AgriBazaar, one of the nearly dozen companies involved in the pilot project to help the Indian government build a database on farmers, is expanding its activities to crop advisory, intelligent data, yield estimates and providing a marketplace for growers. 

“We have been a full-stack agri platform since 2016. Now, we have launched a marketplace for growers and other stakeholders. The marketplace delivers assured quality produce. Anyone can buy these products,” said Amith Agarwal, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), AgriBazaar. 

The marketplace will have provisions for farmers to buy their inputs, but it will take two to three months to become fully functional.

“We have tied up with 34 suppliers such as seed manufacturers and other inputs makers. These suppliers will deliver to the growers at the farm gates,” Agarwal said. 

AgriPay wallet

AgriBazaar, which has over seven lakh registrations including three lakh active participation, deals with a variety of agricultural produce in its marketplace.

“We deal with all kinds of pulses, guar seed, soyabean, castor, mustard and wheat. Our monthly transaction volume is about ₹700 crore,” the AgriBazaar CEO said. 

The firm, also the country’s largest tech-enabled agriculture marketplace, provides assured payment through its AgriPay wallet.

“The buyer deposits the money in our AgriPay wallet and the grower receives the payment directly,” Agarwal said. 

In the case of a produce getting premium, the grower will get it fully directly, he said. 

‘Agri Bhoomi’

AgriBazaar, which hopes to get 10 lakh growers’ registrations over the next few weeks, has plans to provide intelligent data through ‘Agri Bhoomi’ in its main app besides its Web-based portal.

“We can provide farm yield estimates to various stakeholders across the country in this segment. Recently, we did a pilot project on this for the Ministry of Agriculture,” he said. 

The agritech startup will use satellite imagery for crop identification and estimation, besides remote sensing to provide farmers information on climate-based cultivation patterns. It will also add other technologies that will help growers in estimating per hectare yield, he said.

The company’s focus will be on technology that will help growers in selling and buying, providing wallets and also help in testing quality.

AgriBazaar has tied up with third parties to check on the quality of the produce offered by farmers, while it also sends its own staff wherever possible. 

“We also have a mobile app to check quality. All these will ensure that there is no dispute over the quality of the produce offered on our platform,” Agarwal said. 

Farmers’ database

Under the Agriculture Ministry’s programme to prepare a database on farmers, AgriBazaar has mapped yield estimates in 3-4 districts in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan on a “pro bono” basis. Based on its work, the firm has now been given the responsibility of mapping a few more districts in these States, the start-up co-founder and CEO said. 

“We have also developed an algorithm for crop classification in mustard and wheat-based on yield. We gather data and profiles besides details on product diversification. Based on this, we can give advisory on what earnings to expect and how to expand,” Agarwal said. 

The firm offers such advisory services in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and West Bengal. Asked about mustard crop prospects during the current rabi season, the AgriBazaar official said initial estimates were encouraging. 

“Mustard yield is likely to be good this year and we have seen even growers in Uttar Pradesh shift to mustard from wheat,” he said. 

Agarwal said AgriBazaar, whose app is transparent than agriculture produce market committee yards or mandis, is seeing farmers returning to sell their produce once they get a first-hand experience of selling on its platform. 

The outbreak of the Covid pandemic, which has led to farmers getting better prices, has also resulted in growers looking for platforms other than the mandis.

AgriBazaar is a self-funded firm since its inception. “Our growth has been funded by customers. We did not raise any money from any external investor,” said Agarwal, who has over a decade-and-a-half experience in the sector. 

“We wanted farmers to break the barrier of just selling through mandis. That’s how Amit Mundawala and I founded the firm,” said the start-up CEO. While Agarwal operates from Mumbai, Mundawala functions from Delhi.