Robin Saluoks & Kristjan Luha on building the biggest farmers union in the world, already covering 1m hectares on 1500 farmers

How do we get thousands of farmers and millions of hectares to transition towards applying more regenerative practices? This is the primary question answered today by Robin Saluoks and Kristjan Luha, co- founders of eAgronom. eAgronom is a platform that enables farmers to manage and oversee their entire farm, employees, and fields. It was built by farmers for farmers. Its primary aim is to help farmers learn how they can run a more profitable farm and have more time to spend with their family.

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Building trust, creating value and giving really great advice. That is what todays episode is about, a farm manager software company started by the son of very profitable organic farmer in Estonia is working to reconnect humans with nature, they started by helping grain farmers to become more profitable and getting them slowly of high input extractive way of farming towards more regenerative practices.

Collision Of Different Worlds

Robin Saluoks came from a family of farmers and later on decided to pursue a degree in Computer Science, where he met the third founder of eAgronom, Stenver Jerkku. Kristjan Luha, on the other hand, came from many years of experience with global sports. Although the three came from different worlds, they all share the same passion for making a positive difference in the field of agriculture, and rebuilding the synergy between nature and mankind.

“We have a great opportunity to make an impact on the world. And eAgronom’s vision is very ambitious about the future. So I think, together, we can solve something that hasn’t been done before.” – Kristjan Luha

Grain Farmers

Aside from directing farmers to eAgronom’s sustainable prices, Robin and Kristjan are placing focus on grain farming as their primary start. This is due to their know-how on the industry and how such practice is common even in different parts of the world.They discuss further on how they can transform their data integrations which can help farmers build a sustainable, profitable, and stable business.

“So grain farming is where we have proven that we understand this. And we know how to make farms regenerative and profitable. But then the other side, it seems to be most similar in different parts of the world. So, if to say, you manage a grain farm in Estonia, Poland, or in Australia, It’s all related and quite similar in terms of employees and management.” – Robin Saluoks

The Main Challenge of Data

Robin and Kristjan share how data gathering wherein the farmers manually placed information on the program themselves proved to be a challenge at first. They further explain the importance of the software and how it serves as the whole circle of the season that the farmers live through, beginning from the basics to the harvest.

“Farming is getting digitized at the rapid pace by many startups, new companies, as well as the big players already in the farming industry. So everyone’s bringing more digital tools from, you know, machine integrations, The tractors, to harvesters, or combinations of tracking and what they do and where they are exactly, to soil sensors, to weather sensors, to satellite data. So there’s more and more data that is becoming available. But platforms like ours are the opportunity to integrate it all, and then make sense of it.” – Kristjan Luha

The Farm’s Operating System

Robin and Kristjan share how they want to position eAgronom as the operating system of farms. They want to help farmers with their high management decisions, as well as, become the main source of knowledge for the latter. They continue to share how they can help, not only through the collection of data, but through advising as well.

“So basically, there are many areas on how we see the farming industry, that is slightly different how some other players are seeing it. And obviously, none of the companies will ever get 100% market share. But we believe in putting all those things together, and by following all of them, we have our clear market on who we are approaching.” – Robin Saluoks

Other Important Points Discussed

Koen, Robin, and Kristjan discussed these points in this episode:

How do Robin and Kristjan see eAgronom in terms of nudging more regenerative practices
The reasons why Robin And Kristjan chose to focus on carbon only, and not by diversity and water
What would Robin and Kristjan do if they were in charge of a $1 billion investment fund tomorrow morning
What Robin and Kristjan would do if they had a magical wand that could change one thing in agriculture

To know more about Robin, Kristjin, and eAgronom and how you can focus on soil and regeneration, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Robin Saluoks and Kristjan Luha are founders of eAgronom. Founded by a son of a farmer and an experienced software developer, eAgronom provides farmers with a set of convenient and intuitive digital tools that significantly simplify their daily and seasonal farm management. In October this year, the company raised a seed investment round of EUR 1M total from Black Pearls VC, TMT Investments, Trind Ventures, United Angels VC and others.

Robin Saluoks is the founder and CEO of eAgronom and the son of a successful farmer. He has public speaking experience at over 100 events as well as experience in fundamental analysis of publicly traded companies. He is the Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 and the AmCham EU Entrepreneur of the Year 2019.

Kristjan Luha is the founder and VP of Strategy & Business Operations of eAgronom. He has two decades of sales and strategic business leadership experience with Nike Inc. He is the Global VP of Football Marketplace, VP FM Nike Russia, and the GM Nike Greece & Cyprus. He has deep experience in developing growth visions and winning strategies for new and existing businesses and markets.