Suparatana Bencharongkul, popularly known as Nina, is a pioneer in Thailand’s Agritech landscape. Nina has been pooling in the expertise of various agricultural specialists and has been actively finding innovative ways of merging tech and agriculture. In a country known for their rich agricultural exports, Bencharongkul is trying to bring in rapid change using technology by educating farmers on the various ways they can boost productivity and improve their supply chain networks, thereby increasing profitability.
It is not just the farmers of Thailand whom she is guiding to make Thailand’s agriculture industry more robust, but the consumers, too. Bencharongkul is putting conscious effort into social media to propagate the knowledge and importance of agritech and how it could be a boon to the farmers and the country. She has been very skilfully intertwining agriculture and lifestyle to make the former a more attractive topic for the millennials and the generation Z.
When the inspired inspires
Bencharongkul has been passionate about agriculture right from a young age. The importance of agriculture was introduced to her by her father, telecom billionaire Boonchai Bencharongkul. He explained to Bencharongkul about how farmers had the most important job in the entire world, and that was to feed the population of the world. Bencharongkul’s young mind grasped the importance of agriculture and how its existence had shaped civilizations, trade, and countries. Though the world around was advancing at great speed using technology as a platform, she saw that this magic ingredient was missing in the agricultural industry. It was then she took up the challenge of making tech meet tradition and with her team of agricultural specialists and tech & telecom experts, she started rolling out apps and products which would go on to help farmers all over Thailand improve the efficiency of their lands and make them more viable.
As the General Manager of Rakbankerd, a subsidiary of the Bencharongkul family-owned Benchachinda Group, she introduced the disruptive concept of agritech consulting in the country. The first app she launched to help the farmers was the Farmer’s Info app which would help farmers access data such as yields, information on operations and logistics and supply prices that will help farmers strike a better deal in the market. She aimed to empower the farmers and make them profitable, thereby helping them stay in business long into the future.
She used technologies such as robotics, drones, and IoT for data collection and predictive analysis to improve the figures on disease prevention and find out alternative methods of farming.
Educating future generations on the importance of agriculture
The agritech icon is a lifestyle icon, as well. Bencharongkul understands that to introduce the idea of agriculture and its importance to the millennials and generation Z she would need to approach them in a way they feel comfortable. She went on to become one of the early adopters of social media by becoming a lifestyle influencer to achieve this objective. Through her example, the young Thai population is learning that it is essential to work hard and also invest in self-care and recreation. Using her influence and her social media following, Bencharongkul is turning agriculture and farming into an attractive subject for her followers. It is evident that her followers adore the confidence she exudes and the beauty with which she has been handling both her business and life.
Suparatana Bencharongkul. (Photo: Instagram)
Very few could imagine ways of striking balance between agriculture and lifestyle. Bencharongkul with her innovative bent of mind and entrepreneurial spirit is not only striking this balance but also trying to bring about a positive economic and social change in her country by adopting agritech and social media to help evolve farming and increase awareness about the same.