Smart Agriculture System
Online Contracting with Farmers 🧺 for Guaranteed Purchase of Agricultural Products
Given the importance and role of contract farming in the policies of the Ministry of Agriculture and the government to achieve a production leap and ensure the sustainability and continuation of self-sufficiency in the growth of essential agricultural products, particularly wheat, for the 2023-2024 agricultural year, it is essential to utilize all capacities and resources. In light of the program for contract farming of three crops—wheat, barley, and oilseeds—issued for the 2023-2024 agricultural year by the Minister of Agriculture to agricultural organizations and both public and private sector stakeholders across the country, the development of the Smart Agriculture platform in collaboration with the MCINEXT group and the Corporate Business Department of MCI started in June 2023.
With the establishment of appropriate infrastructure, the implementation of contract farming for wheat products in all irrigated and rainfed lands, oilseeds including canola, safflower, camelina, and barley in all provinces of the country, was initiated on November 14, 2023, and communicated to all provinces according to the provincial list.
Dear Farmers by visiting the local agricultural extension centers and updating your information for the 2023-2024 agricultural year in the zoning system, and by installing the Smart Agriculture application on your mobile phone, or by visiting the websites farm.mcinext.com, gtc.ir, and corc.ir, you can register using your national ID and personal mobile number. After registration, the contract and insurance policy are automatically issued without the need for an in-person visit. This program offers various benefits, including a 20% cost compensation for the relevant product insurance after delivery and a transportation fee of 150,000 IRR per ton of wheat.
The provincial agricultural extension organizations, as part of their inherent operational duties, assign experts to contracted farmers to assist, guide, supervise, and provide technical advice throughout the planting, growing, and harvesting phases. Contract farming guidelines are prepared, drafted, and issued annually by the Crop Production Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. These guidelines allow farmers to register contract farming agreements with various implementing entities (for example, in the 2023-2024 agricultural year with the Government Trading Corporation of Iran (GTC), the Central Organization for Rural Cooperatives of Iran, and the Livestock Affairs Support Company), ensuring that they receive the necessary agricultural inputs on credit and have their products purchased by the government. Additionally, insurance issuance and loans from the Agricultural Bank are facilitated through the registration of contracts.In the past, this process was done traditionally. However, with the Smart Agriculture system, developed in collaboration with the MCINEXT group and the Corporate Business Department of MCI, it is now possible to complete all contract registration processes online from even the most remote areas without needing to be physically present. Farmers can view their land list by entering their national ID or company identifier, select the desired implementing entity, sign the contract within the application, and immediately receive a PDF file of the contract. After the contract information is registered, managers of various implementing entities in each province can access the management system, review the contract and farmer information, and either approve or reject it. Additionally, the management system features pages where managers can view statistics on the registration, approval, and rejection of contracts, as well as the issuance of insurance policies and loans from the Agricultural Bank. This information can be filtered by city, province, crop type, cultivation type, implementing entity, and whether the farmer is an individual or a corporate entity, providing detailed insights into the status of contracts. Each manager has access only to their own contracts (based on province or supplier) and cannot approve, reject, or view other contracts. The system also includes an option to download more comprehensive Excel files for detailed information. After the contract is approved by the manager, the land information is recalled for the farmer, and the validity of the cultivated area for each plot is verified. If there are no issues in the process, the contract is forwarded to the Ministry of Agriculture. All steps related to contract farming, such as registration, approval or rejection of contracts, issuance of insurance policies, and obtaining loans from the Agricultural Bank, are communicated to the farmer via SMS. The farmer can then visit the system to view detailed information for each contract.
When each user logs into the system, a dedicated wallet is created for them, where they can deposit or withdraw money. Within the Smart Agriculture system, users can access the agricultural products marketplace, connect to their wallet, and engage in buying and selling products. The connection to the wallet works as follows: a purchase request is sent from the marketplace to the system. The farmer then enters the order confirmation page (and can recharge their wallet if necessary) and, after entering a CAPTCHA, can confirm their order.
One of the challenges farmers face is climate change. Sudden weather changes have caused crops to be lost each year. To address this issue, a weather service has been implemented within the Smart Agriculture system. This service, by obtaining the farmer's location, provides them with the weather forecast for the current week, including temperature, sky conditions, humidity, and wind speed.
