11 Dec 2020, 11:26 AM IST
India’s agriculture technology sector is one of the segments that is doing well after the initial hiccups due to Covid-19 pandemic. Agritech companies have come into focus now more than ever as they are helping farmers stay connected and thrive. These companies are removing the middlemen and making sure that the farmers can sell their produce online. Here are some of the companies making a difference.
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AgriBazaar: Helping sell
Founded in 2017, AgriBazaar, specializes in online marketing, rural e-commerce, trading, e-mandi, and more. It has services like Precision Agriculture, Warehousing, Agri-Trading and Finance & Payments. After a trader orders his requirement and pays the sum, AgriBazaar’s on-ground team follows a contactless pick up process. The team goes to the farmer’s field to pick up the produce, who later gets his sum through an online payment. AgriBazaar has a presence in around 16 states in the country with the majority of its services in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, among others. The firm has facilitated transportation of 5000 trucks of agri-produce, even in distant places like Lakshadweep. The company claims to be the largest agritech marketplace in the country and is now planning to treble its headcount as it plans to double its geographical footprint. (Text: Garima Bora)
CropIn provides software-based farming solutions to all key stakeholders in the agricultural sector. It was founded in 2010 by Krishna Kumar (CEO), Kunal Prasad and is based out of Bengaluru. It uses satellite imagery and can detect health of the crop, disease onset and quality of soil. It provides farmers with advisory on crop monitoring, including institutional credit and crop insurance. CropIn claims to have helped its partners increase productivity by around 30% over the last three years by providing such information. The idea of providing SaaS based services to agribusinesses came to Krishna Kumar after observing the agrarian crisis looming large on the rural areas of Karnataka in 2010 where local farmers were facing a gamut of problems ranging from non-availability of finance, climatic vagaries, soil degradation, pest infestation and diseases, operational inefficiencies, and no predictability of yield.
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Farmpal is an app-based platform which aims to remove middlemen and see that the profits from sales reach the farmers directly. The company was started by Karan Hon in 2017 in Pune. The company has its collection centres within four kilometers of farm which reduces the travel period and time for farmers and ensures sale of fresh produce. Farmpal picks up the produce directly from the farmer to reduce the involvement of middlemen. Farmpal claims to have established a connection with more than 1000 farmers, of which 400 farmers supply crops to them.
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Providing smart solutions
Agri10x uses artificial intelligence and blockchain enabled e-marketplace connecting farmers and traders. It gives farmers agricultural solutions from pre-harvest to post-harvest including crop cycle monitoring, harvest and farm management. It offers features like traceability and data security. At present the company claims that it is helping over one million farmers worldwide. The company claims to have got 150,000 new farmers on their platform after the pandemic began in March.
Agricx Lab is an AI enabled SaaS company that provides inspection of the farmers’ produce through its app. It can detect count, uniformity, color and external defects in the product. The company helps trading houses to digitise procurement processes. It doesn’t directly work with the farmers but through trading partners and large buyers. The company’s AI algorithms help traders get lab-like results quickly.
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