Fresh from the Farm! The commodity market is a buzz again with Wheat and Maize harvesting in the field and sales starting on the Tech platform ‘GrainBank’ (developed by Ergos). This is the first time in India’s history where farmers have direct access of a cutting-edge technology platform ‘GrainBank’ for getting valuable information and income on their farm produce. Mr. Ashutosh Sinha, Business Head, Ergos Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd., quotes, “GrainBank is farmer relationship based post harvest solutions for farmers to digitize its grain, which is directly accessible to lenders and processors, and can buy online directly from them in one click; or if farmer chooses to delay its sales, they can digitally take loan at minimal interest rates directly from bank; and while doing so, GrainBank is able to analyze farmers’ profiles and their crop related data, which helps to analyse most suitable services in the most cost effective manners.”
Ashutosh Sinha, Business Head Ejaz Ahmed, Regional Head, Kundan Kumar Raju, Senior Relationship Manager
Mr. Kishor Jha, CEO and Director, says, “We are tech-enabled GrainBank that digitizes grains, connects through Fintech and gives farmers access to digital payments, predicts price through “Price Intelligence” and AI-based tools. The tech-enabled warehouses are synced with cloud and data is pushed to server. The warehouses have Kiosk like GrainBank ATM / Loyalty Card, and farmer use smartphones to access their deposits. Ergos uses Smart Tab to Inward the Stock and Quality is checked on IoT based instruments. It has ‘Weather Sensing tools’, that enables GrainBank operation in the most efficient manner and trillions of data points gets generated.” He further adds, “Almost 86% of farmers in India are small and marginal farmers, who lack the resources as well as knowledge to adequately store their produce, leading to post harvest grain loss as well as deterioration of grain quality. Ergos’s “GrainBank” model offers farmers the flexibility to store/ withdraw a single bag of grains. Uniform grain quality and digitization of the grains stored makes it fungible, and helps aggregate demand & supply.”
Proper storage eliminates the risk of grain loss arising from improper storage by the farmers. Ergos also facilitates credit and market linkage for the farmers storing their grains with it. Using the credit facility, farmers can avail immediate liquidity; where they don’t have to sell their produce during the harvest season when prices are at the lowest. They can use the Ergos platform to sell their produce during off-season, fetching them a better income. All of this, right at the Farmgate!
Ergos is a Home Grown Start up from Bihar and operates with a goal to serve over 2 million farmers across the country by 2025 and create a sustainable income for them. Over the coming years, we aim to offer the farmers access to best in class services at the Farmgate, and deliver significant impact by improving their livelihoods.
