By Srinath Srinivasan
Mumbai-based GreenSat aims to address the 4 pillars of the farming sector—the farmer, the purchaser, the banker and the insurer, by way of its technologies platform. The platform processes and gives satellite information, like pictures, geo, meteorological and other crucial information valuable for farmers. The startup has partnered with a host of observatories to procure precise pictures and information for precision farming. “Once the farmer signs up on the platform, every 15 days we offer him detailed reports having satellite images of the farm, weather conditions, health of the soil, what to sow and how to address various problems in the area for better outcomes, for free,” says Deepak Yadav, founder, GreenSat Innovation Labs.
The platform also has features to simplify credit requires for the farms. “If the farmer presses the credit button, all of his details, including credit score, are sent to the lenders we have partnered with. In addition, we also connect the farmers to the sellers who are on our platforms,” adds Yadav. GreenSat has also carried out pilot testing to bring in recycled waters to the platform for irrigation purposes at a pretty much less price. “This is especially cost-effective in water starved areas. Our first focus is rural farmers. We plan to offer this service to the pharmaceutical industry which consumes a lot of water,” says Yadav. The reports also support monetary institutions on the platform to preserve historical information and provide credits and services accordingly.
“Satellite images and associated data is the cheapest and accurate. Any other hardware to do aerial imaging becomes costly,” says Yadav. The platform makes use of Experian credit scores at the moment but is creating a 360-degree formula for providing credit scores to farmers.
“The traditional methods do not consider loan waivers that the farmers get. Even after a loan waiver, the credit score of the farmer does not reflect it for a long time. We will give a holistic view of the farmer’s background and will not make it look like a recommendation to lenders,” says Yadav. He adds that wilful defaulters are only a tiny percentage and most of the farmers have genuine motives behind defaulting and that the credit report must reflect this specifically.
GreenSat is also into contract farming for leafy perishable crops so that the farmers do not get locked into a contract. “We lease unused land from farmers and manage fluctuations in price. The farmers are free to sell their produce anywhere,” says Yadav. For other crops, it procures from the farmers straight and supplies to the industry. “In the last two months of the lockdown we sold 600-700 tonnes of produce in the Mumbai and Pune region via contract farming to a couple of food aggregators. We continue to expand this to a few other cities,” adds Yadav.
Currently, there are more than 10,000 farmers on the platform. The firm is also bootstrapped and remains lucrative.