Farmsnation: This agritech startup is helping farmers sell their products online
For
many years, farmers in India have been caught in a vicious cycle of the
fragmented, monopolized agricultural market setup. With no access to the end
consumers, farmers have been at the mercy of the middlemen with little freedom
in choosing markets and ensuring a fair price for their produce. It was in 2020
that the co-founders of Farmsnation realized the challenges faced by Indian
farmers and decided to empower farmers with the use of technology.
This led them to start Farmsnation, an online marketplace
for farmers to sell their farm-fresh produce directly
to the customers in their area and beyond. The platform opened the door for
farmers to attract thousands of customers, looking for fresh fruits,
vegetables, dairy, herbs, and more. The founders have maintained a simple
technology system, easy to use for farmers where they can reach new customers
through e-commerce features of adding products, farm pictures, receiving
payments, and managing orders. The app also verifies
farmers and suppliers to ensure good farming practices, thereby maintaining a
quality check and complete transparency for its consumers. What is unique about
the platform is its emphasis on helping consumers get an insight into the
source of the food they are buying. The app allows customers to know the name
of the farmer they are buying from, his values, and how he produces the food.
Understanding the challenges
in the traditional mandi format
Co-founder, Varun was unaware of the world of
farmers and their challenges, working in a comfortable banking role at HSBC
when the idea to open a dairy farm came to his mind. He quit his job in 2018 to
pursue the dairy business with his brother, Tarun. The duo passionately grew
the farm to 60 cattle until the pandemic hit the world in 2020. As the
unprecedented coronavirus-led lockdown was imposed, he saw several farmers left
with no option but to sell their produce to the middlemen at dirt cheap prices.
He was surprised to see the disparity in prices of what the customers were
actually paying and what the farmers were earning. These middlemen were taking
advantage of the farmers’ limited sales education and lack of market access,
earning margins at every stage of the distribution chain, leaving little to no
profits for the farmers.
Given the low prices offered by middlemen, farmers
were also compromising on the quality of their products, ultimately leaving
consumers to settle with low-quality supplies. “We spoke to many farmers, about
their farming practices, to understand what makes them throw harmful chemicals
in their fields, give hormone injections to their cattle, and treat animals
inhumanely. We even met farmers who harvest vegetables and fruits separately
for their families and customers. What they sell is NOT what they eat. It
wasn’t that the farmers did not want to grow high-quality fruits and
vegetables. But even if they did, they were not getting a fair price or the
right customers for it.” said Tarun Rastogi.
Bridging the gap for
farm-fresh produce
In 2020, the pandemic also led to another consumer
trend- the rise of health consciousness. Consumers changed their food habits,
wanting to switch to fresh and local foods. But there was a huge gap in the
market. Realizing the growing need for farm-fresh produce, the co-founders set
out to build an agritech startup that allowed customers to discover and buy
directly from farmers, thereby helping farmers maximize their profits. At
Farmsnation, the prices are also quite reasonable for consumers because while
farmers are free to set their own prices, farmers compete with each other for
getting orders. This helps maintain fair pricing, a win-win situation for both
consumers and farmers.
With
an online marketplace, Farmsnation has been able to bring efficiency and
transparency to an otherwise unorganized process. Co-founder Shorya Rastogi
spoke about his vision for the platform- “When we set out, it was a simple
question- Is the traditional mandi system really benefiting the farmers or the
end consumers? We wanted to solve the challenge of quality and pricing,
empowering both farmers and consumers. We have brought to our users their local
farmer’s market at their fingertips and created
meaningful and long-term benefits for farmers by providing them sales education
and e-commerce tools. We are happy to see our farmers now accessing the
Farmsnation technology to generate a steady and profitable income for
themselves. From a consumer perspective, we believe every family deserves to
eat fresh and have information on how their food is being sourced. With
Farmsnation, we ensure that anything less than pure and hygienic will not be
sold to our customers.”
Farmsnation is
currently available as a website, iOS, and android app. At present, 14,000+
customers are successfully using the platform, with 10,000+ app downloads on
the Google play store. According to Farmsnation, almost 5000 farmers have
successfully registered on the app, and the numbers are growing daily. With
their seed funding from PV Venture, a US-based VC firm, Farmsnation has built a
strong presence in many cities- Delhi, NCR, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh,
Maharashtra, Kerala, and more.
Comments
Post a Comment