Anyone would agree that Indian agriculture is one of the most disorganized and challenging sectors without a second thought. Domination of middlemen, irrigation problems, wide use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, high cost of cultivation and customer reluctance to buy organic products due to higher prices heats up the arena further. But at the same, in contrary to its challenges, it has to be specified that if nurtured well, anyone can reap a good profit out of this field. Then, where does the gap lie? Same question haunted Benjamin Raja, an IT professional, after coming across with some of the hardships of rural farmers. He found that Indian agrispace lacks intelligence in farm automation. Here signed from his white collar job, started Farmagain, a technology motivated Agritech start-up and the rest is a history!

Farmagain was incepted in 2013 with the objective of feeding the world with safe-to-consume, non-toxic vegetables and making agriculture lucrative and relevant to farmers. At Farmagain, latest technologies like IoT, Cloud and

Blockchain work seamlessly and create solutions to solve everyday challenges in farming. Company’s products fall into three categories – GroTron™ Autonomous Farm System, Farmagain Ecosystem and Crop Care Solutions. GroTron™ holds the title of world’s first cloud based autonomous irrigation and fertilization system and the capabilities of the solution are praiseworthy. The system doesn’t have limitations on number of acres, gate valves, motors and fertilization tanks and the tiny GroTron™ device can be placed as per the space availability. Importantly, the user-friendly nature of the device allows anyone with minimum electrical knowledge and internet know-how to operate it without tensions. “We have developed cloud based irrigation and fertilization system, which is a unique platform and no commercial alternatives exist. Besides, Farmagain’s GroTron™ and Farmagain Ecosystem were conceptualized and built by first hand farmers. And hence, every single feature is absolutely perfect and usable. Expert setup is required in other companies’ cases whereas our system promotes Do- It Yourself methods and saves a lot of money and effort for farmers.”

More to the specialities of Farmagain, their one-of-its-kind agriecosystem creates an e-marketplace to disseminate information to the stakeholders and enabling them to buy or sell their products or services at the right time at right price with absolute traceability using QR Codes in each transaction. Farmagain Ecosystem unlocks immense business potential for all stakeholders and

undoubtedly, it is a revolutionary method of communication between various stakeholders in the Agri Value Chain.

Speaking on achievements, Farmagain Crop Care solutions and products are proved to have 50 percent greater productivity due to high precision and customized package and company could proudly reduce water usage by 30 percent per each project. The company has marked around 10 crores of turnovers last year and they are already receiving recognitions across the country as India’s AgriStartup 2018 Award for the ‘Most Innovative Model and Excellence In Agri Value Chain’ and India’s ‘Best AgriTech Business Model using IoT and Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture’ by the Central Govt of India and National Human Rights Commission’s Award for ‘Contributions Towards Significant Improvements in Farmers’ Lives’, to name a few.

In the coming years, GroTron™ and Farmagain Ecosystem will be the main focus of the company. Concluding the conversation Benjamin shares,“Farmagain shall unleash connected farms that share knowledge between themselves anonymously and autonomously in order to improve their efficiency. The Ecosystem that is built on GroTron™ shall be made as the hub of all aspects of agriculture and variants of GroTron™ will be introduced based on different types of Home Garden, forestry and more.”