Agriculture businesses always look for new ways to increase efficiency and maximise profits. 

Utilising online tools can be a great way to achieve this. 

These tools help agribusinesses increase efficiency, reduce costs, and respond to market demands.

But what kind of tools are out there to help? 

And how efficient are these agribusiness tools? 

We asked agribusiness experts these questions and went ahead to document their opinions. 

According to experts, this blog will look at 3 online tools you should consider for your agribusiness operations. 

Before diving into it, let’s look at some challenges agribusinesses face.

2 major challenges agribusinesses face 

Like any business, agribusiness comes with its own set of challenges. 

These challenges range from communication, volatile market demand and the rising costs of production.

We asked agribusiness experts about the top issues impacting agriculture businesses. 

Below are the two major challenges agriculture businesses are facing, according to the experts.

• Broken customer communication
• Inefficient administrative processes

Read Also: How to Start and Run a Successful Agribusiness

Broken customer communication

“Taking farmer’s (end users) feedback on a particular product is one major challenge that agribusinesses face,” says Santosh Kumar Bodhankar, Product Specialist at Telebu Communications.

“Capturing farmer’s requirements and expectations on a timely basis is crucial for agribusinesses. Because if their Agri products are not meeting end-user requirements, the farmers will switch to a competitor’s product,” Santosh further explains.

Mousumi Chatterjee, a Customer Service Specialist at Telebu Communications, also finds communication a big challenge for agribusinesses. 

“There is a low engagement between farmers and agribusinesses,” noticed Mousumi.

“This low engagement is because of a lack of communication. Farmers do not know how to use the product correctly, utilising all the benefits. This leads to distrust between customers and the brand,” says Mousumi.

Inefficient administrative processes

Juan José Moreno, Founder and Chief Strategist at Flokzu Cloud Workflow and BPM Suite, believes that “Production processes in agriculture have always been the focus of attention and are well automated and optimised.”

“It’s the administrative processes that are manually performed and typically inefficient,” says Juan.

Manual processes can be tedious, time-consuming, and sometimes even inaccurate. 

These administrative tasks often take longer than needed, draining employees’ energy and resulting in high costs.

These were the top two issues impacting agribusinesses. Now let’s look at how agribusinesses can overcome these challenges.

3 must-have online tools for every agribusiness in India

Online tools for agriculture businesses reduce costs, maximise productivity and make business processes efficient.

According to the experts, here are the top 3 online tools for your agribusiness in India.

Grptalk

According to Santosh, a conferencing application is crucial for agribusinesses to overcome communication challenges.

Grptalk is an audio conferencing app that connects 3 to 50,000+ people on a call without the internet.

grptalk uses the regular phone network (mobile and landline) and an app to enable hosts to launch a conference call. 

It works on dial-out, where the host launches the call, and participants answer it and join simultaneously.

Agribusinesses use the grptalk audio conferencing app to

• Get feedback from customers on the agriculture products
• Train farmers on best practices and how to use the product correctly 
• Conduct QnA sessions to address the concerns of farmers
• Introduce their existing customers to their new products

This 2-way communication between brands and the farmers has two significant benefits.

• It empowers farmers with real-time information and bolsters the brand image in the farmers’ minds.
• It generates high-intent prospects for agribusiness products, resulting in new sales and profitability.

The farmers have little to no access to smartphones and the internet. That’s where grptalk helps connect the brands with customers, even in remote areas.

Read: Best Conference Call Apps For Business

Features of grptalk 

Below are the features of the grptalk audio conferencing app.

• No internet needed to join the conference call
• Participants don’t have to download any app
• No need for your participants to dial a number
• Conference call controls (mute/unmute, hand raise option, mute-dial participants, remove uninvited attendees)
• Conference call scheduling
• Conference call recording
• Web version for easy call management
• Detailed call analytics and reports 

Pricing for grptalk

The pricing for grptalk is 1 Rs per person per minute.

So if you have 10 people on the call and speak for 10 minutes, the pricing will be 10X10X1. 

100 Rs for 10 minutes call.

This is general pricing. You can contact the grptalk sales team for customised pricing based on your requirements. 

SMSCountry

Mousumi and Santosh mentioned SMS services as one of the tools agribusinesses use in running their business.

SMSCountry is an all-in-one bulk SMS platform for business messaging. 

It offers OTP, Transactional SMS, 2-way SMS, Promotional SMS, Voice SMS, and Email 2 SMS to connect and engage with customers.

Agribusinesses use SMSCountry bulk SMS platform to

• Send real-time information to farmers.
• Send instant updates on weather and rain forecasts
• Promote their agriculture products with promotional text and voice SMS
• Answer farmer’s queries with 2-way SMS

This SMS communication results in two main benefits.

• Farmers get information to use Agri products efficiently and increase their crop yields, resulting in enhanced trust in the brand.
• Promotional text messages result in new sales and profitability for the agribusiness.

Features of SMSCountry

Below are the features of the SMSCountry bulk SMS platform.

• One platform for all your SMS needs; OTP, transactional SMS, promotional SMS, 2-way SMS and voice SMS service
• Custom sender ID that reflects your brand
• SMS in multiple languages
• Delivery reports and tracking to measure the performance of your campaigns
• An account manager from the moment you create an account
• 24/7 support via chat, email, text or call

Pricing for SMSCountry

SMSCountry offers flexible, pay-as-you-use pricing. 

The pricing is based on the network and country where you are sending the SMS. It varies between 0.582INR and 3.483INR per message. 

To get an exact estimate for SMS, you can visit the pricing page on the SMSCountry website and get a customised quote based on the country/location.

Spreadsheets

Source

According to Mousumi and Santosh, spreadsheet software is an essential agribusiness tool.

Spreadsheets store, organise and analyse data for various purposes like budgeting, analysis, forecasting, reporting, and more.

Agribusinesses use spreadsheets to

• Plan marketing and production goals
• Store farmers’ data
• Simplify decisions based on spreadsheet analysis
• Project future profits and plan the seed and fertiliser prices 

Features of spreadsheets

Different spreadsheet software is available, but the basic features mentioned below remain the same.

• Rows and columns to organise the information
• Formulas and functions to give you insight into your data
• Data filtering and visualisation to filter and present your data
• Custom formatting to customise the look and feel of your spreadsheet

Spreadsheet software and their pricing

Here are a few of the most popular spreadsheet software programs and their prices.

1. Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel has 2 pricing options.

Excel with Microsoft 365 starts at $6.99/month.

Excel on-premise for 1 PC or Mac costs $159.99 (perpetual license)

2. Google Sheets

Google Sheets personal comes with 15 GB of cloud storage per user and is free to use.

Google Sheets for business plans start at $12/user/month.

3. Zoho Sheet

Zoho Sheet comes with Zoho Docs.

Zoho Sheet paid plans go for $4/user/month.

Manage operations for your agribusiness efficiently

Whether it’s to reach out to customers, increase business productivity, or keep track of data, the benefits of using online tools for agriculture are endless.

These 3 online tools will help you run your business efficiently and provide the most bang for your buck. 

We’ve got something for you if you want to streamline communication for your agribusiness.

Schedule a demo with our team to see how grptalk can power your business communication.