Borlaug Web Services

Owned by Ashu Sikri (Unlicensed)
Jan 05, 2022
2 min read

Spoke with Ayon (CEO) and Deb on Dec 27; scheduling a followup with their tech lead, Vijay for early Jan

Initial notes

  • Farmers get a physical printout with a QR code that is basically a farmer level khatabook on blockchain with data about the farmer (Aadhaar), their business (what crops do they crop) and financials; vision is for farmers to be able to share this QR code with a local bank

  • Founding team has a supply chain background; focusing on high value and complex chains where traceability is important

    • Working w UNDP in Uganda in coffee sector

    • Cameroon, World cocoa foundation

    • In W Bengal, FPOs in honey value chain; ICAR natural bee board and Jute (Hastings)

      • Jaagrithi FPO is 6k members in total which is large, standard is size ~1k. FPO leadership sits at Malda. Currently working with a total of 4 FPOs in W Bengal so far, connected w 62 in the state

    • Olive oil in Europe

  • Operating model in India

    • Create cluster / resource points (RPs) which aggregate across 6 villages

    • Advisory happens at the RP level (serving about 300 farmers), ICAR has master trainers at this level

    • Currently have 20 cluster resource points operational

    • RP gathers pre-harvest info and data throughout the season via apiary audits, build the farmer profile (DID); personal, financial and biz info (livestock, eg # of ghungroo pigs, etc.)

      • Zero code platform to configure logic and governance for data entry (eg, two people in certain roles need to approve a quality report), a "process registry"

      • Templates for various types of data collection workflows, eg bee keeping data audit

  • Value of the data is to position farmer groups for forward sales (eg, in 3 months, 20 tons of mustard honey will be coming from xyz cluster of farmers), get a reliable record of provenance. Eventually, want to help them unlock access to capital

  • Have built their own blockchain but looking at Polkadot; currently everything is running AWS and working on getting partners to run nodes (eg, UNDP, ICAR, National Bee Board, etc.)

  • Backed by web3 foundation in Switzerland

 

Litepaper

 

Intro deck