Revolutionising Farming through Agronomic Intelligence

India is witnessing a rapid growth in agriculture technologies (AgriTech) thanks to numerous startups emerging with new technologies and advanced methods of cultivation. They use data analytics, machine learning and satellite imaging, among others to cater to the needs of Indian farmers and maximise their output.

In India, more than half the population, including 118.7 million farmers, is heavily dependent on agriculture as a primary source of income. However, agriculture is plagued by several malaises both man-made and natural such as unavailability of seeds, small and fragmented land-holdings, problems with Irrigation due to uncertain seasons, scarcity of capital etc. All this leaves the farmer with no option but to let his produce go at dirt cheap prices.

Under the circumstances, AgriTech is clearly one of the most needed industries in India and here is a list of top five AgriTech startups helping Indian farmers by providing agronomic intelligence.

1. Gramophone
The company is an intelligent farming platform providing agronomic intelligence to more than 550,000 farmers. Started in 2016 by Nishant Vats and Tauseef Khan, Gramophone is a one-stop e-commerce platform for farmers delivering agricultural inputs in more than 10,000 villages. It provides end-to-end solutions and services to the farming community enabling them to increase their income by giving them the right advice to go to the right market to sell the right products.

Gramophone’s services range from Super Safal Program providing farmers assistance for their crops from the scratch till the end of the harvest such as information about the seeds, required pesticides and crop nutrition, to Samridhi Kit, which is a natural kit containing all the microorganisms helping farmers with the nourishment of their soil.

The company has also set up Gram Uday centres in villages in order to support the disrupted rural supply chain. Over three rounds, the company has raised a total of $6M in funding.

2. Fasal
Founded by Shailendra Tiwari and Ananda Verma, Fasal helps farmers through its AI-powered platform which captures data on growing conditions real-time from on-farm sensors and delivers advisories on farm-specific, crop-specific actions to farmers via mobile in their native languages. Fasal is driven by Innovation. And they are on the quest to make precision agriculture accessible.

3. Bijak
Gurugram-based Bijak is helping rural traders and buyers with its digital e-commerce platform. It has created an electronic -marketplace for agricultural goods and commodities that connects thousands of farmers, traders and wholesalers. Currently, there are 30,000 active buyers and traders on the platform.

4. DeHaat
DeHaat is one of the fastest-growing start-ups in AgriTech sector providing end-to-end solutions and services to the farmers in India. Currently, they are operating in eastern India – Bihar, UP and Odisha – with 265,000 farmers in their service network with a goal to cater services to 5 million farmers by 2024.

DeHaat offer farmers a one-stop solution on crops to grow, how to grow and where to sell the products under one roof in an accessible and affordable way.

5. CropIn
CropIn is an intuitive, intelligent, self-evolving system that delivers future-ready farming solutions to the entire agricultural sector. They deliver decision-making tools that bring consistency, dependability and sustainability to agri-businesses. With capabilities of live reporting, analysis, interpretation and insight that span across geographies, CropIn is digitizing every farm, while data-managing the entire ecosystem.

CropIn smarter agri solutions are powered in real-time; for farmers to archive patterns, predict trends, to make a blueprint for farmer’s busiess in the times to come.