A city-based agritech start-up, founded by two entrepreneurs with roots in agriculture, provides information on the latest agricultural technology in an attempt to empower farmers and optimise their yields.
Since its inception in 2016, KhetiGaadi,com functions like an agricultural version of OLX, giving farmers various product options with detailed specifications to buy, sell and rent agricultural equipment. The brainchild of founder Pravin Shinde and Vishnu Dhas, the co-founder and executive director, it aims to give farmers precise knowledge about mechanisation — helping them, for instance, make the right choices regarding which equipment is best suited to their needs in a particular agricultural cycle — and encourages them to deploy it to maximise yields.
“Thus far, we have managed to connect four million farmers across the country with more than 20 tractor manufacturers and major agri-equipment manufacturers suppliers through our app,” says Mr. Shinde, who hails from an agricultural family in Satara district.
What struck Mr. Shinde during his studies in agriculture was that India’s farm mechanisation rate was less than 45%, less than half of that of countries like the United States and China. That too, when more than half of the country’s economy is dependent on agriculture. He conceived the idea of the start-up in 2013 and started building a team. In the next few years, he traversed the country, meeting farmers, attending agro-events and collecting data from farmers and dealers before forming a partnership with Mr. Dhas.
“We thought of a single platform to bring all stakeholders: farmers, manufacturers, brokers and buyers and sellers of farm mechanisation equipment, and accordingly started commercialisation of this idea in 2017-18,” says Mr. Dhas, whose parents worked on farms.
The challenge was dealing with a paucity of information on and the extent of farm mechanisation. Initially, Mr. Shinde tapped farmers in western Maharashtra owing to some degree of mechanisation there. “Even the executives of a tractor firm were unaware of what a tractor’s horsepower is,” said Mr. Shinde.
In the initial days, he went round ‘purchasing’ data from testing centres and collecting information about farmers from agricultural exhibitions. Later, he put up the consolidated data on the KhetiGaadi platform. “Today, more than 10,000 dealers and 6,500 service stations are associated with KhetiGaadi,” he said. Encouraging farmers to use technology-driven farm mechanisation products and optimum utilisation of technology in agricultural practices is KhetiGaadi’s mission.
The mobile app, available in 10 regional languages, has recorded more than three lakh installations till date. “All top 25 tractor manufacturers in the country, along with thousands of agricultural products are listed on the platform with all kinds of details. A farmer sitting in his village can request the price of any implement or equipment he wishes to use. For instance, if a farmer has a 50 HP tractor which has been used only for three months, he can list it on KhetiGaadi and get enquiries from interested parties,” said Mr. Dhas.
Given that the tractor industry is extremely price-sensitive, Mr. Shinde said the tractor market operates in a way where the dealer will not give the final price to the farmer unless he interacts directly with him.
“KhetiGaadi, which functions as a one-stop shop for agriculture equipment, can be a big help in this case as the farmer can get the lowdown on all agricultural products. Over and above this, if the farmer needs a demonstration or if he wishes the sales executive of a firm to contact him, he can do so through the app,” said Mr. Shinde.
As the agricultural implement market in India is fragmented, the benefit of this app is that it saves farmers the time for hunting implements, he said. “A major challenge in the scattered agriculture implement market in India concerns second-hand and used tractors. Each month, 2,000 to 2,500 tractors get sold in farmer-to-farmer transactions. In the rentals business, farmers require tractors for a specific time frame. So, KhetiGaadi provides for a direct farmer-to-farmer connect,” said Mr. Shinde.
With its larger objective of elevating the farmers’ standard of living by helping them make an informed choice, KhetiGaadi registered a gross merchandise value (GMV) of ₹50 crore in 2019. “Our GMV target by the end of 2021 is ₹100 crore. We are aiming at a GMV figure of ₹500 crore by 2025,” said Mr. Shinde.
