Investing in Agricultural/farm lands in India has great advantages; the major one being that land price appreciation and income made from farm produce and also farm land income is tax free in the country. So, if you ever thought of buying or selling agricultural land but couldn’t find the right platform, SFarmsIndia - The first of its kind platform to buy or sell the Agriculture Lands on peer to peer basis can solve all your worries!
In an exclusive interview with Krishi Jagran, Kamesh Mupparaju, the Founder &CEO of SFarmsIndia, has shared how this startup is helping people find, buy and sell agriculture lands without any hassle.
Question: How did you come up with this unique idea of buying/selling the Agri land marketplace?
The people in India struggle to buy/sell agriculture land. The farmers of our country often find it difficult to sell the agriculture lands due to lack of liquidity. Apart from this the high income group individuals also consider agri land investment as an alternative asset but are facing difficulties in finding agricultural lands. The middle income group also intends to buy but is not able to do so due to lack of financing facilities. Most property websites across India don’t focus on agricultural land. This is where the idea struck, that there has to be a platform for these forms of land as well.
It was found that in Telangana state alone, the registration value of agricultural land market size was Rs. 15,000 Cr and the market value stood at 50,000 crores in the year 2018-19. The area transacted was 3.2 Lakh acre, and this is where things became clear that agri realty is one aspect left that is unexplored throughout India. After all the research I found that the agriculture land market is much bigger in terms of valuation and this gave me an idea to build an online market place for agricultural lands.
Question: What makes SFarmsIndia different from the other property selling/buying platforms?
SFarmsIndia is a market place exclusively to buy and sell agri land in India. It was established for the sole purpose of enabling farmers and non farmers alike to discover, buy and sell agri lands, small farms and estate lands. Customer satisfaction and winning their trust is our prime motive. At SFarmsIndia, we support transforming a wasteland into rich, valuable land for farmers to sell as small farms. Hence farmers are getting better price comparative to selling the barren lands.
Question: What are the special features about SFarmsIndia?
Our platform connects the buyer and sellers directly with no middle men involved. So the margins can be nullified and this helps us to maintain cost effective agri land purchases.
We also have full stack agri land services for pre and post agriculture land registration. These services are for both buyers and farmers such as land survey, RSR/revenue document verification, legal verification, document writing & registration guidance, subdivision and land marking, mutation guidance, Pattadar/title passbook guidance, and farmer certificate guidance etc. SFarmsIndia has partnered with licensed surveyors, document writers, legal experts, and international farm management solution companies to ensure a quality user experience.
Question: Could you please share how SFarmsIndia connects Farmers and Agri realty developers?
With the listing function, buyers can find agriculture lands, and sellers can list the agriculture lands for sale or lease. It creates liquidity for the buying and selling of agriculture lands. Based on the land type and nature, SFarmsIndia deals in the lands of three types as follows:
Agri Lands– Agriculture Lands, Non-Cultivated Lands, and Fruit Farmlands
Estate Lands– Coffee, Tea, and Rubber Estate Lands
Small Farms- Smallest fraction of the land
With the liquidity function, agri lands are divided into the smallest divisible fractions called small farms. The agri reality developers can liquidate their big land parcels by means of these small farms. Each agri land is assigned with a seller contract and divided into 5 to 8 fractions per acre. The buyers are flexible to buy these fractions. This enables medium to small income groups to acquire lands easily.
Question: Can you please elaborate on the whole process that is involved from listing a particular land to its selling?
First of all the seller has to register with us by creating his profile and enlists his land on the platform. He can choose the category under which the land needs to be listed. Once listed, the buyer can search the agri lands based on the chosen category and contact the seller directly.
The company establishes an agreement with the agri land developers to offer the small farms for sale. Buyers will have flexibility to buy the small farms. The farm booking platform uses an automated proprietary reservation system to book or reserve a particular small farm. The process is also manually overlooked.
Question: What does SFarmsIndia aspire for in the future?
We are an early stage startup and there’s a long way to go. We aspire to make SFarmsIndia one stop shop for everyone interested in agri land realty. We will continue to improve every aspect and will not stop until our clients are adequately served.