These 5 startups are increasing agriculture productivity through soil testing
The Indian agriculture sector is one of the most critical sectors in India. Today, with the use of technology, it is possible for businesses to be more profitable, efficient, safer, and more environmentally friendly. In modern agriculture, soil testing has become the most important practice to manage fertiliser application and crop production. However, it is difficult to extend this strategy throughout India because of the lack of testing facilities, farmers’ lower level of awareness, and logistical and operational costs.
By assisting farmers with testing their soil and incorporating the results into their farming techniques, modern companies have been attempting to address the issue of declining soil health. With their Farm Management Services, AgriTechs fills the position of a doctor that is now vacant.
It is crucial to determine the health of the topsoil, not just on a physical level but also so it can be used properly. In the past decade, we have seen the growth of the Indian agri sector through startups making seasonal weather predictions, soil testing and mapping, water management and tracking, pre-harvest crop advisory and drone technology-based farming. These practical steps are enabling farming to be more sustainable and resource-sparing while also increasing production output with few environmental impacts.
This has led to an increase in startups focusing on improving productivity through affordable soil testing and drought-resistant crops, which can help increase agricultural productivity.
Founding year: 2016
Founders Name: Tauseef Khan,Nishant Vats, Harshit Gupta
Link: http://www.gramophone.in
Started in 2016 by Tauseef Khan, Gramophone is a one-stop e-commerce platform for farmers delivering agricultural inputs. Gramophone offers end-to-end solutions and services to the farming community in India, enabling them to raise their revenue by providing them with the proper guidance on where to sell their commodities and in which markets to go. Farmers have seen a 50–60% boost in income due to the platform. The business focuses on the agri value chain and goes deep into each market and district. Gramophone has been assisting farmers with soil testing and incorporating the results into their farming operations in an effort to solve the issue of declining soil health. A farmer can order a soil test through IVR, phone call, or app, and the entire process is scalable. A representative then takes the sample, tests it, delivers the results, and finishes. For the farmers, this integrated method streamlines the procedure and boosts productivity sustainably. Their offerings also range from Super SafalProgram, which offers farmers support for their crops from the beginning to the end of the harvest, including information about the seeds, necessary pesticides, and crop nutrition, to SamridhiKit, a natural kit containing all the microorganisms aiding farmers with the nutrient-uptake of their soil.
The company is currently connected with 1.6+ million farmers and is currently available in MP, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and UP and is planning to launch in other cities soon. Gramophone has raised $17.9M in funding over 6 rounds. In addition, Gramophone provides a mobile app, village representatives, and retail locations for inquiries on any agricultural service.
Founding year: 2018
Founders Name: Shailendra Tiwari and Ananda Verma
Link: https://fasal.co
Founded by Shailendra Tiwari and Ananda Verma, Fasal supports farmers with its AI-powered platform, which collects data on growth conditions in real-time from on-farm sensors and notifies farmers in their local languages via mobile of recommendations for actions relevant to their farms and crops. Fasal is presently operating in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other markets. Fasal is driven by innovation with a quest to make precision agriculture accessible.
Founding year: 2017
Founders Name: Sandeep Kondaji
Link: https://krishitantra.com
Based in Hyderabad, Krishitantra was co-founded in 2017 by Sandeep Kondaji, Dr. Vishnuprasada Bhat, and Anand Bellan Raman.“Krishitantra”, leading soil data & health company, to help farmers and the Agricultural value chain to become more profitable and sustainable with their cutting edge technology. For the whole B2B ecosystem in the agricultural input segment, including Agri loan and insurance, krishitantra has developed indigenous state-of-the-art soil testing solutions together with API. Their goal is to create a soil map of the nation and empower farmers with good agricultural practices.
Rapid Automated Soil Testing and Agronomy Advisory, or KrishiRASTAA, is a portable and trustworthy method to assess soil quality. With the interpretation of the soil analysis, farmers can now receive their soil report promptly. This system is portable and operates with no special knowledge. The system is a cloud-based interpretation and creates reports.
Founding year: 2012
Founders Name: Shashank Kumar
Link: https://agrevolution.in/
DeHaat was founded in 2012 by Shashank Kumar and Amrendra Singh to provide agricultural services such as agrarian economic inputs such as seeds and fertilisers, individualised guidance, soil testing, weather updates, microfinance, and insurance. It is one of the fastest-growing start-ups in the Agritech sector, providing end-to-end solutions and services to the farmers in India. Currently, they are operating in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha with 650,000farmers in their service network with a goal to cater services to five million farmers by 2024.
The company, runs a hotline for farmers, and also has an Android app with the same name available in other languages. They are developing AI-enabled technology to change the farm sector’s supply chain and production efficiency.
Founding year: 2019
Founders Name: Mashrur H Shurid, Mohammad Saifullah Mithu
Link: http://www.ipageglobal.com
Mashrur H Shurid,Mohammad Saifullah Mithu & ENG Imitiaz Hossain Nisat identified three interconnected pain points of farmers, information gap on modern farming & technology, market demand, and lack of market access. Integrated Precision Agriculture & Engineering (iPAGE), is an Agritech startup working to eradicate information imparity and deliver value-added data to the farmers and relevant stakeholders in the agricultural industry.
IPAGE started its journey by focusing on giving farmers a better understanding of their soil and educating them for effective cultivation. Being an impact enterprise, their business organisation believes in the Global Village concept where we all shall be responsible to take care of the planet we live on. They are currently developing an Artificially Intelligent agrarian information system. With the help of their soil testing device and site-specific advisory, it enables farmers to understand the local market demand and produce accordingly.
