The Upcoming Tectonic Shifts in Food and Agri Supply Chains

Posted on October 11th, 2023

I saw evidence of this in Dubai where WayCool unveiled its complete technology stack for the first time. The quality of enquiries (over 180 serious queries) we received, the sense of urgency amongst all operators in the supply chain for solid, mobile-first, scalable, and completely integrated technology solutions, whether it is farm tech or distribution tech, was astonishing. These customers were not dabbling curiously in little experiments. No, these seasoned practitioners were very clear in their ask – complete, climate-agile solutions that ensured consistent yield, superior performance, reduced costs, and predictable returns on agricultural investments at the farm end, and cohesive solutions that exponentially deflated waste and inventory while dramatically improving service levels.

Another point is the rapidity with which Indian farmers and retailers are taking to technology. We recently launched the second version of our Outgrow super-app for farmers. We had 27,000 downloads in 10 days, 3,764 active users, and more than 2,118 users using our AI-based disease detection tool. Interestingly, more than 25% of the farmers connected with our agri-doctors through the in-app chat. A lot of myths are getting busted here.

For long, commerce has been valued over technology, and many companies have been forced to deploy their otherwise formidable capabilities towards solving simplistic issues such as commercial transactions. That’s changing quickly. As candy floss capitalism fuelled by artificial liquidity tapers down once again, technology is going to eat commerce for breakfast in the food and agri supply chain.

We continue to invest in our tech stack even as we respond to the push to build and scale a commerce platform. It gave us a head-start, despite the view from the outside world that we were doing something that was perhaps a bit too complex. We will continue betting on this, and build our stack which is already one of the most comprehensive on the planet.

A lot of folks have bypassed betting on this space in the past decade, while pumping their dollars into thinner, somewhat trivial models. There are others who went ahead with their due diligence of the sector and its participants, but were stopped by red lights when it came to actually making bets. Well, those red lights just turned out to be the taillights of the bus that you missed.

Workplace Safety – Everything You Should Know About National Safety Day

Posted on October 11th, 2023

National Safety Day was first observed in 1972. The day has now become a national campaign and is celebrated widely by NGOs, industries, regulatory agencies, and labour-intensive organisations across India.

It was observed on a single day earlier, but now it has become a week-long celebration from March 4 to March 10. National Safety Day has made a significant impact by increasing safety awareness that has brought down workplace accidents. The theme for this year’s National Safety Day is “Nurture Young Minds, Develop Safety Culture”.

Why is National Safety Day important?

After independence, India witnessed large-scale industrialization. However, rudimentary technologies and a lack of robust processes led to an increase in the number of workplace accidents. Since there was no governing body to issue clear guidelines on workplace safety, the Ministry of Labour recommended setting up an apex body like the National Safety Council of India to instil the sustained importance of workplace safety.

The concept of a nation-wide Safety Day was developed with three key objectives:

1. Ensure that safety and health are integrated into work culture and lifestyle 

2. Renew the commitment of the employees towards safety and health at the workplace. 

3. Achieve greater participation of the employees in Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) activities. 

To encourage a zero-harm culture and reaffirm individual commitment to workplace safety, on National Safety Day, every employee is expected to take a pledge to uphold workplace safety at all costs.

The Pledge

“On this day, I solemnly affirm that I will rededicate myself to the cause of safety, health, and protection of the environment and will do my best to observe rules, regulations and procedures, and develop attitudes and habits conducive for achieving these objectives.

I fully realise that accidents and diseases are a drain on the national economy and may lead to disablements, deaths, harm to health and damage to property, social suffering, and general degradation of the environment.

I will do everything possible for the prevention of accidents and occupational diseases and protection of the environment in the interest of self, family, community, organisation, and the nation at large.”

How WayCool approaches workplace safety

As India’s leading agri-commerce and agritech company, WayCool takes workplace safety very seriously. Our core philosophy of “people before profits” drives us to imbibe safe work practices in all our processes – from soil to sale.

