Farmers get 'APP'Y

A routine visit to his village in Chhattisgarh changed Yogesh Sahu’s outlook towards his daily serving of rice and dal. He saw sacks of food grain being left to rot on the roadside languishing since it didn’t reach the right market.

The 37-year-old software engineer, however, looked at this incident from a larger point of view, and realised the issue of disparity in the demand-supply chain of the surplus affecting the farmers.

“I learned that farmers take their products only upto the local mandi (market), or end up selling within their societies at throwaway prices. This happens because they don’t have the medium to sell their products,” says Yogesh.

“A farmer is dependent on middlemen to take his product to the market since he doesn’t have access to easy transport. In return, he gets less money for his produce.”

As he mulled over the problem back in Mumbai, Yogesh wanted to end this gap and help farmers gain profit for their hard work. He quickly joined hands with another engineer friend, Rajnish Bajpai, who lived in the US, and created the concept of SmartGaon in August last year.

“While I wanted to do something about the foodgrain being wasted, Rajnish was keen on making the villages smarter. That’s how Rajnish and I got together,” smiles Yogesh, adding that both men juggled their day jobs while building this platform.

They look to expand the concept and start an NGO with the same name. So far the two have a website and an application, which gives farmers an easy access to the market. And to get a better hold of the situation, and understand the root cause of the demand-supply problem, the duo visited farmers in several villages of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

The duo learnt the fact that farmers were unable to increase their profits. It didn’t help that the farmers hadn’t harnessed technology optimally.

“There is minimal awareness. We soon realised if the right techniques and technologies are offered to them, they can gain profit in a fluid manner. And that became the basis of our app, where we tell these farmers about the latest technologies and government schemes,” he adds.

The SmartGaon app, available both in Hindi and English, comprises four features and is currently running a successful pilot project in Taudhakpur village in UP. SmartGaon, Yogesh explains, doesn’t just brings retailers to a farmers’ doorstep, but also gets them in direct touch with agriculture experts.

“We release regular notifications about government subsidies and programmes that farmers don’t have access to otherwise. There is also the village mart tab, expert help and mental health support for them. If they have an issue with their crops, they can click a picture, upload it to the app and have experts get in touch with them,” he lists.

The developers have also gotten professors from top colleges on board to help farmers with their queries. So far, an excited Yogesh informs us, the village mart tab on the app has been a hit with farmers in the Taudhakpur region.

The feature gets participating farmers to fill in information about themselves, as well as about their products. This, in turn, is visible to retailers, who directly get in touch with the farmers, creating a farm-to-market space.

However, the larger issue that the duo is glad to address the mental health of the farmers.

“We all come across instances of farmer suicides in the news. Through this app, we hope to make farmers understand that they are important. We got experts on board, who keep them motivated. It is important for us to let them know their hardwork is appreciated,” he says.

Yogesh is also of the belief that better transparency in the chain of transportation of farm produce to the market will ensure that the Indian farmers will flourish.

“This app is but a medium where a lot of facilities are integrated on one platform for the farmers,” he smiles.

Now that their pilot project in UP has been doing well, the duo is planning to take the app to every village in India.

“By 2018, we plan to cover 10 villages in UP and 20 villages in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, each,” beams Yogesh.