groups. Due to all these features, our agronomic advisory service shall be considered a regenerative solution in the agricultural value chain. It equips smallholders with the right tool and knowledge for better soil health management and optimized natural resource usage during their farming activities.

However, our innovation differs from others, not only because of its homegrown technicality but also because of the inclusive business model, making it sustainable & scalable rapidly. Existing solutions focus on solving one/two concerns of a farmer. Because of having deep-lying data on farmer's practice, soil, weather & market trends, we have a birds-eye view of the entire agri-industry. We effectively use that to connect farmers (through our franchisors with other value-chain actors, solving multiple pain points of the farmers from a one-stop platform. It is more like a "Shopify" experience for our subscribed farmers.

Here, farmers are like Facebook users to us. The more they use our advisory service, even for free, the more we capture data on their soil, weather, and farming practices, which we convert into actionable insights for  B2B partners like Banks, NBFIs, input manufacturers, and large consumers. Using our insights, B2B partners market their products/services to our aggregated farmers' base.

Founding Story: Share a story about the "Aha!" moment that led the founder(s) to get started or the story of how you saw the potential for this to succeed.

My partner Mithu and I got to know each other during a winter relief drive 8 years ago! We were part of a relief team visiting a coastal area in southern Bangladesh. In one such attachment, we witnessed that, during the dry season, soil salinity went so high that farmers couldn't produce a single traditional crop. On our way back to the capital, we met an agriculturist, whom we asked about the remedy of that situation. He told us about a salt-tolerant variety of Paddy. That particular variety could germinate at a certain EC and pH level, whereas another variety could germinate at another EC/pH level. Therefore, properly determining soil chemical containment matters to selecting the right crop - we instantly understood! 

Without the proper determination of soil nutrients, we still tried to render the message (of which variety farmers could try) to 7/8 farmers. After two months, we heard back from the then-local NGO contact (currently a franchisor of our business model) about the success of those few farmers who tried the variety we informed them to adopt after being advised by the agriculturist. 

That experience shaped our way of thinking about disrupting the traditional farming practice. After four years of that incident, mithu and I finally teamed up with Imtiaz and launched iPAGE, to introduce site & crop specific digital advisory services for smallholders. 

Impact: How has your project made a difference so far? How is it contributing to a zero-carbon world- where every person thrives, and nobody gets left behind?

We launched our first pilot back in 2020 with 50 early-adopters. Now, we are working in 2 wetlands, one river basin, and two coastal zones of Bangladesh, serving 8200+ farmers with our digital advisory service for six high-value and eight vegetable crops. Among our registered farmers, 30% are women. 

Since working with iPAGE, 3200 farmers in climate-vulnerable areas have diversified their production by introducing new high-value crops such as salt-tolerant rice, vegetables, maize, and spices. Average yields for farmers cultivating maize, yellow mustard, and chilies increased by 15% over the previous season. Production costs for our subscribed farmers growing high-value cereals decreased by 30% over the last season. Cost savings were achieved by reducing the over-application of Urea and phosphate fertilizers. After testing the soil and critical nutrient requirement for optimum yield, we strongly recommend using ammonia-induced DAP fertilizers instead of TSP, which reduces at least 25% of the Urea needed. Farmers subscribed to our advisory service also experienced 15% reduced loss due to timely infestation alerts and the right diagnosis of diseases. Our training programs have increased their confidence in doing the right thing in the right manner at the right time, increasing their overall profitability by 35% and attracting more users to experience our 'Shopify' of agriculture.

What’s Next: What are your ideas for taking your project to the next level?

A powerful decision support engine is working behind our climate-smart digital agronomic advisory service. The more data we feed the engine, the higher its advisory's accuracy. That is why our priority is to capture larger farmer communities rapidly. And to do so, we need a strong local franchise network. At the moment, we are carefully combing for more active franchise partners within our local NGO network, testing our existing partnership strategies through current ones, and experiencing a remarkable learning curve. In the future, using this learning, we expect to achieve a higher product-market fit for our solution and would deploy a national scale-up strategy in partnering with INGOs and local government agencies. 

We are also crafting multi-spectral B2B partnerships to add more values to our ecosystem-based business model. We recently signed agreements with leading private banks, securing $2M funding, especially for climate-vulnerable farmers subscribed to our advisory service. A couple of large-scale consumers of Maize and mustard have agreed to forward purchase from our farmers. A swiss insure-tech startup has offered agri-insurance to our farmers in the costal belt. Thus, we are constantly hustling to enhance our data-driven, climate-smart advisory service operation's impact radius bigger than before. 

Your team: What is the current composition of your team (types of roles, qualifications, full-time vs. part-time, board members, etc.), and how do you plan to evolve the team’s composition as the project grows?

I am Mashrur, an electronics engineer, the cofounder & former ‘chief everything officer’ of our company until my CTO, Nisat, and CCO, Mithu decided to let me lead a life of my own besides overseeing the company’s growth plan, value proposition, synergistic partnerships, and fundraising. Thanks to Nisat for his upbeat role-playing in the tech team management, data system architecture design & product development since 2020. Mithu, a full-time cofounder with high social capital and an academic degree in development initiatives, has been supporting to penetrate the rural sectors with our local NGO networks since the inception of iPAGE. Together we have weathered the pandemic storm and grown to a team of 23 from a nine members team. 

We have veteran business people like Unilever CEO (investor), Ex-COP of Hitachi, and reputed agronomists supporting our impact journey in professional capacities. We plan to engage more similar experienced hands alongside young professionals as we grow further.

Operational Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure operational sustainability.

Smallholders in Bangladesh usually find it challenging to pay hefty service charges for the advisory we provide. So, we charge a small subscription fee to the farmers for our digital advisory service and cross-subsidize operation & technology costs from our commission-based revenue strategy and external funding. 

