Now, an App to provide services to farmers

Patna: A group of young entrepreneurs from Bihar and Jharkhand, hailing from premier institutions like IITs and IIMs, have opened the doors of modern technologies like mobile application for tillers to help them improve crop cultivation and get access to bigger markets.
Through an App titled “DeHaat”, these young professionals are providing end-to-end services to farmers on various issues, including choice of crops to be grown, fertilisers and insecticides to be used among others.
Shashank Kumar, an alumnus of IIT Delhi and a native of Patna along with few friends including Shyam Sundar from IIT Kharagpur, Amrendra Singh from NIT-Jamshedpur, Adarsh Srivastav from ISM Dhanbad and Abhishek Dokania from IIPM-Delhi set up the firm Green Agrevolution Pvt. Ltd. in 2011, which launched the DeHaat app in 2014.
Initially, the App was mostly used by micro entrepreneurs at DeHaat centres in villages. The farmers enrol with these centres and get access to all benefits of the App, besides getting logistical support. As on date, around 10,200 farmers are associated with 30 DeHaat centres opened across the state.
Taking a step ahead, the DeHaat team launched a newer version of the App on October 1, which can be easily operated by farmers as well. “The App was launched by Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh. It is being used by farmers in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha at present and we aim to enrol 3 lakh tillers within the next two years,” said Shashank.
On the benefits of DeHaat app, Shashank said, “We have tie-ups with around 400 firms, including ITC, Reliance, Godrej and ITC among others. Based on the tie-ups, we provide better agricultural inputs on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and fungicides to the farmers. Besides, the tillers also get access to a global market for their produce through our App.”
“Experts at our offices in Patna and Gurgaon also provide customised crop advisory to the farmers. In most cases, the farmers are able to increase their returns by 50% owing to the benefits of DeHaat,” he added.
Shashank claimed that apart from the services being offered through DeHaat at present, his firm intends to include crop insurance and credit facilities as well for farmers in the near future.
“We have set up complete supply chain for a number of agricultural products, including maize, paddy, wheat, crude mentha oil, makhana, litchi, mango and seasonal vegetables. Our firm operates a 250 metric tonne cold chain to improve shelf life of crops, fruits and vegetables. We are also involved in integrated allied activities such as beekeeping,” said Shashank.