Another problem farmers often encounter is not knowing the locations of agricultural banks and insurance offices. To solve this, a "Near Me" service has been created within the system. This service displays the locations of agricultural banks and insurance offices on a map, allowing farmers to easily select the nearest location and use navigation to reach their desired bank or insurance office.
A Farm Management Service has been developed on this platform for precise monitoring of agricultural lands. Through this service, farmers can access the farm management page, view a list of their lands, and select a specific plot to see descriptive information such as land slope, soil texture, soil moisture, and the amount of fertilizer in the soil. Additionally, farmers can draw a polygon around their agricultural land. By doing so, the Ministry of Agriculture can obtain comprehensive information about agricultural lands and accurately calculate the total cultivated area across the country.
The Farm Management Service also uses satellite processing to provide farmers with information such as crop growth, irrigation status, and more. Farmers can use this data to manage their ongoing crops more effectively.
Another feature included in the Smart Agriculture platform is the machinery, equipment, and agricultural tools service. Through this service, farmers and suppliers can offer their equipment for rent or sale, thereby generating income. This service aims to address the issue of farmers' access to suitable resources to enhance productivity and efficiency during planting, cultivation, and harvesting stages.
The platform also offers an agricultural labor service. In this service, specialists in agriculture can offer their services to earn income as agricultural labor. Farmers or orchard owners in need of skilled labor can find and hire the necessary specialists for their activities.
To prevent farmers from needing to visit the Agricultural Bank for loan approval, a facial recognition feature has been implemented in the system, enabling electronic signatures. This eliminates the need for farmers to physically visit the bank, reducing the associated costs, such as engaging human resources, and overcoming the challenge of farmers in remote areas having limited access to nearby banks.
The Smart Agriculture platform has achieved integration and increased efficiency by utilizing specialized platforms such as Shahkar identity verification, zoning system inquiries, electronic contract signing, remote credit scoring, and online insurance issuance. We have consolidated specialized APIs within this platform, including Shahkar identity verification, zoning system inquiries, electronic contract signing, remote credit scoring, and online insurance issuance. With these technologies, farmers can sign contracts digitally and online from the most remote areas of the country without needing to be physically present.
Other innovations of this product include providing logistical services, such as the reservation and trading of agricultural machinery and equipment. Additionally, the platform offers the ability to request skilled labor, ensuring that farmers can access specialized workers for their activities when needed.
As a result of the API integration, efficiency and productivity in this sector have increased, creating synergy in advancing related tasks. We have successfully consolidated specialized APIs within this platform, including Shahkar identity verification, zoning system inquiries, electronic contract signing, remote credit scoring, and online insurance issuance. With these technologies, farmers can digitally and online sign contracts with the government from the most remote areas of the country, without needing to be physically present.
Additional innovations of this product include providing logistical services such as the reservation and trading of agricultural machinery and equipment. The platform also allows farmers to request skilled labor, ensuring they can access the necessary expertise for their activities when needed. The integration of these APIs has led to enhanced efficiency and productivity, fostering a synergy in the execution of related tasks.
The Smart Agriculture application has successfully registered approximately 455,000 contracts and stored information on farmers' lands, totaling around 4 million hectares. This application is designed to improve agricultural processes and facilitate contract management for farmers and agricultural officials. One of the challenges this service faces is integration with various systems. Each system has its unique implementation and challenges, and given the nature of the Smart Agriculture application, which requires high stability, it is crucial to address all potential issues. The platform has been designed to consider all possible scenarios when interacting with these external services, ensuring that any disruptions or issues are effectively managed.
Another critical aspect of the agricultural system is the process of contract verification after approval by the manager and submission to the Ministry of Agriculture. Due to its significance, this process needs to be conducted accurately and promptly. To achieve this, multiple workers have been developed to fully automate this process, ensuring that all aspects of the contract are transparently and continuously updated in the system. This allows farmers to easily track the status of their contracts and be promptly informed of any issues or changes that may arise.
The Smart Agriculture application has, for the first time, successfully integrated multiple services and managed their various interactions. This integration has ensured that agricultural information and data are systematically and accurately accessible, preventing duplication and information conflicts. Moreover, this integration enables agricultural officials to manage and monitor agricultural contracts with greater precision, leading to better decision-making. Utilizing advanced technologies and modern management approaches, the application has created an efficient and effective platform for managing agricultural contracts.
Key features of this application include the ability to register and track contracts, manage agricultural land information, obtain necessary verifications, and connect with various systems. These features have significantly accelerated and enhanced the accuracy of agricultural processes, allowing farmers to engage in their activities with greater confidence.
