Submitted by GROUP 1D

Mid-Term Review

Story of Kisan Network

Kisan Network is the culmination of 51-year-old Sanjay Agarwalla and his 22-year-old son
Aditya who have spent thinking about the problem’s farmers in rural India face when it comes
to selling their goods. And the problem buyers have sourcing quality ingredients.

For the Agarwallas, the conversation began when Aditya returned home to New Delhi over
Thanksgiving break in 2014 from Princeton. Over the vacation, he and his father struck up a
conversation about the endemic problems plaguing the rural Indian countryside. A distributor
for major Western brands looking to expand into the Indian countryside, Sanjay Agarwalla had
first-hand knowledge of the problems as being engaged with World Bank.

The Agarwallas embarked on a trip themselves to talk to farmers around the country about the
problems of lack of awareness. The way the industry has grown in the physical radius around
their village, farmers are not aware of the best price for their goods. With no sense of the value
of their crops beyond the confines of the region, farmers were forced to take the prices that the
middlemen set with little room for barter. Even at a local level there are not just one but two to
three middle men involved, according to Aditya as many of these villages are 50 to 100 KM
away from the city which means more middle men.

Kisan Network wanted to be the logistics provider and central marketplace for a large
percentage of all of that produce. None of what the Agarwallas have envisioned for Kisan
Network would be possible without the ubiquitous presence of the smart phone and the
increasingly networked Indian countryside. The application can run on cheap smart phones and
is simple to use. A farmer can upload their crops and advertise on the Kisan Network for free.
They enter the crops they have and the price they want for them, and Kisan Network will reach

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out to buyers to find a match. The company has local ambassadors at the village level who
work with farmers to determine when they intend to harvest.

Kisan Network matches the farmer with a buyer and then tells the farmer to harvest the
produce. The company sorts, grades, processes and ships the produce to buyers (which range
from small and medium-sized businesses, to single restaurants, to industrial snack makers.
They are making use of previous year data for forecasting and trend analysis. Kisan Network
has managed to grow quickly over the last few years. It has managed to onboard over 55,000
farms across more than 6,000 villages in India. The company said it has helped facilitate the
sale of produce that has travelled 275,000 kms over 65 unique routes. Kisan Network has raised
$3 million in a fresh round of funding led by Mistletoe’s Atsushi Taira.

State of Agriculture in India

The Indian agriculture sector contributes 18% to the GDP and is the source of livelihood for
58% of the total population of the country. The agricultural productivity in India is quite low
and the sectors is facing several other problems also. Other problems in the agricultural sector
are obsolete/traditional farming technology, overdependence on traditional crops, small land
holding, etc.

One of the major problems in the agricultural sector is supply chain bottlenecks and lack of
market understanding. Due to the unavailability of proper marketing channels, farmers are
often bound to sell their produce through middlemen which limits their income. Farmers
continue to suffer as the majority of the profit is taken by the middlemen and the farmers are
exploited. Kisan Network is trying to reduce this problem by enabling farmers to have full
control over selling their produce directly with no involvement of middlemen. They aim at
providing a transparent market and making digital payments during sales.

Over the years, few measures have been taken by the government to eliminate the
middlemen. The government introduced Minimum Support Price to secure farmers from a
sharp fall in prices of agricultural produce during the bumper production. MSP ensures that
the farmers do not fall victim to distress sales and guarantee a minimum price that will be
offered by the government.

Another major intervention by the government is the introduction of APMCs (Agricultural

Produce Market Commodities) to guard the farmers against the middlemen. However, it is
claimed that the APMCs have had fallen prey to the habits they were supposed to mend. The

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APMC act banned both unregulated and some regulated markets, thereby reducing the chance
of better prices for the farmers. Similarly, trade cartelization is common in APMCs there
reducing the purpose for which APMCs were made

Need for private players in this domain (WIP)

• Capital - Infuse capital via investments and loans. Innovative financial products such
as agriculture bonds suited to Indian markets

• Technology - Development and access to technology, such as high- quality seeds and
better farm equipment. R&D for farming practices, Agro-inputs and use of
biotechnology throughout the production cycle

• Infrastructure - Development of critical infrastructure, such as irrigation, cold

storage chains, communication and transportation

• Access To market - Provide direct access to markets to reduce dependence on

intermediaries. Assure purchase of produce through contract farming.

• Operational Expertise - Bring sector-specific expertise and best practices to improve

efficiency in agricultural activities.

• Bargaining power – It would enhance the bargaining power of the farmers with their
produces.

Detail on major competitors

Waycool is India’s fastest growing food distribution company that has a network for 35,000
farmers across vegetables, fruits, rice, pulses and other food products. It was established in
July 2015 with the aim of fixing the disorganized perishable supply chain. They have a retail
presence, currently present in Chennai through the brand SunnyBee, operating retail stores,
mobile stores on trucks, as well as e- commerce.. The start-up has raised a total funding of
$23.6 million. It has $2 million estimated revenue annually.
Cofarm is a website that was founded by Prashant Jain and Varun Khurana in May 2016
and is an F2B i.e. Farm to Business venture. Their platform has over 32,000 farmers on
their network and have also partnered with Reliance Retail, Big Basket, Grofers, Big Bazar,
Jubilant Foodworks and Metro Foods. The startup generates revenue through commission.
Starting from nearly 5% of the price in case of less perishables, like onions and potato,
around 15% of the price of green vegetables, and 20-25% in case of fruits and exotics. This

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agriculture startup has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from investors like Mukul Singhal
and Rohit Jain, former Principals at SAIF Partners.
AgricxLab is a Thane-based online B2B platform founded by Ritesh Dhoot and Saurabh

Kumar for connecting cold storage owners with bulk buyers for agri-products. They use

smartphone imaging to assess the quality of Agri-produce through its mobile app which uses

artificial intelligence and computer vision to on images to yield objective, accurate and faster

quality assessment of agri-produce. Agricx offers solutions to warehouses and enterprise

clients with a plan to expand across the food produce supply chain. The startup has raised a

total funding of $500K from various investors, including Ankur Capital.

