GRAMHAL PRIVATE LIMITED

In their own words

The majority of smallholder farmers in India are involved in sustenance farming of food grains using informal credit. The urgent need for cash during the harvesting season requires these farmers to quickly sell their produce without waiting for a favorable price. The lack of access to storage and the need to repay credit further intensify the situation. Thus, most farmers end up doing distress selling at a throwaway price. This has pushed farmers into a vicious debt cycle, leading to one farmer suicide every half an hour. Gramhal addresses this issue by providing farmers a bundle of post-harvest services of access to storage, credit, and buyers via a digital platform. The platform enables farmers to store their produce in our partner warehouse. Our partner bank extends credit to the farmer by taking stored produce as collateral. The credit eases the farmers’ cash flow and provides farmers with the agency to wait for a favorable market condition. Furthermore, receiving daily price information via SMS allows farmers to decide when to sell their produce; they can easily initiate a sale by sending an SMS to Gramhal. Thus, we build an ecosystem for farmers that empowers them to decide on when to sell, whom to sell, and at what price. Through this model, we aspire to improve the lives of more than 600 million people in India, who are directly dependent on agriculture. We envision a world where no farmer has to die to feed the planet.

Written by the company on its public Startup India profile. Not verified by us.