How Indore based Gramophone continues to empower farmers in India

Please tell us about the achievements/contributions of ICAR-CIFE since you took over in 2016.

Gramophone is building an Intelligent Farming Platform, which enables more than 550,000 farmers to increase their income. They provide Agronomic Intelligence and a convenience of delivery of Agri Inputs like seeds, crop protection & crop nutrition products.

They have delivered products in more than 10,000 villages and farmers are connected with on Gramophone multi lingual App across the country.

In order to support the disrupted rural supply chain, Gramophone has tied up with the local young rural entrepreneurs for last mile delivery which resulted in double business in last three months as compared to previous year.

Investment raised so far: The company has raised a total of $6M in funding over 3 rounds. In August 2019, it had raised Rs 24 crore ($3.5 million) in Series A funding from Info Edge, Raveen Sastry (Co-founder of Myntra.com), Asha Impact and Better Capital.  Info Edge is an existing investor in Gramophone, they had infused Rs 14 crore in April 2019 and Rs 6.4 crore ($1 million) Pre-Series A financing round in March 2018

Revenue model- They are a one stop e-commerce platform for farmers who are looking to buy agricultural inputs. The agronomy app is free for every famer to use

Problem being solved by Gramophone: It has been observed that the technology-based agriculture is being accepted by a lot of farmers. They are inclining towards connecting to the agtech companies as they get the right market to sell their products and being given the required advisory assistance. This has led to less crop failure, soil malnourishment. They get to know the exact amount of fertilizers that need to be given for their crops through just a click or a swipe on their phone. The agtech companies like gramophone are becoming a big support system for their consumers. They even have farm advisors at every Gram Uday centers that they have built in villages.

How many farmers Gramophone has till date?

550,000+ farmers Spike in revenue during covid: In spite of the operational challenges Gramophone is seeing a 200%+ upsurge in demand Impact in numbers on farmers yield during covid : 30%-40% yield improvement

How many villages are we connected to till date and which all areas?

We have delivered products in more than 10,000 villages and farmers are connected with us on Gramophone App across the country. It’s a multi lingual App.

What are Gramophone’s future plan (post covid)?

We will be launching credit products for the farmers which will increase the adoption levels, invest in technology and build our presence within 2 Mn+ farmers by the end of the year. We want to be the go to platform for all agriculture needs of the farmers.

Products

Farm Management: Gramophone’s Agronomy Intelligence Platform provides personalised solutions at the plot level of the farmer. We have created ‘Gram Salah’  which acts like a Crop Doctor, builds diagnosis and create as step by step guide for the the farmers right from sowing till harvest. We close the loop by delivering the products at the door step of the farmers through our Gram Konnect engine.

Productising Solutions: Agriculture is a complex process for farmers and building predictability & replicability takes time. With a strong technology backed solutions we are now converting complex problems like Soil management into Subscription based models where a farmer can access management techniques bundled in products like ‘Samriddhi Kits’ (Prosperity). This kit is natural and contains all the microorganisms which helps in the nourishment of soil. 

We are now monetising Agronomy by launching crop management programs like ‘Super Fasal Program’ which a farmer can access over Gramophone App. With a few data points around crop type, sowing date & land area coupled with our Crop Algos we personalise solutions for farmers at scale accommodating the variabilities of crop types, soil, weather and many more.

Building the Full Stack – Farm to Fork: Gramophone has tied up with the local young rural entrepreneurs, empowering them with tools to support the local farming. We have built a strong network to cater to the distributed demand & supply for agri inputs, with a Phy-gital approach. We are now using our direct to farmer reach and capability to forecast output supply at a micro-level to create market linkages for the farmer.

We already have sellers (farmers & Local Aggregators) on our platform, and are now working on a marketplace to bring the  buyers (Commission Agents, processors etc) to facilitate trade and give more options to farmers. This is in line with our mission to maximize farmers income, where we started with providing production benefits and are now closing the loop to become a Technology led ‘Farm to Fork’ platform.