The emergence of the green revolution has made India enhance its style of cultivation and its living standards. It has renovated its old instruments of agribusiness to the new ones.
Not only the instruments but also the improper infrastructure, and farmers unable to access a wide range of markets with ease and only making limited profits on crop sales.
The Agritech startups are making use of modern methods to improve farming, bringing technology available to farmers, and helping them improve their lives. Roughly 60 percent of the population of rural Indian households make their living from agriculture. However, despite its enormous significance to the sector, it is still fighting with a variety of issues like the use of outdated equipment, improper infrastructure, and farmers being unable to access a wide range of demands with ease and only making limited earnings on crop sales.
In a bid to improve , enhance farming technology and solve these challenges, agritech startups are trying to provide information to the farming community, improve their farming techniques, and help farmers become more efficient.
The EY report analyzes that the Indian agritech market has the potential to reach $24 billion by 2025.
On the other side, to the 2019 NASSCOM report, India is home to more than 450 agritech startups, growing at a rate of 25 percent year on year. These businesses are increasingly empowered 150 million-odd farmers with data-led systems.
With an idea that stimulates farmers to get agricultural equipment – from sickle to cultivator – on rent through its rent4farm services from certified suppliers.
In that phase, some organizations launched startups aimed to make agri-inputs affordable and accessible to farmers.
1. Farmkart
Farmkart was launched in 2017 by Atul Patidar. It is an eCommerce platform Barwani-based Farmkart that enables farmers to purchase modern agricultural products like fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds at affordable prices.
Farmkart can distribute products to rural and remote places. That includes areas that are not yet serviced by e-commerce majors in India, within 24-36 hours.
Farmkart was chosen as part of Top 50 Global Innovation Startups in 2018 by Startup Grind, powered by Google for Entrepreneurship. The startup was certainly appreciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 70th edition of ‘Mann Ki Baat’.
Farmkart also offers Farmers end-to-end-consultancy to help them understand how they can leverage technology to improve their productivity. As per the builder, farmers can call the official number and take guidance from agronomists.
Atul concludes by saying that the startup has raised Rs 15 crore in seed funding from undisclosed investors and is now looking to raise its Series A funds next year.
2. AgriVijay
Founded in 2020 by Vimal Panjwani along with his mother and retired government officer Shobha Chanchlani, AgriVijay offers farmers and rural families a wide range of renewable energy equipment tailored to their needs and infrastructure setup.
The Pune-based startup is an aggregator. It offers several products –
- biogas gensets,
- solar-powered water pumps,
- solar energy inverters, and
- solar water heaters to suit the specific energy needs of buyers.
The startup sells mainly through its website, call center, and social media channels. Farmers can purchase the products from the startup’s offline stores in villages. The prices for solar and biogas energy equipment ranges from Rs 9,000 to Rs 35,000.
3. Rise Hydroponics
Founded in April 2020, by Tusshar Aggarwal with the partnership of Meet Patel, and Vivek Shukla. Rise Hydroponics delivers end-to-end soil-less farming remedies which are pertained to help in developing both outdoor and indoor hydroponic farm projects.
The Ahmedabad-based agritech startup plans to build a 12,000+ sq ft commercial hydroponics farm in Bhiwandi, which is foreseen to be operational soon. Apart from this, it has built an indoor vertical hydroponics farm in Worli, Mumbai.
Rise Hydroponics insists that it has completed over 20 projects in 13 cities, similarly Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Gurugram, and Jamnagar.
4. Agrifeeder
Founded in 2017 by Rounak Kumar with his partners Raman Kumar, and Priya Pandey.
Agrifeeder is providing farmers by training them about new technologies, farming techniques, providing good quality seeds and fertilizers to pre-harvest marketing and post-harvest management.
Agrifeeder supports farmers in five main aspects —
- Storage facilities
- Purchase of grains
- Fertilizers
- Farming training
- Assistance
- Implementation of organic farming
- Financial assistance.
The Bihar-based startup training farmers on farming techniques, the correct use of chemicals and fertilizers to improve productivity. also on deciding on prices of the produce. It is also training farmers to produce their organic fertilizers and encouraging them to take up organic farming.
In January this year, it raised seed funds from the Government of Bihar under Startup Bihar Policy. Presently, Agrifeeder is helping 80 farmers across Bihar.
5. Saptkrishi
Bhagalpur-headquartered agritech startup Saptkrishi has developed Sabji Kothi or Preservation, a Wheel-mountable, microclimate-based storage solution that is cost-effective, portable, and extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables from three days to 30 days.
Founded in 2019 by Nikky Kumar Jha along with his sister Rashmi Jha, Saptkrishi is at present being accelerated at IIT-Kanpur. It was first produced at IIT-Patna and has been doing paid pilot trials through various public and private collaborations such as with the Indian government, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and consulting firm Microwave.
Nikky says the USP lies in the fact that it is a zero-chemical, non-cooling, and completely green technology priced at Rs 10,000.
“It is a valuable one-time investment and will last multiple harvest seasons. It increases the RoI for farmers and traders, and opens new opportunities and bigger markets,” he says.
The siblings’ increased funding of Rs 10 lakh for research and development via Nidhi Prayas with IIT-Kanpur, will come in multiple tranches. They have received a similar grant from IIT-Patna as well. The startup introduces a pre-seed round of Rs 15 lakh from Invent, Villgro, and several awards and grants of unrevealed percentages to make Sabjikothi market-ready.
Also Read: After a good harvest season, reduction of prices in the foodgrain prices seen by 10-15%
