Farming in India is a way of life for 58% of the population. India’s food and grocery market is the sixth largest in the world, and in the top 15 exporters of agricultural products with export values crossing $35bn last year. Over the years, technological advancements and interventions in agriculture have helped the sector remain competent and lucrative. The application of AI in agriculture is expected to further this growth curve in the coming years – government policies and increased FDI are opening the sector for technology-driven innovation.

In the past decade, India has witnessed a tremendous growth in the consumer internet sector, with more Indians turning to online retail and consumption. However, agriculture has not yet been able to benefit from this new-age digital revolution. And that’s what Sateesh Nukala and Sachin Nandwana are aiming to change with BigHaat.

“Typically, a farmer spends about 80% of his time and energy in pre-harvest activities – this includes planning for a crop, anticipating yield, structuring irrigation and pesticide etc. If this leg isn’t planned meticulously, it could adversely affect his post-harvest outcome and consequently, revenue. Most companies in India focus largely on post-harvest and this leaves the farmer largely under-served, and frankly, short-changed. We saw an opportunity in pre-harvest farming in India, and wanted to make a difference with AI.”

Founded in 2015, BigHaat leverages data science and AI to provide end-to-end crop advisory and digital marketplace for India’s farmers. With more than 4 million farmers having engaged on the platform since inception, BigHaat aims to engage with farmers through meaningful content, and a range of products that can greatly boost yield and revenue.

Nukala, who was born to a family of farmers in the Andhra Pradesh village of Peddapasapula, understands all too well the challenges of sustaining farming in India. Prior to taking the entrepreneurial plunge, Nukala worked at technology and engineering conglomerate Honeywell, where his work resulted in four patents in Application of Technology for Industrial Safety. Before he cofounded BigHaat, Nukala set up ATCS Labs which built India’s first smart irrigation controller to improve crop yield for farmers. He realised that the most sustainable and profitable approach to making farming lucrative was by building technology solutions.

“We wanted to bring data science, crop science and analytics to farming, and equipping the farmer an opportunity to improve his yield right from the planning stage,” adds Nukala. BigHaat’s end-to-end advisory guides farmers on vital parameters and decisions pertaining to his crop, and provides accurate data on crop health, soil health, pest infestations, weather patterns, irrigation methods and more. In addition, BigHaat provides farmers a wide range of quality inputs such as seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, nutrients and farm implements through a network of 200+ multinational and Indian agri-input manufacturers such as Corteva, Rallis India, Bayers, UPL, Mahyco, East West, and Escorts. Last November, Bayer CropScience signed a partnership with BigHaat to enable last-mile delivery of Bayer’s seeds and crop protection products to farmers directly in states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala. Nukala says, “We also have partnerships with banks like SBI and Bank of Baroda to help them deliver value-added services to their network of farmers.”

Last month, BigHaat released a comprehensive agri-input stack backed by the robust network of satellites, agronomists & farmers with an aim to deliver autonomous surveillance and crop care in real time, becoming the first such company to do so in the agri-tech sector. This facility allows the farmer visit their farm, click an image and upload via the ‘Crop Doctor’ feature of the BigHaat app. The AI technology then advises the best practices, most suitable inputs and offers dynamic assistance in real-time to the farmers. This unique approach is aimed towards automating crop care across India, giving the farmers a reliable full stack farm management approach. Nukala added, “This is the first time the Indian farmers will get the hands-on experience based on AI incorporating various data which includes satellite images, ground images, weather forecast, along with other sources and providing output without human intervention. This solution is expected to provide targeted solutions to farmers enabling them to use 20 to 40% lesser chemicals & 30 to 60% lesser water.”

In addition to providing a comprehensive agri tech stack, BigHaat is also keen on building a community for farmers based on knowledge sharing and experience building. The startup has connected its farmer community with Kisan Vedika, a social media facility for farmers where they can ask their queries in regional languages and expect end-to-end guidance. These are carefully crafted by their team of agri experts.

While COVID19 brought a fair share of hardships to farmers across India, BigHaat witnessed a sea change among the farming community towards their tech offerings. In the last year, the startup witnessed a 3x growth in revenue, a 5x increase in user engagement on the platform and services 50% of pincodes in India. Nukala says, “In the past year, farmers realized they couldn’t easily access retailers for advisory or inputs, and turned to our platform to continue the engagement. And the most encouraging part is, the engagement levels have only increased. We have a Monthly Active User count of 250,000 across 500,000 sessions and 1.5 million page views. Meaningful engagement with farmers, whilst providing them a digital marketplace, worked really well during COVID19.”

BigHaat plans to keep the momentum going, while exploring more strategic industry partnerships – they recently collaborated with Microsoft to build next-gen solutions for India’s farmers, and hope to become a key player in Indian agritech in the next five years.