How this Bengaluru start-up's IoT system helps farmers grow more crops and save water

If data had backed farmers, agriculture wouldn't be shunned like it is today — and farmers wouldn't be in as much strife as they are today.

With this in mind, Sumit Sheoran and Sudhanshu Rai joined forces to launch Fyllo in April last year. Sumit, who himself hails from a farming background realised that farmers across India have the same trepidations regarding the weather, wind, water and the like. This egged them on to launch the start-up based out of Bengaluru.

How the word was spread
What Fyllo does is install a 15 cm x 15 cm processor that weighs about 1.5 kg on the farm. This IoT device relays all the information that the farmer needs to know — soil and crop health, when is a good time to irrigate the farm and how much and also disease predictions. "We started with one farmer in Maharashtra who was growing grapes. He seemed impressed with what the device was capable of doing and spread the word," says the IIT Roorkee alumnus who pursued his Integrated Dual Degree in Computer Science from there and passed out in 2016. Currently, over 500 farmers in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra who are mostly into horticulture, use their services.

The device in all it's glory | (Pic: Fyllo)

To talk about the prowess of the device itself, the sensors measure as many as 13 parameters including humidity, light intensity, air pressure, wind speed, rainfall and more. And the information accumulated through their Machine Learning and Internet of Things models are sent to the farmers' phone in real-time, where the information is available on the Fyllo app in a variety of local languages. Incidentally, unlike most other apps, the quality of the internet connection, we hear, is not much of a problem. But what is a problem is the wear and tear that the device has to weather. Don't even get them started on the mice that eat away at the wires. "But our hardware is much more robust now than the time we started out. So much so that we even offer a two year warranty to the farmers," shares the 28-year-old.  

Consistency is key
More importantly, Fyllo has shown significant results. About 20 million litres of water have been saved thanks to their technology. Earlier, farmers used to produce 12 ton and export eight ton and now the average produce is 15 ton and about 14.5 tonnes is exported. "The export quality has increased by 80 per cent and the overall produce has increased by 30 per cent," shares the youngsters. Their technology is also enabling farmers to be more consistent in their produce. Their numbers are speaking loud and clear!

Farmers | (Pic: Fyllo)

Fyllo has a dedicated helpline number which the farmers can call in case of any doubts, field agents are also deployed to visit farms to collect data and feedback so that the start-up remains on top of their game. A team of six full-timers and four part-timers cover four districts and recently, they received two rounds of funding. We are sure they have a lot more in store for us and the farmers in the future.

For more on them, check out fyllo.in