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Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

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Re: Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

#21

Co-founder Aditya here. I'd love to answer any questions you may have, so please free to fire them my way! The reason why we decided to build this is because the agricultural market in India is plagued by a middleman driven inefficient physical system where farmers do not have a say in the crop sale process. This is different from how the industry works in the US. But the fact is that in India, a huge majority (~85%)…

Are you guys hiring ?

You can reach us at founders@kisannetwork.in!

Re: Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

#22

Hey Ditty (can I call you Ditty?), great work. Truly impressed. I've been a social entrepreneur myself for many a year (since I was 18, so 2 years ago), so it's always great to see fellow entrepreneurs tackling the problems that define our time. Two questions, one technical, one not. Do you guys use a microservices architecture on the backend? And if not, why not? Also, what is your MBTI (Meyers-Brigg personality typ…

Nothing like that as we don't need one!

As for MBTI, mine is ENTJ.

Re: Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How realtime is pricing? And how do take care of verification of buyers and quality? (congrats on the launch this seems a huge problem!)

Pricing is usually fixed for a 2-3 day period. Generally, market fluctuations take place outside of this. For the crops, our team ensures that the quality requirements for buyers are met. As for the buyers themselves, ensuring they meet our requirements is taken care of during the on boarding process itself.

Thanks - good luck with it!

Re: Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

#24
Making my first HN comment to say thank you for creating something like this!

I come from a farmer family. Sustaining is very hard for small farmers because middlemen make most of the profit in the current system (then there are pests and unpredictability of price/rain etc to deal with).

Best of luck!

Re: Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

#25

Making my first HN comment to say thank you for creating something like this! I come from a farmer family. Sustaining is very hard for small farmers because middlemen make most of the profit in the current system (then there are pests and unpredictability of price/rain etc to deal with). Best of luck!

Thanks a lot. You are very right in saying that middlemen make most of the profit in this industry and we are trying our best to ensure that both end buyers and sellers get the best deal possible because of the efficiency we bring into the system.

Re: Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

#26

Co-founder Aditya here. I'd love to answer any questions you may have, so please free to fire them my way! The reason why we decided to build this is because the agricultural market in India is plagued by a middleman driven inefficient physical system where farmers do not have a say in the crop sale process. This is different from how the industry works in the US. But the fact is that in India, a huge majority (~85%)…

I've been tinkering with the idea of improving the agriculture situation in India. Though my idea was from a production side (large-scale hydroponics to lower cost via economies of scale and reduced transport cost). It didn't seem as feasible in the near future, but I love your idea! I'd be happy to talk with you as I'm curious about a few things and even see how I can help out!

PS: Born and raised from India now living in SF.

Re: Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

#27
post #26

Co-founder Aditya here. I'd love to answer any questions you may have, so please free to fire them my way! The reason why we decided to build this is because the agricultural market in India is plagued by a middleman driven inefficient physical system where farmers do not have a say in the crop sale process. This is different from how the industry works in the US. But the fact is that in India, a huge majority (~85%)…

I've been tinkering with the idea of improving the agriculture situation in India. Though my idea was from a production side (large-scale hydroponics to lower cost via economies of scale and reduced transport cost). It didn't seem as feasible in the near future, but I love your idea! I'd be happy to talk with you as I'm curious about a few things and even see how I can help out! PS: Born and raised from India now liv…

Yes, a lot more needs to be done for this sector. But as you observed, a part of it does require a lot of input, in terms of capital and time.

Re: Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

#28

Co-founder Aditya here. I'd love to answer any questions you may have, so please free to fire them my way! The reason why we decided to build this is because the agricultural market in India is plagued by a middleman driven inefficient physical system where farmers do not have a say in the crop sale process. This is different from how the industry works in the US. But the fact is that in India, a huge majority (~85%)…

Congratulations on tackling a big problem. Couple of questions:

Do you have any plans to achieve FairTrade status for international buyers?

Could you imagine making transaction records on the platform available to help smallholders get finance at more affordable rates when needed at some stage in future?

Re: Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

#29

Co-founder Aditya here. I'd love to answer any questions you may have, so please free to fire them my way! The reason why we decided to build this is because the agricultural market in India is plagued by a middleman driven inefficient physical system where farmers do not have a say in the crop sale process. This is different from how the industry works in the US. But the fact is that in India, a huge majority (~85%)…

Congratulations on tackling a big problem. Couple of questions: Do you have any plans to achieve FairTrade status for international buyers? Could you imagine making transaction records on the platform available to help smallholders get finance at more affordable rates when needed at some stage in future?

Currently, we haven't started looking at international buyers. So unfortunately, I can't answer that as of today.

The second aspect is something we have definitely thought about and which does hold a lot of value as we move forward. Great to see that you mentioned it as this is a problem many farmers do face.

Re: Kisan Network (YC W16) is an online marketplace for Indian agriculture

#30

Co-founder Aditya here. I'd love to answer any questions you may have, so please free to fire them my way! The reason why we decided to build this is because the agricultural market in India is plagued by a middleman driven inefficient physical system where farmers do not have a say in the crop sale process. This is different from how the industry works in the US. But the fact is that in India, a huge majority (~85%)…

According to that article, you take care of sorting & processing of the produce. Doesn't it take a lot of investment to start something like that? Seems you would need a big hygienic facility for this. And the logistics of moving the produce from remote villages to your facility and then from there to the buyer..doesn't that take a fleet of trucks? And finally, how exactly are you different from the existing middlemen? I don't quite get the advantage of a custom built platform when you still have to act as the middleman between the seller and the buyer. In the most extreme case, couldn't you just do it through Whatsapp?
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