Tech firm revolutionises silk cocoon trade with tech-enabled bidding

ReshaMandi has built a technology-driven bidding process to ensure that farmers receive the best prices for their yields, given the short shelf life of silk cocoons

Panchaiya M Hiremath, a sericulture farmer in Melmuri village, some 350 km away from tech capital Bengaluru, is a happy man. Hiremath who sells silk cocoon is content with the quick payment process and the quality-based fair price he now gets for his yield.

This was made possible when Hiremath used the technology provided by ReshaMandi, the largest B2B (business-to-business) marketplace for textile and fashion.

The Bengaluru-based firm has introduced a tech-enabled bidding system for cocoons at its Ramanagara mandi in Karnataka. The company has successfully taken this process online and streamlined the operations while providing crucial advantages to both farmers and reelers.

Here reelers express their interests by bidding for a specific lot to the farmer using the ReshaMandi super app on their mobiles. The details of the cocoon lots along with the latest bid prices are displayed on multiple screens at the warehouse. With farmers having the flexibility to sell to the highest bidder, they retain complete control over their rates.

ReshaMandi IoT device (Photo: Company)

 

"Given the limited shelf-life of cocoons, it is crucial to reduce the farmers’ waiting period at the Mandi,” said ReshaMandi’s founder and chief executive officer, Mayank Tiwari. “Through tech-enabled solutions, we aim to ensure that the farmers are able to maintain the quality of their cocoons while receiving the best prices through a simplified process. As a partner in their journey, we aim to foster transparency, efficiency, and fair transactions."

With the rationalised bidding process, transactions now happen much faster and in an efficient manner. This means that the settlements are completed in less time or within a couple of hours. The bidding starts early in the day which results in substantial time-saving for farmers and reelers who can conclude the transactions at the Mandi and focus on their business or spend time with their families.

ReshaMandi's bidding platform offers an advantage to both farmers and reelers through transparency in the process and awareness of the prevailing cocoon prices. Farmers realise better selling prices and higher margins from the sale of their produce, thereby increasing their profitability.

Similarly, reelers also get access to a consistent supply of desired grades of cocoons at the most competitive prices. All this is facilitated at the ReshaMandi warehouse by levying a nominal transaction fee.

Since the initiation of the new system in the month of August, the Mandi has seen higher traction from stakeholders and a significant surge in the volumes of cocoons traded. This trend is expected to continue with the steady rise observed in the number of farmers and reelers joining the platform on a daily basis.

Founded in May 2020, ReshaMandi provides a full-stack digital ecosystem, starting from farm to fashion. It was started by Mayank Tiwari, a NIFT gold medalist, Saurabh Agarwal, a former Cisco Systems technologist and entrepreneur, and Utkarsh Apoorva, a serial technology entrepreneur from IIT Delhi. The company began with a focus on silk and has diversified by adding other natural fibres to its portfolio such as cotton, jute, linen, coir and banana. ReshaMandi now works with over 100,000 farmers, 10,000 reelers,  17,500 weavers, and 20,000 retailers in the entire natural fibre supply chain.

ReshaMandi has harnessed the power of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and machine learning in its network. With the help of technology interventions and a people-first approach, the firm said it has helped farmers improve their productivity by 20 per cent and boosted incomes by nearly 30 per cent.

The company’s super app provides real-time insights, seamless transactions, and increased convenience to all stakeholders. The firm said the app has been used to trade over 7800 tonnes of cocoon, 350 metric tonnes of raw cotton and  17,500 tonnes of cotton bales. Other such metrics include 20 lakh sarees, 33 lakh pieces of clothing, and 370 lakh metres of fabric.

Early this year, ReshaMandi, unveiled a version of its IoT device, an in-house creation aimed at stepping up technical assistance to farmers. IoT devices are provided to farmers who have partnered with ReshaMandi as part of the platform’s overall product offering.

With a TFT display and a battery life of more than 48 hours with lower power consumption, this device is designed to monitor temperature and humidity. It has a dual SIM functionality that can support multiple network providers and connect to ReshaMandi’s main server.

A disease detection tool was also introduced in the mobile app to assist farmers in analysing crops while sending personalised real-time advisories whenever required. Besides a 30 per cent lower chance of crop failure, farmers also receive crop insights from additional satellite-based data.  The company has said that  Mulberry IoT devices aid healthy produce and a continuous supply of the leaves that are to be consumed by silkworms.