‘More feed means more milk’ is a common assumption among dairy farmers in India. This assumption may not be true and increases the spending on cattle feed which in turn increases the costs especially for small dairy farmers. To address this problem, Dvara E-Dairy, through digital assessment of the cattle, provides cattle specific recommendations to the farmer to address breeding issues, fodder and general management including preventive primary care.
Until now, this solution required in-person visits by the Dvara team to collect cattle specific details and images. The travel restrictions imposed due to COVID-19, however, meant a disruption in providing solutions to the farmers on a continuous basis. The team brainstormed on questions like ‘what if the pandemic stays longer?’ ‘What new opportunities are emerging’ and how can they get creative to keep serving their customers (small dairy farmers) continuously? A solution had to be designed which could help the farmers know the health status of the cattle (indicator) with very few cattle specific information and images. It also needed to be a solution which was completely automated and scalable to 70 million rural households. Considering all these factors, the team leveraged artificial intelligence and vision computing models to launch a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mobile application for the farmers to know the health status of the cattle instantly. With this app, the farmer can now reach the team digitally to know more about the specific cattle recommendations. The solution received a highly encouraging response from the farmers and many small & medium dairy farmers started using it instantly.
Dvara E-Dairy Solutions, is one of the 25 semi-finalists of CISCO Agri Challenge. Founded by Ravi KA, it aims to empower every small and medium dairy farmer in India with comprehensive financial and cattle management solutions to help them participate and prosper in the growing dairy economy by providing them suitable digital solutions by leveraging new age technologies. To know more about the other semi-finalists, click here.