NinjaCart provides an Agri-marketing platform that lets the farmers sell their fresh produce

directly to retailers, restaurants. Ninjacart addresses-cutting out the middlemen from the

supply chain. In the last one year, it focussed on building a cost-efficient, reliable and

scalable supply chain that can handle 300+ tonnes a day. It moves 60+ tonnes of produce a

day from farm to store in less than 14 hours at a cost lower than traditional supply chains. As

a result, it helps over 2,000 farmers to sell more than 80 vegetables and fruits every day to

800+ retailers and restaurants in Bengaluru and claims to have less than 4% wastage in the

entire supply chain. This agritech start-up was founded by Thirukumaran Nagarajan,

Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran K K, Sachin Jose, and Sharath Loganathan in July 2015,

with its headquarter in Bengaluru. Till date, Ninjacart has raised $164.2 million from Tiger

Global Management, Accel, Qualcomm Ventures and Steadview Capital.

Kamatan works with farmer produce organisations (FPOs) to source produce for direct
supply to agricultural enterprises, processors and retailers. Kamatan helps these FPOs in
procuring, storing, quality control and logistics. Kamatan, through its partner FPOs, also
assists farmers with the implementation of best practices in grading and sorting as well as
value adding activities like drying, cleaning and packaging, which can help reduce wastage
and match the demands of institutional buyers to enable farmers to realise a significantly
higher value for their produce. Global investment fund invested £1.6 million in 2020.
Ninjacart, Waycool and Jumbotail alone have raised $252 million in funding, out of $301
million in total funding that has gone into start-ups in this segment.

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Acceptance of farmers for these players (WIP)

• Variation of farm produce price – Would analyse the price obtained from Agri-
startup and wholesaler to analyse the impact of intervention.
• Reach – The acceptance depends on overall penetration by start-ups to reach the rural
India and solve the concerns of market linkage.

• Production – Would analyse the increase in production of vegetables and fruits in

areas of start-ups intervention zone. This would help us analyse if impact is
sustainable for longer period or just fag.
• Revenue of startup – Would analyse the revenue of individual startup to obtain if
their business is flourishing or degrading.
• Social impact on farmers.

How is Kisan Network similar to or different than their competitors?

Similarity:
• Kisan Network was founded in 2015. Kisan Network’s most of the competitor came
into existence during the same time i.e. 2015.

• Mostly all the competitors are into B2B sales.

• Mostly deal with the same commodities i.e. fruits and vegetables.

• All have the similar objective i.e. to eliminate the middle men and reduce farmers
exploitation.

Differences:
• Unlike other competitors, Kisan Network does not build a supply chain. It functions
mainly through an app, help farmer make a deal with the customer and help the
product reach to the customer. It provides assistance in grading, sorting and
transportation. While other competitors along with providing technical assistance to
the farmers, set up collection centres, distributors centres, perform forecasting etc.
They differ in terms of market reach, investment and funding. Core values of Kisan
Network are

• To ensure transparent pricing to the farmers

• Quality assessment and constant availability for the customer

• 100% traceability assured to the customer

• Treat Farmer as a businessman

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Value Created by Kisan Network for the farmers (beyond right price for
their produce) (WIP)
It is a well-known fact that farmers are not able to get the best price for their produce. Apart
from this there are various problems that farmers are exposed to. They are as follows

• Raising input and labour cost

• Labour shortage
• Limited knowledge of best markets and prevailing rates
• High transportation charges
• Delayed payments
• Exploitation by the middlemen
• And certainly not the best price for their produce

All the above factors lead the farmer on the weaker end of negotiation and with low
bargaining power with the farmer. Kisan Network functions as a digital mandi eliminating the
need for the middlemen between the farmers and buyer. This helps them to yield better prices
for their produce. It generates trust among the farmers by farmers due to cash payments done
by Kisan Network and also by providing a platform to compare the prices with the ongoing
mandi rates. Apart from this Access to information - market prices, detailed crop quality
reports, transportation rates and every other minute detail that makes a crop sale possible. All
of these are readily made available to a Kisan Network farmer, and resources to act on the
information — via Kisan Network’s PAN India farmer to business supply chain that brings
together all stakeholders (such as buyers, transporters and packaging partners) on one
platform. Logistics to transport goods are provided by the Kisan network. This ensures that
the farmer doesn't need to leave the farm and the buyer doesn't need to leave his factory. Data
and process driven standardization including the use of Computer Vision is used to remotely
assess physical quality characteristics of crops. Convenience for both the buyer and the
supplier is provided is ensured by such processes in place. Kisan Network also enhances the
farmers selling experience by treating the farmer as an entrepreneur