Additionally, the Smart Agriculture application offers various reports and comprehensive analyses, empowering agricultural officials to manage resources and plan agricultural activities with greater precision. These reports include analyses of farmer performance, the status of cultivation in different regions, and production trends, all of which contribute to strategic decision-making. One of the significant outcomes of this application is the removal of barriers faced by farmers in remote areas. For instance, farmers who do not have access to nearby Agricultural Bank branches often have to travel long distances for identity verification and loan processing. However, with this system, all these obstacles have been eliminated, ensuring equal access to these services for everyone, regardless of location.
In conclusion, the Smart Agriculture system has significantly improved agricultural processes and contract management by creating an efficient and effective platform. By offering a wide range of features and capabilities, this application enables farmers and agricultural officials to engage in their activities with greater confidence, leveraging modern technology to enhance their performance. Additionally, by facilitating communication and integrating various services, the application has introduced a significant innovation in the agricultural sector, establishing itself as a successful model in this field
Summary of the Implementation of the Smart Contract Farming Process
The farmer visits the Agricultural Extension Center and registers their information for the 2023-2024 agricultural year in the Comprehensive Zoning and Agricultural Data Management System.
The farmer installs the Smart Agriculture application on their mobile phone or computer. The application can be accessed through the URLs https://gtc.ir and https://corc.ir, or by using the web version available at https://farm.mcinext.com.
The farmer registers in the Smart Agriculture application (Smart Agriculture App) using their national ID number and personal mobile phone number.
The farmer drafts a contract in the Smart Agriculture application (Smart Agriculture App) based on the information retrieved from the Comprehensive Zoning and Agricultural Data Management System and receives a tracking code for the contract.
The contract is reviewed and its status is determined by the implementing entities, which, depending on the farmer’s selection and the type of crop, could be the General Directorate of Grains (Government Trading Corporation of Iran), the Central Organization for Rural Cooperatives, or the Livestock Affairs Support Company.
The farmer visits the Agricultural Bank to allocate credit. It is important to note that remote digital identity verification and digital signature options are available, eliminating the need for in-person visits.
The Agricultural Insurance Fund issues the insurance policy electronically and automatically based on the signed contract, without the need for the farmer to visit in person.
It is important to note that farmers can use the Smart Agriculture application at any stage of the contract farming process to view the status of their contract. The statistics for the Smart Agriculture system in the 2023-2024 agricultural year are as follows:
450,000 contracts have been registered in the Smart Agriculture system.
The total area under contract farming is 3,243,375 hectares.
The application has been installed 500,000 times, each with a unique identifier.
The user distribution is as follows: 70% on Android, 29% on desktop, and 1% on iOS.
By the end of March, 1,800 job seekers have registered in the system.
By the end of March, there have been 14,100 requests for machinery, of which 1,420 are for agricultural equipment and 12,680 are for agricultural machinery.
By the end of March, a total of 1,200 pieces of equipment have been registered, with 400 being agricultural equipment and 800 being agricultural machinery.
Over 600,000 identity verifications and contract registrations have been completed using the Shahkar system.
The Weather Service API has been called over 7 million times by the end of March.
A total of 272,000 contracts have been insured.
The insured cultivated area covers 1,815,000 hectares.
The upcoming tasks in this domain primarily focus on completing the marketplace required by farmers, expanding the detection range of cultivated lands through satellite image analysis, and providing more targeted assistance to farmers to enhance productivity. Having an intelligent assistant (Agriculture Assistant) in the agricultural industry is a key indicator of digital transformation in this sector. Other forthcoming initiatives in the smart agriculture domain that are on the agenda for the agriculture team include:
Monitoring the Distribution of Essential Goods
Development of a Transportation Request Service
Development of Pest and Disease Forecasting Service
Integration of Contract Farming with the Smart Irrigation System
Expansion of Marketplace Services
Agriculture Discovery Service
The following table shows that there was a significant increase between the two years 1401-1402 and 1402-1403, especially in the number of insured contracts and the area under insured cultivation, which have a very high percentage of change.
MCI NEXT Smart Agriculture Project Manager:
Sara Sarraf
MCI Smart Agriculture Project Manager
Alireza Naghavi
Project manager: Nilva company
Technical director: Mehdi Hassanzadeh and head of the development team: Masoud Hassanzadeh