KisanHub graduated from Cambridge Social Ventures in July 2016.
KisanHub is a big data based one-stop shop, in the form of a data dashboard, that provides all the operational data farmers need to grow more and use less, wherever they are in the world.
Idea
KisanHub is a comprehensive, easy to use online dashboard that looks set to become indispensable for profitable precision farming.
It comprises:
- a sophisticated crop recording tool
- a soil/water balance tool
- a hyper-local weather forecasting tool
- a news, commodity and market data feed.
The brainchild of Dr Sachin Shende, who grew up on a farm in India, KisanHub came into being when he realised that learning from the precision support systems he was building to help improve Black Rock’s hedge fund managers’ decisions (and therefore performances) could be transferred into the agricultural market, and that the results would impact more than just profit.
With NIAB and another large agricultural user rolling the system out to their members (and another to join the core), KisanHub, a software to service subscription based business, will have tens of thousands of users within the coming months. Its highly customisable dashboard will enable all users to analyse the precise information they need to grow more for less, leading to substantial improvements across the triple bottom line.
People
Giles Barker, Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO)
A graduate of Henley Business School at the University of Reading, and with a family background in agriculture in the East of England, Giles brings his considerable business development and project management skills to the KisanHub team.
“My grandfather farmed locally and taught agricultural science at Cambridge University when the only recording tools were a notepad and pencil and forecasting meant listening to the weather on the wireless. What KisanHub can offer farmers today, he could only dream of. Now it’s my job to put that technology in the hands of farmers everywhere,” advises Giles.
Dr Sachin Shende, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Giles and Sachin have handpicked an expert team to enable KisanHub to get to the next stage of growth. Kisan Hub is also partnering with the very best agritech researchers and policy makers worldwide.
Impact
KisanHub will improve decision making for farmers, enabling them to grow more for less. As well as the financial impact this will bring to the agricultural community, it also delivers numerous positive environmental impacts.
Indeed, KisanHub aims to decrease members’ usage of chemical fertilisers by 5-10% per application and to make a substantial impact on water waste within agriculture too. An incredible 70% of all the world’s water is used in global agriculture. Of that, around 50% is wasted. Evolving KisanHub products, such as an IoT application with infield sensors that pick up moisture levels and report back through the KisanHub dashboard, will enable substantial savings of this precious natural resource.
