BharatAgri is an advisory-driven ecommerce platform that advises farmers in India on use of fertilizers and pesticides, irrigation schedules, and accurate seed selection. Most farmers in India depend on local retailers, not just for buying products, but also for advisory services. Retailers are often unqualified to give advice, and they are biased towards selling their own products. From a product standpoint, the retail market for farmers includes unbranded and counterfeit products, and has limited inventory of sustainable products. BharatAgri works to combat the overuse of chemical pesticides to reduce costs for farmers and improve soil and crop health. The platform promotes balanced nutrition, which includes the use of micronutrients, specialty nutrients, insect traps, and organic fertilizers. In order to ensure availability of such farming products, BharatAgri launched their own brand, Indian Farmer Company (IFC). Some of IFC’s top selling sustainable products include neem oil, insect sticky traps, and micronutrient mixtures.
By facilitating the replacement of pesticides with organic and sustainable products, BharatAgri is increasing yield and reducing costs for farmers, while also improving quality of produce. Crop yield has increased 20-60% and costs have dropped by 10-20% for the farmers utilizing their advisory services. Through this platform, 350k farmers have shifted to sustainable agriculture practices and 200k hectares are under sustainable cultivation, thus contributing to a 17 million kg reduction in chemical usage and 7.5 million megatons of GHG emissions avoided.
