How To Become A Forerunner In The Indian Spices Market?

India is the largest producer, exporter and consumer of spices in the world with around 75% of the world’s total spice production. The world spices market was valued at 12 billion US Dollars in 2020 and continues to expand at a big rate. The popularity and quality of Indian spices along with the rising urbanization have made the spice business highly lucrative. The International spices market is expected to have a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.80% per annum until 2025 making Spice businesses in India jump with joy.

The main reason for the projected growth of the spices industry is GLOBALISATION. The expanding new world has brought about the following trends around the world:

• Expanding Indian diaspora abroad
• Rising urbanization
• Popularity of Indian cuisine
• Experimental new cuisines
• Use of spices in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, beauty products etc.
• And most recently, the health consciousness of people brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic

The rising population, especially in India, is also a reason for the spices market boom.

Therefore, the spices industry is a potentially lucrative business option, even for beginners, with its wide market availability and the favorable Indian economy and ecology.

SPICES CULTIVATION IN INDIA

India has been the famed Land of Spices since time immemorial. The Indian Subcontinent has the perfect blend of climate, topography and rainfall. The hot and humid weather and the heavy monsoon seasons makes India ideal for the cultivation of a variety of spices. Saffron, cardamom, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander etc. are some of the main spices grown in the country.

The challenges faced by the spices industry in India are mainly threefold.

Firstly, the farmers and farmland are highly scattered and located in remote areas. Therefore, it is difficult to implement profitable and sustainable farming practices effectively and uniformly.

Secondly, the quality control system needs to certify the produce which needs to be uniformly categorized into lots by the agribusiness.

Thirdly, unscientific traditional methods of cultivation and use of harmful chemicals have affected soil fertility and caused environmental pollution. This is a setback that can cost an agribusiness dearly as sustainability and traceability are highly valued by customers today.

Therefore, an all in one system that controls the cultivation and the business effectively is an investment that can make your agribusiness thrive. Let me introduce you to the concept of Farm Management Softwares (FMS).

A Farm Management Software (FMS) helps you to have better control over your farm related activities. It is a tool that enables you to monitor and effectively carry out your farm operations by providing powerful insights into your farming activities. A Farm Management Software uses a mixture of modern technologies like data analysis, Blockchain technology, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IOT), Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Satellite Imagery, etc. for making the most successful decisions for your agribusiness.

• Accommodates multiple farms/farmers

Small and scattered farms can be monitored and governed uniformly under the company farming policies to yield the desired quality and features of the product from a single point of control. All the contract documents as well as farm particulars of different farmers with full traceability are available at any time and place.

• Digital Farmer’s Diary

The farmer’s diary which records the daily activities of the farm is an important document that not only gives incredible insight into the agricultural activity but also that supports your end to end traceability system. Individual farm expenses can be tracked and analyzed helping in cost reduction and profitability improvement. A farm software helps in digitizing this, thereby making it easier to analyze and share it with prospective clients. This is done through customizable mobile applications with regional language interfaces.

• Pest and Disease Management

A Farm Management Software(FMS) helps in identifying the pests and diseases right at the field level itself and taking suitable control measures. Historical data on climate and pest/diseases incidences are correlated to reasonably predict possibilities of a pest/disease attack.

• Sustainability

The Sustainability module offered by a Farm Management Software takes into account the four pillars of sustainability: Human, Economic, Social and Environmental. A Farm Software can keep track of sustainability initiatives and analyze the data to arrive at meaningful conclusions about how it benefits the agribusiness as well as the other stakeholders. It also helps you prepare for and handle sustainability audits by various customers.

• Traceability

Traceability is highly important in a spices business with export potential. A Farm Management Software uses advanced technology, like the Blockchain Technology, to safeguard farm data which can be accessed by prospective clients to check the quality of the product and track its journey from farm to fork.

• Farm Audits

Farm Audits can be configured easily and executed through the mobile phones carried by the field staff to document and sync real time data. It can provide highly insightful analysis on the yield, quality, crop health, adoption of the GAP, etc.

All these features of a Farm Management Software (FMS) makes it a highly productive and efficient investment for an agribusiness that is focused on growth.

Trace Agtech is an intuitive and feature rich farm management software that will integrate all of your contract farms and farmers on a single platform. It helps you in digitizing farm diaries, geo-fencing farms, pest/disease control, real-time support to farmers, expense tracking, yield forecasting, buying, quality control, farm audits, traceability, sustainability, training master trainers (TOT) & farmers, monitoring & managing field staff, etc.