Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture | Hacker News Reader

Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

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40 pointsadi_agarwalla32 comments

Co-founder Aditya here. I'd love to answer any questions you may have, so please free to fire them my way!

The reason why we decided to build this is because the agricultural market in India is plagued by a middleman driven inefficient physical system where farmers do not have a say in the crop sale process. This is different from how the industry works in the US. But the fact is that in India, a huge majority (~85%) of farmers are small and marginal and therefore, have to deal with this system.

I've had something like this in my mind for quite a while now! I know what the situation is like because I've first-hand knowledge of all the trials and tribulations farmers in India go through when it comes to selling their produce. Already, irregular rainfall makes their lives miserable!

Yes, farmers in general and especially in India face numerous challenges. From our own interactions with them, we found this to be their major one as it is directly linked to their livelihood and the income they make.

According to that article, you take care of sorting & processing of the produce. Doesn't it take a lot of investment to start something like that? Seems you would need a big hygienic facility for this. And the logistics of moving the produce from remote villages to your facility and then from there to the buyer..doesn't that take a fleet of trucks? And finally, how exactly are you different from the existing middlemen? I don't quite get the advantage of a custom built platform when you still have to act as the middleman between the seller and the buyer. In the most extreme case, couldn't you just do it through Whatsapp?

Thanks for the questions. We have designed our own cost effective mechanisms to handle the costs that you mentioned. We are a facilitator, not a middleman.

Great Idea. All the best.

- What's the cut your company is taking?

- Is pricing transparent to farmers?

The cut depends on the crop and even specific varieties within the crop.

Yes, pricing is transparent to farmers.

I've been tinkering with the idea of improving the agriculture situation in India. Though my idea was from a production side (large-scale hydroponics to lower cost via economies of scale and reduced transport cost). It didn't seem as feasible in the near future, but I love your idea! I'd be happy to talk with you as I'm curious about a few things and even see how I can help out!

PS: Born and raised from India now living in SF.

Yes, a lot more needs to be done for this sector. But as you observed, a part of it does require a lot of input, in terms of capital and time.

Are you addressing Price Controls on Agri products? What are the plans or steps to improve farm to market and/or market to storage, if any?

Just like other marketplaces, price is decided by market conditions. But where we come in is that unlike the physical marketplaces where auctions are the way crops are sold, on Kisan Network, the farmer gets a value depending on the quality of his produce.

We aren't looking at the storage aspect yet.

How realtime is pricing? And how do take care of verification of buyers and quality?

(congrats on the launch this seems a huge problem!)

Pricing is usually fixed for a 2-3 day period. Generally, market fluctuations take place outside of this.

For the crops, our team ensures that the quality requirements for buyers are met. As for the buyers themselves, ensuring they meet our requirements is taken care of during the on boarding process itself.

Thanks - good luck with it!

Congratulations on tackling a big problem. Couple of questions:

Do you have any plans to achieve FairTrade status for international buyers?

Could you imagine making transaction records on the platform available to help smallholders get finance at more affordable rates when needed at some stage in future?

Currently, we haven't started looking at international buyers. So unfortunately, I can't answer that as of today.

The second aspect is something we have definitely thought about and which does hold a lot of value as we move forward. Great to see that you mentioned it as this is a problem many farmers do face.

Why YC?

A couple of major reasons. There are so many aspects of a startup that go beyond where you are operating and the kind of market you are targeting. YC's advice with these matters is very valuable. They have started accepting international companies as well recently, which is a good sign.

Finally, the value of the YC network including its very strong alumni can never be quantified.

Are you guys hiring ?

You can reach us at founders@kisannetwork.in!

Hey Ditty (can I call you Ditty?), great work. Truly impressed. I've been a social entrepreneur myself for many a year (since I was 18, so 2 years ago), so it's always great to see fellow entrepreneurs tackling the problems that define our time.

Two questions, one technical, one not. Do you guys use a microservices architecture on the backend? And if not, why not? Also, what is your MBTI (Meyers-Brigg personality type)?

Best, J

Nothing like that as we don't need one!

As for MBTI, mine is ENTJ.

So, why is your website - http://kisannetwork.in/ devoid of any link to access this market place that you speak of ..?

  - No App Download link
  - No Telephone numbers toll free or otherwise
  - No product listing, (items, prices etc.) on the website
  - Just one email address to buy from farmers on your platform

Thanks for the question. We are currently in public beta in only one location in the country and as a result, the marketplace isn't live for everyone to be able to use. But, we are expanding this year to more locations in the country!

This require advertisement and trust from farmers; I had similar idea but with co-operative way .

Good luck and how do you handle issues like trade unions etc?

Yes, trust from farmers is extremely important. Maybe the most important aspect here and we work daily to ensure and build that.

We haven't faced those sort of issues yet.

Making my first HN comment to say thank you for creating something like this!

I come from a farmer family. Sustaining is very hard for small farmers because middlemen make most of the profit in the current system (then there are pests and unpredictability of price/rain etc to deal with).

Best of luck!

Thanks a lot. You are very right in saying that middlemen make most of the profit in this industry and we are trying our best to ensure that both end buyers and sellers get the best deal possible because of the efficiency we bring into the system.

I wish you best. Really, awesome work. I deeply appreciate your efforts to challenge this gigantic problem.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Great work Aditya!

Amazing work man!

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