1 Could you share with us Krishikan’s business model and how are you building innovation and scale by adopting a ‘farmer-first’ approach?

Krishikan's business model revolves around empowering farmers and promoting sustainable agriculture while ensuring the production of high-quality spices. Here's an overview of our business model and how we are fostering innovation and scale through a 'farmer-first' approach.

• Direct Engagement with Farmers: Krishikan directly engages with farmers at the grassroots level, providing them with the necessary resources, training, and support to improve agricultural practices. We establish long-term partnerships with farmers, focusing on enhancing their livelihoods and promoting environmental sustainability.
• Knowledge Transfer and Training: We conduct extensive training programs and workshops for farmers, imparting knowledge on modern agricultural techniques, crop management, and sustainable farming practices. By equipping farmers with the latest tools and techniques, we empower them to enhance productivity and quality while minimizing environmental impact.
• Access to Inputs and Technology: Krishikan ensures that farmers have access to high-quality seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and other agricultural inputs essential for crop cultivation. Additionally, we leverage technology to provide farmers with real-time information on weather patterns, market trends, and best practices, enabling them to make informed decisions.
• Fair Pricing and Market Access: We offer fair and transparent pricing to farmers for their produce, ensuring that they receive a fair share of the value chain. Moreover, Krishikan facilitates market access for farmers by connecting them with buyers, processors, and exporters, thereby eliminating intermediaries and maximizing profits.
• Scalability and Impact: By adopting a 'farmer-first' approach, Krishikan aims to scale its operations and impact across regions, benefiting a larger community of farmers. We believe that empowering farmers and promoting sustainable agriculture are essential drivers of long-term growth and prosperity of agriculture.

What are some of the key differentiating factors that separate Krishkan from other agri focused supply chain enterprises?

Key differentiator in the Market:

• We ensure farmers profitability by reducing cultivation cost and maximizing the harvest
• Facilitate loans from Financial Institutions and avoid money lenders
• Farmer specific advisory using Technology across the farming life cycle.
• Seamless connect of harvest to food processors
• We provide specialized crop specific formulation to increase harvest of crops

2 Krishikan is engaged with the complete agri value chain including farmers, agri input providers, and buyers.

What are some of the business risks across the value chain that emerging agritech enterprises need to be mindful of while designing their solutions?

Some of the risk areas for listed below:

• Regulatory Compliance: Agritech companies must navigate complex regulatory environments related to agriculture, food safety, environmental protection, and data privacy. Non-compliance with regulations can result in fines, legal liabilities, and reputational damage.
• Market Acceptance: There may be uncertainty about the market acceptance of new agritech solutions, particularly if farmers are hesitant to adopt unfamiliar technologies or if there are existing barriers to adoption. A lot of patience is required to win the confidence of the farmer and buyers who test consistency.
• Competitive Pressures: The agritech industry is highly competitive, with numerous players offering similar or overlapping solutions. Agritech companies need to differentiate themselves through innovation, value-added services, and effective marketing to capture market share and sustain growth.
• Financial Viability: Developing and commercializing agritech solutions requires significant investment in research and development, product testing, marketing, and sales. Agritech companies need to carefully manage their finances, secure adequate funding, and demonstrate a clear path to profitability to attract investors and sustain operations.
• Environmental and Ethical Considerations: Agritech solutions can have environmental impacts, such as changes in land use, water usage, and pesticide usage. Companies need to consider the potential environmental consequences of their products and practices and strive to minimize negative impacts while promoting sustainability and responsible stewardship of natural resources.
• Supply Chain Risks: Agritech companies need to be mindful of supply chain risks that can impact their client commitment. A single source of supply can impact the supply chain. Events like weather, pest and farmer negligence can impact client relationship and reputation.
• Data Security and Privacy: Agritech companies handle sensitive data related to farmers' operations, including crop yields, soil data, and financial information. Protecting this data from cyber threats, unauthorized access, and breaches of privacy is critical to maintaining trust and credibility with customers.

