This entrepreneur uses tech to help farmers improve cultivation methods

His first product was an AI-enabled I-card that mapped crops, soil and pesticides relevant to the farmer, and helped him buy inputs compatible with his needs

Recently in one of the episodes of ‘Mann Ki Baat’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the efforts of Madhya Pradesh-based start-up Farmkart to digitally connect farmers and deliver farming items to their doorstep. 

Atul Patidar, the founder of this start-up, remembers his childhood days in a small village called Piplaj in MP which had just 50 houses. Simply attaining education up to high school level used to be regarded as a major achievement for the village children. The first to attend English-medium school from his family, Patidar was the son of a farmer and had much bigger dreams. A hard working student, he managed to study engineering at SRM University in Tamil Nadu after which he applied for a Master's degree in 18 Universities and got through all of them. “I chose the University of Toronto where I rolled out two technology start-ups in the healthcare space,” says Patidar, who currently leads the product innovation for a consulting firm in North America called Idea Couture. 

While his team has built several innovative products for tech giants such as Apple and Samsung, and is currently working on a healthcare product for a global technology firm, Patidar continues to keep his entrepreneurial spirit alive. In 2017, he was doing a foresight analysis to understand which industries will boom over the next 10-15 years. While healthcare was certainly on the top of the list, he had some serious thoughts on why agriculture still lags innovation. This time, he did not want to focus on a product like ‘brain chip’ which he created in his previous start-up, but thought of working towards to addressing a problem in the farming space. “If a product doesn’t work, then the company is gone. So I decided I don't want to build products, but to solve problems,” remembers Patidar. Since his family hailed from a farming background, he decided to take the plunge in the sector.

Before commencing operations, his team spent time with farmers in rural areas and met around 15,000 farmers to understand their needs and problems. The research and survey he did became the foundation of all innovative solutions that Farmkart built after it started in 2017.

He realised the biggest inhibition that was in farmers’ minds was how to use technology when they are uneducated. Patidar came to the conclusion that every person knows one thing -- how to count money. So he used the number system in Farmkart’s technology.

The first innovative product his team came up with was UIC, an AI-enabled identity card with a nine-digit number printed on it. It acts as a farmer’s digital identity. “It’s like an Aadhaar card for farmers which contains all information related to their farms such as crop types, soil type, the pesticides they are using and delivery preferences, all in one single encrypted code,” says Patidar. A farmer can recharge his UIC with any amount before buying products from Farmkart’s e-commerce portal. 

Unlike other e-commerce platforms, a user can authenticate himself by using his nine-digit digital identity on Farmkart’s website or app. Once the code is inserted, the AI-based system analyses the data and helps the farmer choose the right products and deducts the bill amount from his balance. 

“UIC is an innovative and futuristic solution as it offers personalised shopping experience. It is based on the fact that every farmer has a different set of needs; every field is different and needs different agri-inputs. In a way, UIC provides him real-time consultancy about products and services,” says Patidar.

Farmkart’s survey had also revealed that in villages, everyone knows everyone. Hence, they launched a delivery system called U2U -- User to User. In U2U, any verified account holder who visits a Farmkart outlet can pick up the orders of other farmers from his village. To facilitate this service, Farmkart made pick up points on highways outside the cities for easy pick up of products. 

The company has also rolled out a Rent4Farm initiative where farmers get farming equipment on rent from certified suppliers at the lowest possible prices.

Started in 17 locations at Barwani, the start-up currently connects 1,200 villages in the area. While it has plans to connect 5,000 new locations within this year, it plans to ramp it to 40,000 location by next year while continuously reinventing the future of smart farming.