FAARMS - An Amazon For The Farming Community Founded By Ex-Bankers Taranbir Singh & Alok Duggal

1. What was the idea behind starting agritech startup Faarms?
Both of us are from Punjab, the land famous for producing some of the most popular agricultural staples distributed across India.

Our background in the rural banking division of some of the renowned banks of India, creating distribution in the rural ecosystem, gave us inside knowledge and an understanding of how the system works.

So after quitting our corporate jobs, we decided to launch FAARMS to address the challenges we knew farmers faced in their day to day work.

We launched amid the pandemic last year. Modelled almost as the Amazon for the farming community, FAARMS don’t just offer seeds, agrochemicals, animal feed and bio-fertilizers at the click of a button but also give access to a huge inventory of well-known brands available directly from the manufacturers.

We believe this will eventually solve many of the everyday challenges a farmer faces today, be it of genuine products or timely delivery of inputs at their doorstep. FAARMS today is on a mission to double the income of the farmers by 2024.

2. State how Faarms is transforming the lives of the farmers?

One of the biggest testimonials of our work so far is the fact that 60% of dairy farmers from 14 villages in Kota, Rajasthan have reported an increase of 16% in their average income and women dairy farmers from the 10 villages in Bareilly, UP, have reported a rise of 25% in their average income.

India is the world’s largest producer of milk, but there are many constraints when it comes to production. Faarms, through its intervention, is aiming to transform the sector, making the dairy farmers of Jhalawar district the core beneficiaries. The quality feed yields higher milk production enhanced fat content increasing their income, including improvement in animal health and well-being, reducing the risk of disease.

Similarly, the Faarms team has ensured that a farmer growing wheat or paddy in Rudrapur –Uttarakhand or Bathinda – Punjab gets the best variety of seed well in advance to plan their sowing on time.

The other milestone we have achieved so far is our reach. The team has built a strong connection with the farming community by offering doorstep delivery of more than 2000 + products from leading national and international brands such as Bayer, Godrej Agrovet, Deheus, PI Industries, Crystal Crop, Asses (Paras), Corteva, to name a few. Our Relationship Managers who are graduates from agricultural universities visit dairy and crop farmers in all the villages from time to time, checking the health of cattle and crops and advising farmers on the betterment of both.

Besides this, the brand takes pride in the fact that the country’s premier Agriculture research centres, Dairy Cooperatives and Central Warehousing Corporations (CWC), have recognized the work Faarms has delivered on the ground and came forward to associate with them.

3. How do you see the Agri tech ecosystem evolving?
Food and all allied industry is the backbone of our economy. This sector was run majorly by the Government, but many private players entered the space in the last few years, especially during the pandemic. As the market opens up, the Agritech sector will only grow faster in terms of both technology and distribution.

Overall, the Indian Agritech sector has huge untapped potential. Agritech seems to have reached that inflexion point, gaining significant momentum among venture capitalists and government grants. Agriculture is an important industry in India’s economy, and startups play a pivotal role in easing the burden on farmers by digitizing the entire supply chain using new technologies such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, Big Data analytics and engineering innovations. The transparency and operational efficiencies that are being introduced and implemented are fast transforming India’s agricultural landscape.

4. What are your scaling and growth plans

Faarms is currently in 33,000 + villages of Punjab, Haryana, UP, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujrat & MP. We aim to reach 70,000 villages by the end of 2021 and enter North East and the South by the first quarter of 2022.

We are working with renowned agricultural universities, various farming equipment and produce sellers, global farming input sellers to provide easy access to every need of a farmer. Recently, the brand has signed an MoU with Central Warehousing Corporation(CWC). FAARMS will have access to 422 warehouses across India that will help the company deliver seeds, agrochemicals, biofertilizers, poultry and cattle feed to the farmers in the interior’s parts on time.