Here are some of the Safety, Health and Environment (EHS) activities that are regularly undertaken at WayCool’s facilities and offices across India:

1. Regular training and employee engagement activities to reinforce a “safety first” work culture

2. Clear communication on job-specific Dos and Don’ts and best practices for workplace safety

3. Regular training and education on emergency preparedness, including timely evacuation drills

4. Clear communication channels for employees to share their ideas, suggestions, and recommendations to enhance workplace safety

5. eOrganisation-wide EHS risk mitigation training and engagement activities

6. A clear reporting and escalation matrix to encourage employees to identify and report unsafe acts, conditions, and workplace practices

7. Integration of EHS elements during decision making at every level.

With these in mind, WayCool is working towards becoming one of the safest workplaces in India.

Why ESG Investments are Good for Business

Posted on October 11th, 2023

Dr Aswath Damodaran, popularly known as the “Dean of Valuation”, is a profound man with strong views. I have learnt considerably from him through his lectures and videos. However, when he opines that “ESG is not just a mistake that will cost companies and investors money, while making the world worse off, but that it create more harm than good for society,”, I must disagree with him. 

Dr Damodaran’s hypothesis is that investing in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) activities will lead companies to spend more money in doing “good” things and, consequently, deliver poor returns to the investors. While he has elaborated on this to some extent in his blog, his underlying conclusion is that either a company can deliver value to its investors or to its core stakeholders, but not both.

Here is where he is wrong. Let’s take environmental responsibility, i.e. the ‘E’ in ESG. His hypothesis implies that moving to renewables will place a cost burden on companies, and reduce returns to investors thereof. This is perhaps valid for developed economies where conventional sources of energy are available at competitive prices. However, when you look at a developing economy like India, it is clearly possible for companies to deliver a genuine environmental impact while also enhancing its bottom line.

At WayCool, we firmly believe that doing good has to be good for business. Every ESG project that we undertake is stringently measured through the cold calculations of ROI while simultaneously being environmentally and socially efficient, and more impactful than the traditional methods.

Let’s begin with energy management. We have started solarising our facilities one by one. In a solarised ecosystem, even if you operate your facility on a purely variable cost basis, the cost of power is at least 25% lesser than the cost of traditional grid power. Now, there is power available on tap, and you also save money while delivering better impact and reducing your CO2 footprint across multiple facilities. We solarised our Chennai Distribution Center on an OPEX model and today we are saving over INR 200,000 per annum in power bills. This is the cost saved in just one DC. 

Let’s look at water management. Many people believe that water is free in India. This is not true when you consider the recurring costs that industrial entities have to incur on sewage handling. When sewage accumulates, we have to call sewage trucks to clean our septic tanks on a regular basis. Unfortunately, we don’t even know where the sewage is being actually disposed off since the control mechanisms are quite poor.

At WayCool, we have installed a very competitively priced water and effluent treatment plant. By deploying this plant in some of our largest warehouses, we are able to treat almost every bit of wastewater that we are generating. It is not just a water treatment plant, it is integrated into an overall water management solution. For example, the water that we use in our facilities is recycled up to seven times by passing it through several filters and then used for washing product crates and other process applications.

After the seventh time, the water and the wastewater are both taken out and are fed into an effluent treatment plant. This plant treats the water and makes it suitable for repumping back into the ground where the water is fed back into our garden or fed into our water harvesting system. We measure the amount of water that we draw and the amount of water that we charge. Over a period of time, the amount of water that we recharge will surpass the amount of water that we draw because our rainwater harvesting systems will get integrated into the wastewater treatment systems. Consequently, we will be pumping more water into the ground than what we lift. By recycling the water multiple times and then pumping it back into the ground after treatment, we avoid the usage of effluent treatment trucks or sewage trucks.

