CrowdFarmX to use SAP S/4 HANA Public Cloud to accelerate onboarding of farmers

Source: CrowdFarmX website. Schematic illustrating the
CrowdFarmX platform.

SAP has announced that CrowdFarmX, a Singaporean startup farming cooperative on Blockchain, will deploy SAP’s S/4 HANA Public Cloud to speed up the onboarding of 10 million Southeast Asian farmers onto its platform in the next 22 years.

The CrowdFarmX platform is powered by smart contracts utilising Blockchain technology, and is the central portal that facilitates multiparty transactions, knowledge sharing, verification processes and community activities.

It connects farmers directly to the global market and equips them with the knowhow to deliver higher-quantity and quality yields, potentially increasing their net yield by up to 10 times and contributing towards global food sufficiency. SAP S/4 HANA Public Cloud, an intelligent enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite, will serve as the digital core for CrowdFarmX. 

While 80% of the global food supply is provided by small farmers in a US$6 trillion-dollar industry*, the farmers typically receive low economic returns for their labour despite increasing consumer demand. Through smart contracts, CrowdFarmX links farmers directly to wholesale distributors and retailers, helping them to gain a greater cut of the selling price. 

Farmers can also leverage brand marketing and financing resources, as well as opportunities for exclusive partnerships with retailers to boost sales through CrowdFarmX Food Cradles that will be rolled out across the region. Each cradle is a physical shared services hub that gives farmers the technological and logistical support they require. The end-to-end visibility of the supply chain also increases food safety, ensuring that quality food such as pesticide-free produce gets onto tables. 

The CrowdFarmX Singapore Food Cradle features a high-tech greenhouse, automated seeding line, plant nursery, post-harvest packing facilities and cold storage. With more than 20 farm technologists, researchers, agronomists at the helm, the CrowdFarmX Food Cradle engages in agricultural research and development, farm network connection and safe food production supplying to premium supermarkets islandwide. 

With the support of Food Cradle partners in Sentul City (Indonesia), Graceland (Thailand) and Mekong Homes (Cambodia), CrowdFarmX aims to deepen the level of engagement with farmers who are already in the ecosystem network and reach out to more from rural communities and villages. Myanmar and Vietnam are also in the future expansion pipeline. 

“The global food supply chain needs to be completely reimagined in order to remain sustainable for future generations. With SAP S/4 HANA Public Cloud, CrowdFarmX will have an intelligent and intuitive digital backbone that supports us to have more complete visibility of the supply chain and supports rapid scalability. This is crucial to pioneering next-generation agriculture by bringing and supporting farmers to gain more benefit from market opportunities”, said David Tan, Founder and CEO, CrowdFarmX. 

“Our ultimate goal is to uplift farmers from poverty, make farming a more lucrative profession, and secure the world’s future food supply.”

CrowdFarmX will also leverage the S/4HANA Public Cloud to drive and integrate production planning and management of associated business processes like sales and distribution, procurement, supply chain, finance control and monitoring. The SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud reinforces predictive analytics for optimised growth, supporting integration of the supply chain with customers, and supporting the track and trace of safe produce from farmers with the CrowdFarmX Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain platform. CrowdFarmX leverages on IoT with aerial inspection and analysis so that agronomists and farmers can minimise resources and optimise yields.

“CrowdFarmX is a great example of a company that is focused on purpose-driven innovation. This is very much aligned to our purpose of helping the world run better and improving people’s lives,” said Khor Chern Chuen, MD Singapore, SAP. 

CrowdFarmX aims to impact more than 1,000 Southeast Asian farmers under a pilot phase by 2020, providing access to sophisticated agriculture technologies that were not readily available before. This includes IoT irrigation monitoring systems and data analysis on micro-climates and soil moisture, enabling them to maximise the yield per square foot of land by up to 10 times. The higher levels of crop production secures food sufficiency for a growing world population especially amidst declining farmer populations.

The SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud implementation is expected to go live in December 2018.

*Global agriculture’s many opportunities, McKinsey, 2015