SINGAPORE -- September 28, 2018 - SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that CrowdFarmX, a Singaporean start-up farming cooperative on blockchain, will deploy SAP's S/4 HANA Public Cloud to speed up the on-boarding of 10 million Southeast Asian farmers onto its platform in the next 22 years. 

The CrowdFarmX platform connects farmers directly to the global market and equips them with the technology know-how 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 ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite, will serve as the digital core for CrowdFarmX, accelerating the on-boarding process for farmers by delivering a seamless and intuitive transition experience.

Currently, 80% of global food supply is provided by small farmers in a USD6 trillion-dollar industry[1], but these farmers receive low economic returns for their labour despite increasing consumer demand. Through smart contracts, CrowdFarmX links them directly to wholesale distributors and retailers, helping the farmers 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. 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 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 S/4HANA Public Cloud to drive and integrate production planning and management of associated business processes like sales & 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 IoT and Blockchain platform. The SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud implementation is expected to go live in December 2018.

"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, Managing Director Singapore, SAP. "We are glad they choose SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud as their core technology to achieve their goals in building a more sustainable food supply chain and to support their regional expansion ambitions."

CrowdFarmX aims to impact more than 1000 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.

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. (mor).