Ecosystem of Russian Agricultural Bank (RusAg, the Bank) “Svoye Fermerstvo” for small and medium-sized farms was included in the shortlist of finalists of the international competition Crop Science Forum & Awards 2020 in the category “Best Innovation in Digital Farming Technology”.
The Russian ecosystem for agribusiness enterprises developed by RusAg was nominated to win the competition, which is the successor to the main annual event in the seed crop industry – Agrow Awards. For over a decade, Agrow has been celebrating best-in-class crop protection solutions and technology initiatives at its annual event. This year, more than 100 applications in 12 nominations were submitted for the competition. Each application was evaluated by 10 experts. Russian Agricultural Bank is the only finalist from Russia.
The task of the ecosystem “Svoye Fermerstvo” is to contribute to the IT transformation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the agricultural sector. The platform integrates digital solutions and services that will allow small farms to automate the solution of everyday tasks at no additional cost and focus on business growth.
The main block of information services of the ecosystem is agricultural technology solutions that help the farmer reduce costs and increase productivity. These are biotechnology and robotics, IoT technologies, precision farming based on data from satellite images, as well as the latest agricultural management technologies for monitoring the state of crops, forecasting, planning and accounting for operations in agriculture. Also, the ecosystem of the Bank makes it easier for farmers to receive qualified veterinary care by providing it in a convenient online format.
Ecosystem services also help in promoting farmers’ goods and services. Thus, farmers using the platform can independently offer their goods to a wide range of suppliers, including finding customers in the HoReCa segment. In addition, in order to increase business profitability, the Bank’s ecosystem provides a service that allows farmers to unleash their tourism potential and become real experts in the agro-tourism industry. The platform also allows you to solve the personnel issue using an aggregator of resumes and vacancies in the agricultural sector.
“RusAg’s ecosystem is designed to make modern digital solutions more accessible for small peasant farms, which are difficult for them to implement on their own. When creating the platform, we consulted with farmers, studying their real needs, so the services presented in the ecosystem are guaranteed to be in demand. The ecosystem contributes to the comprehensive digitalization of the Russian agricultural sector, which can become an additional factor in the evaluation of the project by the jury”, - said Elena Baturova, Director of the Center for the Development of Financial Technologies at RusAg.
The final of the Competition will be held in London, online on November 4. Russian Agricultural Bank will compete with companies such as the international company BASF with the Xarvio Healthy Fields mobile application, the largest American agricultural corporation Corteva Agriscience with the precision farming mobile application LANDVisor, the Chinese manufacturer of XAG agricultural drones with the Smart Agriculture System solution for smart field management, and an American industrial corporation with the mobile precision farming application Arc™ Farm Intelligence Platform.