The cost savings, for one warehouse alone, translates to over INR 40,000. That effectively makes it possible for us to have a payback of less than one year in the effluent treatment plant. This is just another example of an impact program and clearly shows that one can be environmentally responsible and save money for the company at the same time.

Here is another example. Let’s look at Food Miles. At WayCool, we recognized early on that while there can be a lot of push towards alternative mobility like electric vehicles, the smartest thing to do is to reduce the length of the food supply chain itself.

To test our hypothesis, we ran an experiment on reducing the Food Miles of exotic vegetables like lettuce and broccoli. Bengaluru is one of the largest consumption markets of these exotic vegetables that are traditionally grown in the Nilgiri Hills. Besides being an eco-sensitive zone, the Nilgiri Hills are located approximately 360 kms from Bengaluru. This means expensive transportation using reefer trucks and long transportation distances that diminish the shelf life and hinder a smooth supply to meet the rising demand. The usage of reefer trucks also means high CO2 emissions while transporting these vegetables.

At WayCool, we partnered with a network of local farmers in and around Bengaluru where we found that the agro-climatic conditions were suitable to grow these exotic vegetables in the region itself. By doing this, we succeeded in reducing Food Miles from 360 kms to a mere 2 kms. This also meant that we no longer needed reefer trucks as we are now able to pluck fresh vegetables as soon as we receive the order. Apart from saving a significant amount of money in transportation, we are also preventing CO2 emissions because now the food is simply not moving the distance that it was moving in the past.

Last, but not the least, let’s look at one of our social impact initiatives. For packing and processing our food products, we could have easily built large factories. Instead, we chose to partner with a number of local entrepreneurs, who are closer to the source of production resulting in favourable cost structures and producing in large factories that are typically located near urban areas. As a result, our overall production costs have come down. At the same time, we have created new rural entrepreneurs in areas where the only source of income was farm income.

It is not a universal truth that ESG can happen only at a cost to the company. When you make cold calculations for every ESG-related activity, the way WayCool makes it, you automatically make a positive impact on your bottom line while tangibly delivering on the environmental side.

However, I do agree with Dr Damodaran on one aspect – a lot of ESG is now limited to only ESG reporting, and a lot of companies are essentially greenwashing their books. It seems to me that there’s a lot of focus on twisting and re-narrating stories to fit an ESG agenda, and therefore to draw down on ESG investments. It is also creating large segments of industries that hitherto did not exist, of paper producers in terms of ESG reporting.

This, I agree, is a waste of money and time. If companies actually focussed on doing work that delivered better impact on the environment and the societies around them, rather than focuses only on reporting what they are doing, or restructuring what they are doing, to fit a narrative of ESG, then I believe that there is opportunity to create a genuine impact rather than just create a cosmetic narrative to draw down funds from another pocket.

If you are going to do just ESG reporting and narrate the story differently than what it was before, then frankly, either you’re not being impactful on the ground or you are actually not being effective because you’re burning all your money on consultants and other ESG reporting organizations. In this case, definitely either the company loses or the stakeholders lose.

At WayCool, we are very clear about three things:

1. All ESG projects that we undertake will be focussed on tangible on-ground impact, and not stay limited to mere ESG reporting.
2. Every ESG project will clearly be ROI-driven while measuring the on-ground impact.
3. We will stay ahead of what regulations demand and we will continue to push ahead relentlessly in adopting what the latest technologies offer us in terms of footprint and impact reduction.

We firmly believe that being compliant using ESG projects like these is not just a good citizenship initiative, but a clear source of competitive advantage.

What we do today will be mandated by regulation tomorrow. And the cost of what we do today will actually be higher for legacy players as well as other startups to emulate at that point in time because there will be massive demand for the same technologies and the supply will be constrained because of the surge in demand whenever a regulation hits. We will, therefore, have a solid entry barrier and we intend to take the market at that point in time.

To sum it up, if done right, building sustainable enterprises is not always expensive, as Dr Damodaran asserts.