3 You have emphasized on the importance of empowering farmers with the right knowledge and tools that could enable sustainable farming practices.

From your experience, what are the kinds of technological and knowledge support that farmers seek, which agritechs could extend? It will help our readers understand the on-ground requirements from a farmer perspective.

Empowering farmers with the right knowledge and tools are crucial for promoting sustainable farming.

Access to quality Inputs: Today the problem is quality and genuine agri inputs reach the farmer on time, some level of prediction and training helps them mitigate risks by pre-ordering inputs to reduce the crop damage.

Financial Support: Many farmers face challenges in securing finance from the organized financial sector. Farmer borrowing from money lenders keeps a vast majority of farmers in a perpetual debt trap. Any financial training will help them plan their finances well.

Post harvest handling: Farmers lose a lot of money on their produce when it comes to post harvest handling of the produce. Example: ensure proper moisture level, clean produce, proper sorting and grading and proper clean packing. A vast majority of farmers need training to ensure they get proper price for their harvest by following simple steps to sell the produce to meet the industry demand.

Crop Planning and Selection: Majority of farmers follow fellow farmers on what to cultivate. They need training on crop planning and crop rotation to ensure they get maximum return on investment.

Crop Cultivation: The modern hybrid seeds need specialized care and cultivation standards to ensure quality harvest. Farmers need help with cultivation like using latest molecules for pest and disease management.

4 As someone who started off with a focus on the spices segment, Krishkan has now extended its solution to fruits and vegetables.

Could you share with us your thought process for doing so and how you intend to build scale and sustainability in all the three segments? What is the client segment that you aim to target?

With our experience in cultivating quality spices, we have noticed that the problem of farmers is the same across states. As we work with the food processing industry, we are getting constant requests to contract farm fruits and vegetables to meet international standards of import to EU and US. Industry needs a partner like Krishikan who will build a reliable supply chain meeting quality standards to enable food processing at scale.

Seeds we have not ventured into yet. We are studying the feasibility and problems in the industry.

5 You have been working directly with farmers, equipping them with modern agricultural techniques; these are solutions which oftentimes farmers take longer time to adopt.

In this context, how are you approaching building a path to profitability as well as growth in scale, for Krishikan? What is the long-term vision for Krishkan?

Consistency is the game. Farmers take a lot of time to trust any agritech. The reason is every product company approaches them to sell their product and not helping them with the entire lifecycle of the crop.

Farmers may be hesitant to shift from traditional methods to new technologies due to unfamiliarity and the perceived risk involved. Adequate training and continuous education are required to ensure farmers understand and effectively implement modern techniques.

With the growing demand of residue free spices and fresh food, we see a consistent demand in quality food production. As a company we specialize growing food as a company or working with farmers as per the requirement of the industry.

In the future:

• We plan to provide 100% of inputs for farmers to cultivate as per Krishikan standards.
• Apart from building a supply chain for food processing companies, we plan to take up primary and secondary processing at source to reduce the burden on the food processor.
• Formulate and produce specialized agri inputs for crops we specialize in.
• Expand into more crops which are necessary in India and also widely exported from India

6 Krishikan’s last equity fundraise was in 2022. As Krishikan builds scale in business, what are your near-term capital requirements? Apart from capital, is there any other form of strategic support that you seek from the agri-ecosystem?

As we continue to scale our business, our near-term capital requirements are close to INR 20 Cr to focus on the following key areas:

1. Expansion of Cultivation Areas and Crops
2. Technological Advancements
3. Research and Development for better Inputs and Output
4. Infrastructure Development for Processing and safe food handling
5. Human Resources and Training (Including Sales and Marketing)

Strategic Support Needs

Apart from capital, we seek the following forms of strategic support from the agri-ecosystem:

1. Market Access and Partnerships
2. Knowledge Sharing and Best Practices
3. Regulatory and Policy Advocacy
4. Technology Integration
5. Sustainability Initiatives

We are confident that with the right blend of financial investment and strategic support, Krishikan can achieve its growth objectives and contribute meaningfully to the agricultural ecosystem.