DeHaat, touted as one of many quickest rising startups within the Agri Tech sector, has been a lot in information because it raised $115-mn in a Series D spherical from Sofina, Lightrock and Temasek final 12 months, inching nearer to turning into a Unicorn. This was adopted by a thrust into exports and the output vertical with the strategic acquisition of YCook and Helicrofter that’s offering vital value advantages to farmers, together with entry to world markets.
One of the explanations behind the success of this agri-tech participant – based by alumni of IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, IIM Ahmedabad and different high establishments – has been its even handed use of know-how to assist farmers. “We have been focused on resolving issues of the Indian farming ecosystem by the use of technology, bringing together the entire basket of agricultural value chain offerings under one umbrella. We have been able to build the largest full-stack agro-tech platform in India (beej se bazaar tak),” says its senior vice-president of know-how, Balaya Moharana.
India’s agriculture sector is more and more embracing know-how. Besides the mechanisation of farming, IT penetration within the agriculture sector is occurring at a number of ranges. “The application of cutting-edge IT can address most of the issues farmers face today – soil quality, need for advisory and financing, supply chain gaps, as well as sustainability,” Moharana says.
DeHaat, whose journey began in 2012, realised fairly early that Indian farmers wanted a full-stack agri-tech platform that might carry collectively the complete basket of agricultural worth chain choices beneath a unified umbrella. It first employed its enterprise mannequin in Bihar and has since efficiently scaled to 11 states, constructing a community with over 8,000 micro entrepreneurs and serving 12 lakh+ farmers. Its workforce has grown to over 1,800 professionals, with experience in progress technique, provide chain administration, know-how and agricultural science.
Some of the main technological options DeHaat has constructed are round credit score/finance, insurance coverage bundling of merchandise, and data-driven farming strategies. Take, for example, farm financing. In the absence of formal credit score, farmers have needed to depend on casual credit score sources. It’s an enormous downside, not one straightforward to deal with. So how is DeHaat making a change right here?
“This goes back to the time when we started building an on-ground retailer network and then digitised the entire operations by using point-of-sale terminal devices to capture all operational data. This helped us build a scoring mechanism that provides accurate profile parameters for the rural credit system to work – in terms of financing the right set of services and tools rather than providing cash directly to the farmer,” says Moharana.
Data-driven farming has not taken off in India but. “So, we identify the right innovation happening in the sector by using a platform-driven approach. Instead of having everything in-house, we invite third parties, experts, small startups, etc. that are doing commendable work, making use of the offerings which are most scalable and affordable,” he says. “The focus is on creating an open platform to provide farmers the best personalised advisory. We help farmers access multiple data sources based on their inputs to predict stress, and offer them solutions to combat it.”
Since agriculture has its dangers, reasonably priced insurance coverage could make a big distinction to the farmer, says Moharana. “Though insurance schemes are mandatory for farmers as per government rules, very few farmers are aware of the same, and able to enroll themselves to avail the benefits. We realised that a better way to design an insurance product for farmers is to bundle it with the inputs he is buying.”
In brief, empowering farmers with technology-based instruments has helped them predict climate patterns extra precisely, undertake extra sustainable irrigation practices, cut back wastage and, in flip, take pleasure in higher yields and better incomes, he provides.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”