• Krish-e - Mahindra’s new ‘Farming as a Service’ (FaaS) business kicks off a digital era in Indian agriculture.
• Offers farmers a wide variety of technology-driven services customised to crops and stages in the crop cycle.
• Leverages the power of Agronomy, Mechanisation and Digitisation to raise farmers’ income per acre of land.
• Roll out of the first set of Krish-e centres in Maharashtra to offer Agronomy, Equipment Rental and Digitisation services, supported by three farmer facing apps – Krish-e, Krish-e Rental and Krish-e Nidaan

Mumbai, October 2, 2020: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.’s Farm Equipment Sector (FES), a part of the USD 19.4 billion Mahindra Group, today rolled out Krish-e Centres in Maharashtra as part of Mahindra’s new ‘Farming as a Service’ business.

With the tag line – ‘Expert Takneek. Naye Upay. Parinaam Dikhaye’ – Krish-e is a business vertical that provides technology driven services which are progressive, affordable and accessible to farmers. Krish-e aims to increase farmer income through digitally enabled services, across the complete crop cycle.

These include agronomy advisory, access to advanced farm equipment rentals and new-age precision farming solutions, all focused on bringing down overall farming costs and improving crop output and consequently the farmer’s income.

Today, the Mahindra Group also celebrates its 75^th anniversary, a journey that began in the state of Maharashtra. So, it is only fitting that Krish-e opens its first centres in Aurangabad and Baramati, and later at six other locations across Maharashtra in Jalna, Wardha, Nanded, Pune, Daund and Solapur.

Krish-e centres will soon roll-out across other states in a phased manner and have an Omni Channel approach where the farmer can avail of personalised services on their fields, at Krish-e centres, through the Krish-e suite of digital apps and through the call centre to reach out to our Krish-e Sahayaks.

Commenting on this historic launch, Hemant Sikka – President, Farm Equipment Sector (FES), M&M Ltd. said. “Although investments and technological innovations in agriculture have improved output levels in India, productivity and farm incomes have great scope for further improvement. At Mahindra, we want to do our part by making a difference in the way farming is done. With an increase in farmers’ incomes as the core focus, our vision is to provide technology at competitive costs to Indian farmers and thereby enable them to Rise!”

Mr. Sikka further added “We are happy that Krish-e is rolling out its first set of centres on the 75th anniversary of the Mahindra Group. Krish-e is an innovative new business vertical conceived with the idea of ushering in a new digital age of farming in India. It aims to transform the lives of farmers, by helping them adopt better more effective farming techniques powered by AI, IoT and digital solutions that are affordable and accessible paving the way for increased productivity and profitability. Through Krish-e, we at Mahindra are engaging with our farmers more deeply and creating stronger relationships.”

Ramesh Ramachandran – Senior Vice President, FES Strategy & FaaS, M&M Ltd., said, “Krish-e is already making a difference to farming outcomes through its services which amalgamate agronomy, mechanisation and digitisation. Through Krish-e, we have already impacted over 1 lakh farmers, with solutions tailored to demonstrate impact on cultivation costs, crop health and productivity. Krish-e currently has approximately 1,000 demo plots, where we work alongside farmers to showcase visible impact through a combination of agronomy inputs and advanced mechanisation solutions. Through Krish-e, we are working to create a nation of Champion Farmers.”

Kicking off a Digital Era in Farming

Krish-e will leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to benefit the farming ecosystem and bring the power of precision farming to farmers, affordably and in an accessible manner. To enable this, M&M has made strategic investments across the globe including in Resson – a Canadian predictive analytics company, Gamaya – a Swiss hyperspectral image analytics company and Carnot – an Indian AI enabled Agri IoT company.

Krish-e Precision Farming solutions use a variety of sensors and cameras on the farm, on drones, on satellites and on farm equipment to collect soil, crop and machine data. AI algorithms transform this data into user friendly and insight rich field maps, enabling farmers and agronomists to run variable rate farming operations, using intelligent machines. Such operations are already helping potato, grape and sugarcane farmers reduce their costs of cultivation and improve their yields.

Krish-e has launched three apps to deliver advisory and rental services in a differentiated and farmer focused manner. Advisory services are crop specific and include a customised and dynamic crop calendar and real time diagnosis and resolution of pest & diseases.

The rental app leverages an AI powered IoT kit that tracks equipment and work performed. Targeted at rental entrepreneurs with a fleet of equipment, the kit is designed to Plug and Play, intuitive to use and extremely affordable. Already used by almost 2,000 rental entrepreneurs, the kit increases the efficiency and profitability of rental operations.

These three apps are available as Krish-e, Krish-e Rental and Krish-e Nidaan to download from the Google Play store.