Focus on Food, Not Just Agriculture

Posted on October 11th, 2023

Food security is a priority for every country, considering the challenge of delivering sufficient food to the world’s population. The world population is estimated to touch 9 billion by 2050. ‘Zero Hunger’ and promoting sustainable agriculture ranks second in the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030. However, currently around 690 million people worldwide (8.9%) go hungry, as per the UN. This is expected to cross 840 million by 2030, making ‘Zero Hunger’ a pipedream. A majority of the world’s undernourished – 381 million people – are still found in Asia, with Africa not far behind at 250 million.

For example, India, despite being the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, has an astounding 17.76 lakh acutely malnourished children and 15.46 lakh moderately malnourished children. This is according to a recent report released by the Women and Child Development Ministry of India. In October, the 2022 Global Hunger Index ranked India at 107th out of 121 countries indicating that India has a serious hunger problem.

Worldwide, extreme poverty is predominantly rural, with smallholder farmers and their families accounting for a very significant percentage of the poor and hungry. Achieving Zero Hunger and eradicating poverty are integrally linked to augmenting food production and agricultural productivity.

In addition, increasing pressures on natural resources and climate change threaten the sustainability of the world’s food systems. Climate-related disasters, including forest fires, droughts, hurricanes, flash floods, and storms, are happening with alarming frequency. These disasters adversely impact agricultural productivity, which means food availability suffers. This causes food prices to skyrocket and results in income losses that prevent the poor from being able to afford food.

Reimagining our food systems

Our food systems need an overhaul backed by responsible investors with a concern to enhance the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, and reduce the carbon footprint of food supply chains. Policymakers should also involve stakeholders, and develop food systems anchored by smallholder farmers who can sustainably deliver safe, affordable and nutritious food throughout the year.

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s twin-track approach to fight hunger uniquely combines rural development with sustainable agriculture to enable vulnerable sections to access food.

These include:

• Enhancing the food supply to the most vulnerable
• Improving rural food production, especially by small-scale farmers
• Investing in rural infrastructure and rural markets
• Revitalisation of the livestock sector
• Resource rehabilitation and conservation
• Enhancing income and other entitlements to food
• Food aid
• Seed/input relief
• Capital for livestock restocking
• Enabling market revival

We need to develop food systems anchored by smallholder farmers who can sustainably deliver safe, affordable, and nutritious food throughout the year to low-income people.

Food safety is a top priority. Every country must adopt technologies that support traceability and track the food journey from farm to fork. Consumers need to know where their food comes from, and how it supports the local economy. This includes adopting comprehensive food safety policies and robust strategies to eliminate food contamination. 

Upgradation of cold chain infrastructure can eliminate food waste. The FAO estimates that almost one-third of the produced food is lost or wasted globally. That’s about 1.3 billion tonnes of food per year – enough to feed 3 billion people!

Shifting our focus to food rather than only agriculture will reveal the bigger picture and the integrated linkages between farmers and the food ecosystem, so that the consumer has access to safe, affordable food.. 

However, local knowledge must be considered while chalking out a food security strategy as a one-size-fits-all approach will not work in aligning ourselves to the Zero Hunger goal. 

A holistic approach

Building sustainable and resilient food systems that produce nutritious crops and livestock products calls for a holistic approach that supports all the stakeholders – from farmers, processors, and traders to food companies, retailers, and eventually the consumer.

At WayCool, we believe that innovations guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and environment are necessary to ensure food security.

Farmers must also diversify production in order to cultivate a variety of crops that enhance nutrition and are more resilient to external factors. Governments need to help farmers find the right balance between food and cash crops, and adopt climate-smart agriculture practices. Traditional farming methods like tilling and crop rotation must be combined with scientific techniques to support productive food systems.

Investing in agricultural research will prepare us for future challenges, including natural and manmade threats, as well as expand and protect economic opportunities for rural communities.