March 29, 2024

GHBellaVista

Imagination at work

SLCM to launch mobile app to test crop quality by month-end

SLCM (Sohan Lal Commodity Management) Pvt Ltd has formulated a mobile app that can support assess several excellent parameters of agricultural commodities inside minutes and it will probable be released by this month-finish.

“This will be a video game-changer and a defining second for India. The app is primarily based on artificial intelligence (AI) and equipment understanding (ML). It is the final result of in excess of four many years of exploration carried out by us,” explained Sandeep Sabharwal, Chief Govt Officer (CEO), SLCM team.

In 2018, the organization utilized for a patent for the app. It would be offered for downloading at the finish of the month on smartphones or tablets.

Cost-free of cost, at first

“Initially, the app will be offered free of charge of any cost. Then, it will be subscription-primarily based,” Sabharwal explained to BusinessLine.

The app will examine several excellent parameters in a range of foodgrains and pulses moreover guar in no time with ninety per cent precision when compared to checks executed by labs. The benefits presented by the app will be automatically when compared with pre-fed data in the firm’s back-finish process that will routinely update by itself via ML on a true-time basis, the SLCM Ceo explained.

“We gained a specialized aid grant of €125,901 (₹1.eleven crore) from the Technological Assistance Facility of Incofin agRIF fund and the Smallholder Security Internet Upscaling Programme (SSNUP) in Europe to the development of the app’s excellent software for foodgrains and pulses,” Sabharwal explained.

Advantages

The edge of the app in excess of the common excellent labs or some of the new programs that are coming in serving to to present excellent studies swiftly is that it does not require to be set up in any area or any manpower or ability to scan the commodity.

“The mobile by itself is an instrument, which is unbiased of any mobile community. It will be element of our AgriReach, which is an aggregator-primarily based scientific warehousing product to shop any crop agnostic of infrastructure, locale, weather conditions or geography,” Sabharwal explained.

Once the app is released, its on-ground utilisation will support to enhance excellent checks of agricultural commodities and disseminate the promptly received excellent manage benefits in a protected and transparent surroundings, he explained.

AgriReach process

SLCM was launched in 2009 by Sabharwal and four other folks with a meagre investment decision of ₹6 lakh. Its “grandparenting firm” was involved in milling of pulses for many years. “We realised that agricultural management products and services were being missing with a handful of millers and arthiyas (fee agents) only owning infrastructure this kind of as warehouses,” the SLCM CEO explained.

With the place currently being one that had multi-crops and seasons, folks were being not entirely conscious of what crop was developed, when and where. “Nor were being they backed by correct storage infrastructure of finance,” he explained.

This led to the organization opting for an algorithm-primarily based software package and named it AgriReach. “It is our proprietary process for which we have sought patent,” the SLCM CEO explained, incorporating that AgriReach helps cut down publish-harvest losses via good infrastructure management.

“The software package combines a series of processes, audits and true-time tracking of amenities to give updates on which crops can be saved, where and when. It takes advantage of methods like geo-fencing, true-time tracking, bar-coded storage receipts to prevent thefts or pilferage and interior audits with a maker and checker plan at each degree of procedure,” Sabharwal explained.

AgriSuraksha

From April this yr, SLCM has begun employing an additional proprietary answer “AgriSuraksha”, which is an net-primarily based surveillance know-how that helps true-time checking of storage warehouses. “This incorporates satellite communication in spots where there are no correct ability connections or lights,” he explained.

As of August 2021, SLCM tracks 200 warehousing amenities employing AgriSuraksha. By the near of the recent fiscal, 80 per cent of its warehouses will be brought below its coverage.

Sabharwal explained a main transform that SLCM has brought into agricultural financing is treating “crop as collateral”. For this intent, it purchased a Chennai-primarily based non-banking finance firm (NBFC) and renamed it Kissandhan.

“Our NBFC extends finance to farmers treating their crop as a collateral. So considerably, we have financed five.02 lakh farmers with our disbursements totalling ₹2,24.33 crore till August 31,” he explained.

Vast presence

Currently, New Delhi-primarily based SLCM is present in seven,157 spots throughout the place possessing 102.fifty four million sq ft of storage, including chilly storages. It has handled 1.seventy five billion tonnes. “We tackle 959 commodities in India. By 959 commodities, we incorporate different kinds inside a crop,” he explained.

The organization also manages a community of 255 industrial zones in Myanmar, handles 525 commodities, possesses 6.ninety one million sq ft of storage area and has handled eleven.64 million tonnes of agricultural items.

“We have manufactured a positive impact in the livelihoods of in excess of 3.86 crore folks moreover an additional 19.34 crore. We ply ten,000 vehicles each individual month carrying seven.five million tonnes of agricultural commodities and other items throughout our networks in India as properly as Myanmar,” Sabharwal included.

“Even through Covid-19 shutdown, our workers carried vital commodities throughout the place to assure timely delivery,” he explained.