We capture a significant trail of data (i.e., farmland size, financials, assets, stocks, borrowing capacity & history, national ID, crop rotations, previous farming tracks, etc.) from individual farmers as much as they use our advisory. We utilize those data to generate actionable insights for various B2B partners (banks, insurers, input vendors, large consumers) and sensitize them to mobilize their products/services or source raw materials to/from our aggregated farmer-base and earn commission from their sales. 

35% of our operating fund comes from this commission revenue, which we reinvest within the company to fuel our growth. The larger our farmer base becomes, the higher opportunity we get to earn from this stream. 

65% of our funding comes from angel investments, government grants, and blended finance from a European impact fund. 

Since we're growing at a 148% YoY rate in terms of subscribed farmers, by aiming at capturing only 5% of the global small farmers' market with the commission-based revenue model in next 5 years, iPAGE can become a unicorn by 2027.

VIDEO: Please share the link to a 1-minute YouTube video that answers the following “I identify as a Green Changemaker because...”. Ensure that your video does not exceed 60 seconds

LINK to the video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wcPIyd7z4IgHkxU-aYHW-UzB60s886RD

Impact Model: While reviewing applications, we identified a need to better understand the impact models for the innovations that applied. How would you describe the activities you engage in and what outcomes and long-term impact do they lead to?

Our advisory service activities start with registering the farmers on our system and assigning them an RFID farmer's card, which brings them under our blockchain-enabled tracing system. We do this so that the multi-layered data we collect on soil, weather, and historical farm practices of thousands of farmers stay consistent during our advisory operation and can be used to actionable insights for our B2B partners at any future time with maximum traceability. 

At the beginning of a season, our franchisee agent brings the soil testing device to the registered farmer's field for testing their soil and generates an agricultural prescription that tells them which crop and variety they should choose, how much fertilizer at what dose they should apply, what good agricultural practices shall be followed ensure better organic matter deposition and chemical nutrient uptake by the plants. Thus we are helping the farmer to increase their yield by 15%, optimize their fertilizer usage, reduce their urea application by 25%, and overall cost of production by 29%. It'd also contribute to restoring their soil, balancing nutrients, and better nitrogen and carbon deposition in the future. 

Our automated weather station monitors the localized weather data around a group of our subscribed farmers, generates crop-specific infestation/disease forecasts, and triggers automated OBD calls & SMS to the farmers, telling them what countermeasures they should take. Thus it reduces farmers' guess-dependent pesticide applications and crop-loss due by 17%. 

Thus, the advisory system provides soil and weather-specific actionable data to the farmers, enabling them to make informed decisions while making them more climate-resilient. 

Audience: Who are you most directly impacting through your work? Who is the target beneficiary? Please specify if the population you are reaching is underserved due to any of the following characteristics?

If you chose the "Other" option, please specify

How are you activating green changemakers?

If you chose the "Other" option, please specify

Organization Type: Which organization type best describes how your work or initiative has been organized or registered?

For-Profit

Tell us briefly about how you have and/ or would like to engage partners or other changemakers to enhance your approach:

The agricultural value chain is complex and challenging, requiring a holistic approach to create sustainable impacts. But no single startup/initiative can make such a holistic impact alone. That is why an ecosystem-based approach built on multi-spectral partnerships is the core of our business model. Using our homegrown technology and talents, we enable our partner communities and organizations to become change-makers. 

From farmer registration and soil testing to regular monitoring and the arrangement of farmers' training - most of the advisory service operations are done by capacitating local NGO staff, whom we call franchisees.  

92% of our engineers, agronomists, extensionists, and franchisee agents are young professionals, letting them contribute to building & deploying an impactful service engine that enables climate-vulnerable smallholders to make informed decisions and earn better returns. 

Our data (collected during our advisory operation) driven insights enable Banks and insurers to render low-cost capital and insurance directly to the farmers! Local Input and machine service providers are now selling their products & services to our aggregated farmers' base, while corporate buyers of high-value crops are directly sourcing from them, cutting down unnecessary intermediaries. It is a win-win deal for everybody, while we also make money from the B2Bs as commission. 

Annual budget: Hint: What is the cost for your current operations every year (or most recent year)? This is expenditure for your project or organization. The reference currency is the U.S. dollar.

$100k - $250k

Winning Impact Potential: How would winning the Green Changemakers Challenge impact and leverage your work?

If we win, we will use the grant to acquire more new small farmers in Gaibandha (wetland) and Satkhira (salt-prone region), Bangladesh's two most climate-vulnerable zones, and enhance their farming efficiency.  

We will provide soil tests & weather data-based farm advisory services integrated with pest & disease management guidance and training to the farmers so they can follow our guidelines appropriately. Through an eight-month (two seasons) long, immersive intervention, participant farmers will improve their farming efficiency by optimizing seeds & fertilizer applications and crop loss with increasing yields. This capacity enhancement part requires a $21 investment (to cover technology and overhead expenses) per farmer per season. For a two-season-long intervention, we could onboard and capacitate roughly 500 new farmers if we get a grant of $20,000.  

During this capacity building period, sufficient data shall be captured, and actionable insights for our B2B can be generated. It would allow the farmers to engage in different commercial activities with our B2B partners, making a sustainable, long-term impact on the beneficiary farmers in terms of their livelihood improvement and socio-environmental outcomes that include but are not limited to soil health retention, optimized natural resource usage and reduced greenhouse emissions from overfertilization.

Skills Matching: If you win, you may have the opportunity to be matched with HSBC employees for skill-based mentorship. If matched, which of the following skills would you be most interested in receiving?

Communications, Public Relations, Writing/Editing