Agritech charts a different course for the primary tiller of the land

From warehousing, water credit to farmland management, these start-ups are helping farmers thrive

A few years ago Prasanna Rao and Anand Chandra were working for a top private bank. As bankers, they had worked across agriculture markets and knew that banks primarily serviced tertiary markets. They had, at first hand, seen the gap that exists in the primary and secondary markets.  

“Once we were trying to help an FPO (farmer producer organisation) get a loan of Rs 10 lakh and the bank they reached out to took three months to respond to their request on a fully-secured loan. On the other hand, a trader requesting a loan could get a Rs 2 crore loan sanctioned within 48 hours. Clearly, there was a huge gap that existed and this market had a very large potential too,” says Rao.

Hence, the duo quit their jobs to build Arya, an integrated agri-tech platform with a third founder, Chattanathan Devarajan. The company offers storage, warehouse management, embedded finance, and market linkages to agricultural producers and buyers across India through its digital collaboration platform. 

About $130 billion worth of food grain in India is lost due to lack of storage, forcing farmers to sell off-cycle for lower returns. Arya, which recently raised $21 million in a series-B round, pairs warehousing with financing and critical market linkage services digitally to help small-holder farmers thrive. 

In India, while sectors such as healthcare are booming with technology, agriculture, which is one of the biggest providers of livelihood in the country, lags innovation on a large scale. Agritech, which was so far limited to robotics and smart equipment is now coming up with innovative models to help stakeholders with better output.

Precision farming agritech start-up Fasal has launched Fasal Water Credit to encourage farmers to save water and money with sustainable farming practices. The start-up captures real-time data on conditions from on-farm sensors to deliver farm-specific, crop-specific and crop-stage specific actionable recommendations to farmers.

Currently, irrigation is dependent upon the guesswork of the farmers. Fasal’s data-driven approach is leading to better quality and an increase in crop yield by upto 40 per cent, claims the start-up. Its IoT device keeps an hourly track of the water tension at the primary rootzone and if the water level exceeds, the system triggers action for farmers through the Fasal app. Every farmer who maintains water below this level for a maximum number of hours in a month, is refunded the entire monthly subscription that is charged for the advisory. So, every time a farmer saves water, he makes money for himself.

Another start-up, Hosachiguru, helps farmers buy and manage farmland for long-term wealth benefits. Their vision is to change the conventional view that agriculture is a low-income industry.

“Our farms remain climate resilient as forecasting micro & macro conditions, allows us to increase the preparedness of our technical and on-ground teams in taking informed decisions on irrigation, soil and crop management. For this we have installed real-time sensors that monitor weather, soil moisture, soil temperature, rainfall and humidity,” says Srinath Setty, Co-Founder, Hosachiguru. The company has also rolled out a My Farm app which allows clientele to virtually connect with their farm with real-time activity updates and alerts. 

“We have converted over 500 urban citizens to next generation farmers over the past 6 years, with our managed farmland services,” says Shetty. If the real-estate mantra is to buy, and wait, Hosachiguru’s mantra is buy now and grow trees. “There are several reasons why one would want to invest in farmland, either to have a blissful post-retirement home, or to learn and involve in farming, or as an occasional escape from the hustle and bustle of the city or just an alternate asset class for investment purposes,” says Shetty.