Overview of agriculture industry

Ensuring farmers have access to the right, high-quality agricultural inputs is crucial for profitable and sustainable farming. However, the agricultural industry in India is highly disorganized and fragmented, creating challenges for farmers and other stakeholders across the agri value-chain. For example, agricultural input manufacturers are poorly connected with farmers, and markets are highly inefficient in their distribution and marketing.

• India’s farm yield is 30-50% lower than that of developed nations due to a number of factors.
• It's estimated that almost 25% of the pesticide, seed, and fertilizer market in India is counterfeit or illegal.
• Over 50% of India’s small and marginal farmers lack access to financial services.
• India has lost more than 5 million hectares of crop area due to cyclonic weather, floods, and sudden outbursts of diseases & pests.

Farmers need a variety of input products throughout the crop cycle, from planting (like sowing seeds) to harvesting (like farming tools). Each crop cycle has a different timeline and requires a different package of practices. For example, a typical tomato crop needs 20 to 25 different products during its 4-month cycle. BigHaat focuses on 72 such crops. To ensure that we reach out to the relevant farmers with the right products at the right time, we built crop phenology and seasonal journeys.