FarmMyKitchen
By: Parth Pandey
Tags: Startup, Platform, Digitalization, Farmers, Farming

FarmMyKitchen is an idea that helps connect people requiring fresh farm veggies directly to farmers without the presence of any mid-men, dealers or stockers. How amazing would it be if you needed fresh organic vegetables/fruits and could instantly order with just a few taps on your smartphone, that too directly from all the needy and hardworking farmers (feeders of the nation).

I’ve been bought up in an urban metro and seen how important the involvement of a natural healthy diet is. Every doctor/nutritionist strongly suggests the same as local produce obtained today is grown around numerous chemicals, pesticides and treatments in lieu of mass production and industrialization. Classic farmers who choose to stick to heritage methods and trusted means of farming suffer the most as despite all the faith and love which they do their job with, they can’t match the quantity of produces obtained using chemical methods.

I’ve had this idea for the past 6 months, and having a clear vision in my mind along with oodles of enthusiasm and motivation, I’m confident about my idea and its highly fruitful implementation.

The market has a high demand of fresh, clean and pure farm vegetables/fruits/spices that stand above the marks set by ordinary produce-which house a host of artificial elements in them that not only deteriorates the good in it but also acts toxic. This demand arises from all sorts of people, whether its parents avoiding average produces for their young children to make sure they get all the goodness they deserve or aged men and women who prioritize a healthy long living and want the best for themselves.

From families who want to boost their nutrient’s game to households who would want to switch to healthier veggies altogether, there’s a plethora of people who will be targeted. The list goes on and on, after all who wouldn’t want to lead a healthy lifestyle?

Products currently present in the market are distributed as–

1) 50% ordinary/average produce- obtained in mass quantities by methods involving pesticides, chemicals, fertilizers, insecticides and several other harmful influencers in play.

2) 15% organic produce- the league of produce that will benefit all and fill the Large between average/ordinary produce and organic farmed produce which is expensive enough to be out of reach of many and people almost always shy away from buying.

3) 5% organic farming produce- high class organic farmed produce which seeks buyers only from the upper-class sector due to high costs and perishability issues.

4) 30% rotten produce- rotten, cheap produce that finds least number of buyers and mostly ends up being disposed/given away for free.

As noticed above, more than 70% of the people are forced to go ahead with ordinary produce as the want for anything better (organically farmed produce) costs them a huge price difference, which very few people seem to have been finding worth it, as the sale for this category remains at lowest and very uncertain in nature. This is where the need of organic produce comes in as it brings a lot more nutrition, goodness, cleanliness, taste and purity for a negligible added cost apart from decreasing the share of rotten produce by a great extent which I’ll be explaining too. Such produce after entering the market is bound to be loved by all and soon replace the ordinary/average produce in terms of demand, sales and value.

I’m looking forward to execute FarmMyKitchen idea in the form of a mobile app so that it reaches the highest number of audience and makes it a pleasure to use. Depending wholly on a mobile app will make sure it’s not at all a task to use the ecosystem and get familiar with the layout/process. Urban population is already well accustomed to newer grocery shopping methods like Big Basket, Grofers, Dunzo etc which makes the job much simpler of laying thing out for people. As for any potential customers who aren’t familiar with online grocery shopping, we’ll be rolling out internet campaigns, YouTube tutorials and TV ads to make sure that they realize the scope of it. Such platforms are the future of grocery shopping and delivery anyway and it’s a win-win situation for all. This way we’re not only making use of existing platforms and developments but also contributing in urbanization and development of these platforms for the future.

The app will be supported by a reliable fully functional e-commerce based website too which will be highly capable itself. Applications will be rolled out for Android, iOS, Windows, iPadOS, MacOS X and linux platforms so as to make sure the platform is reachable from all ends of the tech spectrum and every interested person gets a complete chance to try the services out without any sort of hinderances whatsoever.

The user will have to log in using his/her user account into the app in order to avail all available services (user data will be stored in private data servers). The app itself will have facilities of ordering farm products online itself that’ll be delivered either using delivery partners associated with FarmMyKitchen or be delivered by the farmers themselves using their preferred mode of transport in order to maintain the perishability and quality of food. A direct connect between the consumer and the provider removes any stocking up which will result in a drastic and surprising drop in share of rotten produce as the products will directly be delivered to the consumers in the freshest possible form, hence completely eliminating the chance of rotting and staling of food items.

We will travel in villages and connect with farmers-who’ve waited for this opportunity since decades and wouldn’t want to miss such a golden opportunity at all. Poor farmers will also be provided monetary support so that no form of lack is felt to the farmer, us or the final customer in any possible manner. Yearly and festive bonusses will lead to ever smiling farmers-something the nation wants to see!

In this time and age where farmers are having to go through so much, such ideas will be loved and supported by the masses to very great extents. Marketing strategies do play an important role and I’ve robust plans to support the same, from TV ads and Radio stations to banners and drives held in villages, we’d also participate in kisaan mela’s and exhibitions so that no stone is left unturned in having maximum footfall and goodwill to our much deserving start up. Partnering with leading marketing giants and having a concrete online/social media presence will guarantee some class leading results in terms of an urban brand name and help give the startup its modern impression too.

As per the planning I have after a month of summing things up, the estimated costs of development of platforms will be in the range of 75L-1Cr-For which we will seek investments for MNCs, tech giants, kisaan yojnas and other government schemes that’d love to bring up such tech startups in the limelight. On receiving all needed investments in the predicted time period (2 months), work can be started asap and finished up in the next 8–10 months. Testing will take place in order to deliver a “perfect from all ends software” for everyone to start using.