Update: proto award, new deals, fun stuff and same old mavericks

[efarm Venky]

Hi Fellow eFarmers :

It’s that time of the year – moist winds patting your windows as you overlook puddled  roads – its Monsoon time India . And also (long enough) a time for our next email-cast.

And wont I have a looong list of super news items for you …

• 1.       Firstly, your friendly neighbourhood company, eFarm has been awarded  India’s Most promising startup of the year 2011 at the premier entrepreneur event proto.in ! <Read more …>
• 2.       Efarm now reaches for the Sky – SkyGourmet , India’s leading air caterers has signed up for fresh produce supply from eFarm <Read More>
• 3.       MS Swaminathan Research Foundation has now partnered with eFarm for promoting market oriented training and support to farmers across Tamilnadu  using ICT tools and media  < Read more … >
• 4.       Tamilnadu Agri University, Coimbatore and eFarm conducted Buyer-Seller meet with farmers across the 5 surrounding districts of Chennai  < Read More ..>
• 5.       eFarm has started work with the Suzlon Foundation team to support farmers surrounding their Pondicherry manufacturing unit to link up to our collection centre < Read more..>
• 6.       Agri Business Workshops @ eFarm  are now a regular monthly feature which is drawing lot of new young entrepreneurs .  < Read more..>
• 7.       Work hard, Play harder – the entire team at eFarm took a whole day off from their 24x7 operation for our annual day celebrations and picnic to Mahabalipuram < Read more >
• 8.       We are now in Facebook – www.facebook.com/myefarm   - ya couldn’t resist all the buzz from the ‘GenY’ crowd hitting our sites
• 9.       In the press : Leading tamil magazine and newspapers like ‘Pudhiya thalaimurai’ and ‘Dinamalar’  featured  eFarm , which has helped connect with local community in big
• 10.   Parle Vouz Fracais ? eFarm now to be featured in a French TV documentary .. as they say in ‘Kollywood ’ – ‘currently shooting in progress in fields and mandi’s across Tamilnadu’

______________________________ __________________________________________________

•  Proto is a annual event  which showcases the hottest startup companies in India across various sectors . The companies are chosen after evaluation by panel of experts from various industries, media and investor community . All the arc lights, and centre stage action, our high school theatrical experiences came in handy  as we rocked the floor with an innovative business pitch modelled like a ‘drama’. Check out  for the ‘mama – mami’ act here : http://bit.ly/p8hrcV

The event was featured in several leading press, blogs and tracked live by 1000s of people across th world. and would also be telecast in ET Now business news channel all next week .   It will also be posted to the event’s online site http://www.facebook.com/StartingUponETNOW  .It gave us an opportunity to highlight to a world audience, who typically track only tech start-ups, to realise that even in agri sector lot of interesting work  can be done, and at same time commercially viable.

• eFarm is reaching greater heights – well , literally as well . We also have been selected as EXCLUSIVE vendor for skygourmet (part of World #1 airline caterers in world – The Gate gourmet group)and now supply to all leading airlines originating from chennai .. so next time you wont need to complain about sloppy airline food ;-)

•  MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) needs no introduction. Dr MS Swaminathan is world reknowned for his work right from green revolution days in promoting innovations in agriculture and rural development . They have developed various low cost ICT tools to reach out to farmers even in far flung areas.

They have 8 main Village Resource centres across key districts of tamilnadu, and 100s of village level knowledge centres which are all connected via simple low cost audio and video conferencing equipments to do even statewide meetings. We were very impressed by the complete setup, and how ICT tools have been brought to door steps of every farmer in the state.

We now have a partnership to mutually support in various initiatives in aiding agri marketing for the farmer community of MSSRF , providing content to the community newspaper ‘Namm Oooru Seidhi’ (translates to – Our Town News) , and audio advisories through mobile phones.

• efarm has had a long relationship with Tamilnadu Agri Univeristy for over 2 years . The honourable Vice Chancellor, Dr. Murugesa Bhoopathy, is a keen proponent of business oriented agriculture and also using innovations into this field. We were very honoured to have him visit our distribution centre at Chennai and as a follow up we were invited for series of discussions with their key department heads at Coimbatore. Agri market extension  and KVKs (Krishi Vigyan kendras) are means through which TNAU reaches out to field level work.

A Buyer-Seller meet was organised at the Chennai  extension centre of TNAU , where farmer representatives from five districts were invited  with KVK representatives, along with govt. department officials . The farmers highlighted their key issues in selling and eFarm’s Venky and Valli talked on key issues and demands from customer side. The farmers showed great enthusiasm and acknowledged that they never knew so much details about customer side needs, and immediately said they will produce any crop based on demand . This meeting is to be followed up with series of district level sessions with extended farmer community.< Hindu news article >

• Suzlon is one of World’s leading wind energy generation company which has been a pioneer in the field of large wind farms. As part of their initiative to not only be clean energy company but also better serve the farming communities who often displaced as an aspect of setting up wind farms in agri land , they work on various CSR initiaitives. eFarm is in preliminary discussion stages with the Suzlon foundation on various modes of partnership , and have started working with farmers in PS Palayam area close to our Pondicherry rural collection centre as a pilot initiative.

• Our month end agri business workshops (now regularly conducted last Saturday of every month) has been drawing lot of interested entrepreneurs . We are happy to see interest in agri oriented careers picking up, especially from young students, IT /sw engineers , mid level execs, and women .We are now expanding our faculty too to have a diverse background – academic, practitioners, farmers , and of course the motley crowd of eFarm management team . Check it out : http://on.fb.me/r5i2ua

Also a lot of fantastic interns have worked with us this summer , who did some amazing work in their respective projects . They made a garlic peeler, conducted market research for ready to eat food unit run by SHG village women, analysed 2 years of raw data , optimised our backend operations  and it was a great experience to see their energy and enthu. We now have a efarm interns alumni page in our site – and its really bursting every month !

Most companies who are starting off on a new idea, typically would like to ‘keep their secrets’ closed up. But we at eFarm believe that our model has evolved through interactions with various people who have engaged with us over the years- hence it truly does belong to the community. And looking at the scale of the agri crisis every day ballooning, we need many more eFarms to sprout .. hence do drop by our workshops or  as an intern to experience it hands on …. Check out our website for details.

•  “All work, and No play makes Jack a dull boy” .. But with a 24x7x365 day delivery schedule, where do we even get a chance to chill out as a team ? Well, we just had to squeeze our way out just for a day .. as all our staff and family went out to a beach resort near Mahabalipuram for our annual day . Check out the pictures …. http://on.fb.me/rhWTJa

 catch up by next update with more exciting stuff from the efarm fields.... cheers then ..