Agriculture industry has always been a backbone of the country. Though India is making rapid progress in other sectors as well, agriculture still remains on the top. Recently the bills have been passed by Rajya Sabha where it is asked to end the monopoly of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Mandis.
We have witnessed that the majority of the farmers community is against the complete removal of the middlemen system. AS per them, farmers are not equipped to deal with corporates.
Keeping in mind the importance of agriculture and the ones producing it, there are various startups that are trying to change the landscape of agriculture by using technologies for business models.
The technologies not only help to create viable business but also helps to improve farmer’s income. The companies try to help the farmers by providing the best value for their produce. Also, the companies help farmers by assessing the quality of the yield and also in the grading procedures through FPOs.
Here are four agri-tech startups which are empowering Indian farmers in their job role:
Aqgromalin:
Aqgromalin is one of the fastest-growing farm diversification companies that aims to supplement the income of small landholding farmers through ready to implement micro-farms. It makes access easier for various agricultural implements and technology. Incepted in 2019, the company is based in Tamil Nadu and has strong operations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Backed by technology, the full-stack company offers innovative growth ideas to farmers in the areas of – Agriculture, Aquaculture, Animal Husbandry, and Insect farming.
The company adopts a conventional approach that goes beyond the traditional agriculture infrastructure to make the practices affordable and accessible to farmers. Also, it provides supplement incomes for existing farmers especially small tract holders by offering them a variety of growing options. It’s buyback policy ensures farmers that they get a fair price for their produce hence improving their trust in the system. Access to information, Machinery, Credit, and Materials are made at a single point which makes lives better and profitable for farmers.
AgriBazaar:
Founded by Amith Agarwal, and has replicated the physical mandi (marketplace) to an e-mandi aggregator model, through which once a farmer registers and uploads his produce; buyers can place orders for the purchase. Once the deal is complete, AgriBazaar facilitates the logistics of picking up the produce from the farmer’s doorsteps and delivering it to the buyers’ warehouse. AgriBazaar also helps buyers from MNCs to small-scale industries with better price discovery and sellers with more targeted marketing of their produce. It charges a transaction fee from buyers, while farmers can sell their produce at no additional cost.
Crofarm:
It provides a supply chain solution, by bringing farmers and businesses on a common platform, making it easier for businesses to procure and fetching higher prices for the farmers. Gurugram-based Crofarm was founded by Varun Khurana and Prashant Jain in 2016. Overall, the startup has raised a total of $2.8 million from a clutch of marquee investors like RajanAnandan, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital, LetsVenture, Pravega Ventures, among others. The company is working with 500+ partner resellers across Delhi-NCR and is already serving over 50,000 consumers. Through its robust end-to-end supply chain network, the best of the farm products is brought to consumers via social commerce model and the fresh produce reaches the doorstep in less than 12 hours.
NinjaCart:
Founded by Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran KK, Sachin Jose, and Sharath Loganathan in July 2015, with its headquartering in Bengaluru. NinjaCart provides an Agri-marketing platform that lets the farmers sell their fresh produce directly to retailers, restaurants. It helps provide better prices for the farmers and a constant supply of fresh fruits and vegetables for the retailers and restaurants.Till date, Ninjacart has raised $164.2 million from Tiger Global Management, Accel, Qualcomm Ventures and Steadview Capital.
