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The Journey of Kisangates

Posted on Septmber 10 2020 / In Kisangates

As per Business Standard, India comes second in terms of worldwide farm produce. On the other hand, just in terms of organic farmers, it ranks first as per Jagran Josh. More than 48% population of the country relies on agriculture. Yet, the agro value chain needs a shake-up through digital revitalization. For any major transformation that is needed for the agro value chain, the Agri input supply chain needs to be streamlined. That starts with trained field operators who connect agro-dealers, farmers with the offerings of various companies. By far and large, companies spend a minimum of 20-25% of their revenues in training, managing the field operators because the agricultural extension is broken and there are many other loopholes.


Finding Solutions at Kisangates

Pradeep Raj and Manasa founded Kisangates in 2013. Owing to a deep-rooted passion for agriculture paired with expertise in tech and management, the duo had an inkling about the on-field glitch of value chains for quite some tim,br/e. Through research and on-field visits, they further realized that this problem could be mitigated. Thus, they envisioned developing robust digital platforms that would connect agro companies with the dealers which have a reach to the farmers. They nurtured the idea at ICRISAT with the guidance of various experts and mentors. At Kisangates, the team has strived to eliminate those bottlenecks by building digital channels which increase the revenue of the companies and reduce the cost-to-serve on fields.


Transforming an Idea into a Venture

There was a strategic and technological dearth of user-centric tools in the agriculture chain. Further, the solutions for the same were not seamlessly adaptable on the ground. This affected the scale and growth in the agro-industry.
The idea of Kisangates matured with a thought to use agro informatics to redefine the on-field value chains that connected companies with dealers which catered to farmers.
Through agro informatics, we offer refined, seamless solutions to companies, channel operators, various institutions. These efforts assisted us in achieving the desired results.


Creation of Future Ready Digital Platforms for On-Field Value Chains

Our digital platforms are created to strike a synergy between the environment and the business needs. They stem from an intelligent application of agro informatics. We assist various companies, entrepreneurs, dealers, field forces with the aim to transform agro-industry with digital-first advisory and prognosis platforms.
At Kisangates, our main digital offering is Pando. It was meticulously designed with the purpose of creating a streamlined channel between the agro companies and the field. It works as an uber intuitive digital tool through which aplenty agro companies can manage their sales and production teams on the ground. Pando empowers these companies to plan and monitor their operations in a seamless way.


Being Future Ready with Agro Informatics

Especially in agriculture, the field forces play a significant role in enabling last-mile operations for companies. More importantly, these field forces act as a link that connects various agro companies with dealers that are familiar with farmers.
More than 20-25% of their revenue is spent by the agro-companies in simply training and managing these field forces. However, those seemingly dire expenditures could be avoided by digitally-enabled field experts and by monitoring input marketing, farm production, value chain integration.
We faced this challenge head-on by developing a powerful digital platform, Pando. With the aid of this future-ready tool, a portfolio of 300 products was monitored across 9 seasons, 20 states for 50 crops. Furthermore, Pando helped in mapping 3 million villages, tracking 40,000 dealers and monitoring 25,000 plots.
Our aim of bridging the on-field gaps for coveted agro companies also got fulfilled with significant benchmarks like 1 million activities were tracked, 10 million data points were generated, 1500 markets were reached and 1 million key farmers were connected with dealers through Pando.


Our Milestones

Through the years, our perseverance and contribution have been recognized through Seed Grant by Technology Development Board, GOI, recognition as Women Entrepreneurship Best Startup, Top 30 Rural Startups, Innovation in Value Chain Projects, Global Innovation.
All through its journey, Kisangates has been trusted by agro companies across the globe, a few of which include Advanta, SeedWorks, FarmLink, Walmart Foundation, Prasad Seeds, Delta Seeds, Sea6 Energy, ICRISAT, Tamilnadu State Agricultural Board.
The trust of our customers have fuelled our fire to bring a paradigm shift on the ground through agro informatics and we look forward to making more difference for them. To know more about efforts and digital platforms, visit our website.