Introduction

The Crowd Farms (TCF) is an Agri-Tech startup which manages corporate farms and engages different stakeholders to harness the maximum potential of agriculture in terms of productivity, value creation and fair distribution of value. The primary stakeholders are the landowners, farm adopters, and The Crowd Farms. TCF acts like a bridge connecting all these stakeholders to achieve high productivity and efficiency in the agriculture sector. Below are the main stakeholders in our business model:

Landowners

Farm Adopters

The Crowd Farms

Attaining UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

TCF strives to address following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being outlined by United Nations (UN):

Climate action

Climate change has adversely impacted the productivity of agriculture in Pakistan. We use strategies which are responsive to the changing climate conditions.

Zero Hunger

TCF focuses on producing staples, fruits, vegetables, cooking oil crops and meat of high quality which will contribute achieve the “Zero Hunger” objective.

Industry infrastructure and innovation

This is an innovative business model which will revolutionize agriculture industry of Pakistan.

Adoption of best practices

To achieve high productivity, TCF adopts following best practices: Below are the main stakeholders in our business model:

Soil Testing: We engage the technical teams from fertilizer companies or from labs of the agriculture universities to test the soil. The report on the soil test azadrms about the fertility of the soil and availability of nutrients in it. It helps to plan the best fit for crops and application of fertilizers and nutrients accordingly.

Laser Leveling: The accurate leveling of the fields helps to increase the productivity because it facilitates equal distribution of water and other liquid material. We use laser level technology which smoothens the land surface ± 2 cm from its average elevation by using laser equipped drag buckets to achieve precision in land leveling. Precision land leveling involves altering the fields in such a way as to create a constant slope of 0 to 0.2%.

Certified seeds: We use certified seeds from verified companies. It helps to maximize the germination rate and decreases the risk of pest-based disease as these seeds have strong immune systems to fight these pests.

Usage of drones: We plan to use drones for spraying pesticides and herbicides. It will help to apply pesticides and herbicides more accurately. It reduces the risk of human error i.e applying more or less pesticides and herbicides at some parts of the farms.

Artificial Intelligence: We plan to adopt artificial intelligence to manage the fields in the best possible ways. Following are some of the initiatives in consideration:

We will use seed drill device for sowing. A seed drill is a device used in agriculture that sows seeds for crops by positioning them in the soil and burying them to a specific depth while being dragged by a tractor. This ensures that seeds will be distributed evenly.

We will use satellite images to analyze the crops on different stages. It will help us to plan the counter strategies accordingly. Furthermore, we can also give online access to our farm adopters to see their fields online through thecrowdfarms.com by sitting anywhere.

We also plan to use drone-based software to check the health of the plants at various stages.

Watch Our Journey

Experience our journey through this video, where we explore our latest agricultural projects and ideas.

Proof of Concept in Cotton Crop 2023

This idea was launched in May 2023 in which three farm adopters were engaged for five acres of cotton crop. We estimated input cost at Rs. 80,000 / acre and accumulated Rs. 400,000.
As it was experimentation stage, we used four seed varieties in five acres to see the productivity of different varieties so that our planning for next year become more accurate. Everything went well till the flowering stage in the first week of August 2023. Then three days of continuous rain damaged the first cycle of flowers which resulted in achieving worst case scenario. However, each farm adopter sold his crop and earned around 13% profit in six months.
In this proof-of-concept experimentation, we learned following lessons:

Cultivate cotton in early stage preferably in the month of April due to climate change impact.

Introducing portfolio concept in farming i.e having alternate crops in some fields i.e sugar cane, corn, onions, cucumber etc

Parallel cropping: Potato crop can be sowed within cotton fields which will give additional income with relatively lower input cost

Idea Testing in Wheat Crop 2023-24

After successful engagement of farm adopters to five acres in cotton crop 2023, we expanded it to 21 acres for wheat crop 2023-24 in November 2023. Following table shows the farm adoption distribution among four adopters.
Wheat crop was concluded in April 2024 and even after the lower market price (mainly due to untimely wheat import) we were able to provide 25% annualized ROI to the Farm Adopters

Farm Adopter	Acres	Amount (PKR)
Farm Adopter 1	06	540,000
Farm Adopter 2	06	540,000
Farm Adopter 3	05	450,000
Farm Adopter 4	04	360,000
Total	21	1,890,000

Team behind TCF

The founding team of TCF has a diverse background which makes it suitable to execute the unique business model of TCF.

Azad Ahmed belongs to a rural agrarian family of District Naushahro Feroze, Sindh. He is a fourth-generation agriculturist who spent his childhood in the farms at his village before embarking to big cities in the pursuit of higher studies. He has been actively engaged with family farms in crops’ planning, operations management and bookkeeping in parallel to his studies initially and then professional commitments. He is a member of the two progressive alumni networks i.e IBA alumni network and Pak-US alumni network. He completed his MBA from IBA Karachi in 2014 and attended a professional exchange program on entrepreneurial ecosystem in USA in 2018. Since Jan 2015, he has been an active member of the entrepreneurial ecosystem enablers. He is one of the pioneer members of the IBA Center for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), having served as Acting Head IBA CED from June 2022 till October 2022 and currently, serving as Manager CED at IBA Karachi. He is highly motivated and enthusiastic person with a good knowledge of entrepreneurial process, new venture creation, innovation management, budgeting, compliance, and financial management. He has professional experience of around 12+ years in managing teams and running incubation and entrepreneurial centers. He has contributed in promoting entrepreneurial mindset in almost all major cities of Pakistan. He worked as a Program Manager in various entrepreneurship related projects of international donors i.e UNDP, Oxfam, USAID etc. He has facilitated more than 200 startups during the early stage. Some of those startups have grown to 100+ members and successfully raised funding of millions of dollars.

Azad Ahmed

Co Founder

Ahmed Nawaz belongs to a rural agrarian family of District Naushahro Feroze, Sindh. He is a fourth-generation agriculturist and has been actively engaged in cultivation of various crops and raising livestock for the past 30 years. He has experience of growing wheat, sugarcane, cotton, animal fodder, beans, lemon orchards, banana orchards, mango trees, sesame, brinjal, hot pepper, and onion. Moreover, he also has experience of raising animals for meat and dairy.

Ahmed Nawaz