At a time when small farmers are harried by the increasing costs of agriculture inputs and fuel prices, two agri-entrepreneurs, both sons of farmers from western Maharashtra, have developed a free knowledge-based advisory platform aimed at boosting farm produce while maintaining soil health at the same time.
Pravin Shinde and Vishnu Dhas, co-founders and directors of the ‘KhetiGuru’ platform, aim to empower small-scale farmers with the right knowledge and technology - right from land preparation to the harvesting stages - to boost crop production.
The platform, which was launched earlier this month, focuses on crop nutrition and is intended as a ‘preventive’ rather than ‘curative’ resource by staving-off crop damage from pests and diseases to help the farmer achieve higher yields.
“KhetiGuru has an expert team of 50 agronomists to seamlessly provide advisory services. They will support needy farmers, right from land preparation to the various stages of the crop life cycle, be it sowing, flowering, fruiting, or harvesting, in addition to recommending various unique products developed by KhetiGuru,” says Mr. Shinde, who hails from an agricultural family in Satara district.
Since KhetiGuru is focused on crop nutrition and health, there will be reduced use of chemical-based pesticides aiming to increase soil health.
From ‘KhetiGaadi’ to ‘KhetiGuru’
The idea for this platform has not come out of the blue: In 2016, the duo had launched ‘KhetiGaadi’ - an agricultural version of OLX - which for the first time, created an online eco-system for farm mechanization in India.
The platform, which gives farmers various product options with detailed specifications to buy, sell and rent agricultural equipment, is changing the face of farm mechanization in India. It has already registered a gross merchandise value (GMV) of ₹1,200 crore in 2019 in 2021-22.
“The tremendous response to the KhetiGaadi initiative, which is being currently used by over 50 lakh farmers across India and which addresses the challenges faced by India’s slow rate of farm mechanization, caused us to think seriously about the problems associated with crop damage,” says Mr. Shinde.
According to Mr. Dhas, KhetiGuru, like KhetiGaadi, aims to “profoundly disrupt the agriculture services sector.”
“While the current industry’s focus is on offering post-disease damage solutions, we want to be ahead of them by focusing on prevention of crop damage, be they from pests or diseases. KhetiGuru will offer free advisory services by qualified Agronomists, at a time when the agri-industry charges farmers anywhere between Rs. 1,200 and Rs. 4,000 per year,” says Mr. Dhas, whose parents worked on farms.
In order to address the issues faced by farmers, KhetiGuru offers special kits for various stages of the crop cycle such as an Alawani kit for drenching, a ‘growth special’ kit, a flowering kit, a drip special kit, a pH balance and activator kit among other products.
“With KhetiGuru, we intend to provide full-stack service to farmers, from land preparation to sowing to vegetation to the pre- harvesting and harvesting stage, aimed at maximizing their crop production by focusing on preventive care. Farmers can also take benefits of specially designed kits for specific crops including banana, sugarcane, paddy, soybean, onion and tur,” said Mr. Shinde.
As in the case with KhetiGaadi, the duo, during their interactions with farmers over the past few years had come to the conclusion that the lack of proper technology, know-how, and awareness were the prime reasons hamstringing maximum crop yield, especially in the case of smaller farmers subject to environmental vagaries.
“After working closely with farmers, we find that deteriorating soil health, owing to misuse of chemicals through fertilizers, weedicides, fungicides, and pesticides. Additionally, there is the increasing cost of agricultural inputs and most importantly, farmers are not getting the right guidance and advice on various aspects of the crop cycle, hence the end result is disappointing,” Mr. Dhas says.
A watchword of the KhetiGuru platform is to wean the farmer away from indiscriminate use of pesticides to help him maintain soil health.
“To this end, we have developed 62 crop nutrition and crop booster products which have been successfully used by 1,000 farmers as a pilot thus far. The growth and flowering products have been built on nano-technology and come in 1 gm packs for a one-acre crop,” says Mr. Dhas.
Additionally, farmers can get required tools, seeds, fertilizers and crop protection nutrition products home-delivered through the KhetiGuru app. The app is available on Play Store.
