StartupStory#71 LeanAgri – Siddharth and Sai Bring Technology To Agriculture

 

LeanAgri with their team of engineers, attempts to solve the twin problem of food security and dwindling farm incomes in the Indian economy. At the forefront are Co-Founders Siddharth Dialani and Sai Gole who started this innovative startup in an effort to boost farmer incomes.

Their USP is increasing farm yields through the implementation of scientific techniques. “We started our journey bringing technology to agriculture for increasing yield and profitability for farmers,” chime the duo.

The Founders spend three days at their Baner office and the rest of the week is spent in villages meeting farmers and developing their model farms in Mangaon and Raigad.

“We just can’t run this enterprise without Sai,” Siddharth says of his co-founder. “She has a tendency to ask the difficult questions and make the entire team work harder to find possible solutions.

She also has a keen eye to identify the red flags and pretty early too, which is a great asset to the team especially when we’re focused otherwise.

“We have a super skilled detective to guide us always,” he adds walking us through a day in his life as CEO at LeanAgri.Siddharth speaks of their days on the farm each week.

“We train farm supervisors and meet local farmers to understand our target market better.

“In Raigad, distances between two farmers can be as high as 50km, which poses a problem to coordinate on-ground activities. Then there is the matter of connectivity as some places lack even basic phone connectivity.”

Then, we necessarily have to interact with all the relevant stakeholders such as fertiliser dealers, nurseries, etc in addition to meeting customers and offering the required services.

Start-up Essentials
LeanAgri focuses on increasing farmers incomes by increasing farm yields via implementation of scientific techniques.
Analyzing crop growth, sharing details and parameters with agronomists; the startup provides essential resources and monitoring.
A hassle-free supply chain delivers critical agri-inputs at farmers’ doorstep. Advisory is provided through channels like mobile apps, SMS, IVR calls, etc. LeanAgri has model farms in Mangaon and Raigad.

The rest of the work week sees the founders at their office, where they work on product development.

 

“Since we use the product ourselves as farmers, we’re placed perfectly to further enhance it,” Siddharth clarified adding that they also co-ordinate with scientists and agronomists to review trials being conducted on their farming techniques.

“We study crop growth and soil reports of customers to develop a system that provides them the right advisory.

We spend a bit of time training new hires when we aren’t checking with our agronomy team about crops and their growth patterns.”

Quiz him on whether it has been challenging introducing LeanAgri to farmers and pat comes the response. “Convincing farmers that technology is critical to increase yield can take a lot of time and effort” says Siddharth, adding that serving farmers from states beyond Maharashtra and that too remotely, is also challenging.

CEO After Hours
Inspiring biographies or books on management and business development make Siddharth’s reading listover the weekend.
He also writes on platforms like Quora and LinkedIn.
Once a regular at the gym, he admits running the startup has taken precedence but hopes to hit the gym soon.

“Since our approach involves developing model farms in the village and going through the farming experience, approaching farmers nearby has been relatively easy.

Farmers see the results on our farm and develop trust accordingly. All our activities are directed towards positively impacting as many farmers as possible,” he explains.

The team is prepping for exhibiting at the Kisan Exhibition, which is why most of their current sessions revolve around it.

~~

#Pune365 Wishes Sai and Siddharth And Team LeanAgri Much Success Ahead!