Leadership Talk Series: Exclusive Chat with Mr. Harshit Gupta, Co-founder- Gramophone
February 11, 2021“Farmers have started valuing the convenience of home delivery of agri products.”
Focus Agritech had an opportunity to interact with Mr. Harshit Gupta, Co-Founder of Gramophone. Mr. Harshit is a thought leader and a young entrepreneur who is an inspiration to millions of Indians. His vision has enabled Gramophone to transform agriculture by providing farmers with timely information, technology and right inputs to achieve better yields.
Mr. Harshit shared his views on how the agriculture sector has evolved over the years, the agritech startup ecosystem and his vision for Gramophone. He holds a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) degree from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad specialising in Agribusiness. He has previously worked at OYO Rooms , TAFE- Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited and has recently featured in the Forbes India 30under30 list.
Focus Agritech:
We would like to congratulate you on featuring in the Forbes India 30 Under 30 list. What has been Gramophone’s journey of transforming agriculture with use of technology?
Mr. Harshit Gupta- Gramophone
The challenges of indian farmers are manifold and the use of technology to solve the pain points of farmers has been long due. To illustrate, the farmers in the country have always struggled against the uncertainties brought by the local weather and even after a good harvest they are not sure of their incomes and return on their input costs.
We chose to help the farmers by first providing information and agriculture advisory, thereby improving the quality of their yield, soil and nutrition management. This knowledge based farming and adoption of best practices will eventually lead to improved income for the farmers.
Talking about technology, when we started Reliance Jio had just entered in Indian market and disrupted the internet industry. They made data plans literally free and affordable for masses, which in turn gave internet access to millions of people in the country. Given the expanse of agriculture in the country, technology is the only tool that can help to address and improve the challenges of this sector.
The idea at Gramophone is to help create a system that is able to digitalize the entire Agri Value chain and so that the farmers can also become a part of a knowledge based economy. We are very fortunate to have a very good founder’s team consisting of Ashish Rajan Singh, Nishant Mahatre, Tauseef Khan and myself. Currently, Gramophone has 4 lakh application users and our plan is to target 10 lakh till the end of the year.
Focus Agritech:
What are some of the challenges you faced when setting up Gramophone and how is the ecosystem for Agritech Startups shaping up in India?
Mr. Harshit Gupta- Gramophone
We faced immense challenges when starting Gramophone. None of the founders had a startup experience nor had any business background. Gramophone started from Indore and interestingly none of us came from Madhya Pradesh so understanding the local region itself was a big learning for all of us. More so, we had to connect with the farmers at the ground level and win their trust to be able to work for their betterment.
Another challenge was building the team at Gramophone and hiring the right talent especially at the senior and mid management level. Since our business idea was talking about digitization in the untouched sector like Agriculture, making the people believe in our vision was very tough initially. Coupled with these we had to identify modes of rural marketing and communication, earn farmer’s trust and create a business with word of mouth and referrals.
Talking about the Agritech startup space right now, I feel last year has been a golden year for the industry. Investors and Private Players have started showing significant interest in the industry. Good amount of investments are being made in the Agritech sector in India and I see a lot of startups bringing innovative solutions to solve intrinsic problems of the farmers in the country.
For e.g. there are startups working for supply chain efficiency, few good fintech platforms have come for agri trading, buying and selling and on the other side we see IOT devices, Agricultural drones and Weather Advisory platforms coming up on the horizon. In my view, the Agritech industry is definitely going to be a booming sector going forward and poised for growth.
Focus Agritech:
Gramophone strives towards making life easier for farmers by getting them access to the best products and services at a very competitive price. How do you ensure that your startup has a competitive edge in the industry?
Mr. Harshit Gupta- Gramophone
There is a MyFarm feature in the Gramophone app which gives personalized advisory services to the farmers. Farmers get all the relevant information pertaining to the agriculture sector and areas of their interest by this feature. For getting this personalized information they have to enter three data points; What crop they are sowing, What is the crop Area and What is the date of sowing? We then create custom information packages for each farmer based on their inputs.
This information is also combined with weather data and we then advise the farmers about the farming approach that needs to be taken. This helps the farmers follow a scientific and data based model to farming which in turn optimizes their crop yield and increases their farm productivity.
Quoting from C.A. Shapiro, R.W. Elmore, in Encyclopedia of Applied Plant Sciences (Second Edition), 2017, “Agronomy is the study of the intersection of crop genetics/physiology, their management, and the environment, including soils, in which they are grown”. Gramophone has been an agronomy focused company and our first hire in the company was an agronomist. Since our business is based on the basic principles of Agronomy we work with the farmers at the ground level and understand the farm, the process and the produce from their view.
Our core business is built around products that are used for crop protection, plant nutrition and comes with useful advisory services. It is like a doctor patient symbiotic relationship that we hold with the farmers where we give recommendations based on the plant stage, kind of disease that comes at that stage, requirements of the soil, nutrients and additives that the plant needs and how to protect the crop for a good harvest.
In this run, the relationship that we have built with our network of farmers and the knowledge that we have created and digitalised gives us a competitive edge in the industry.
Focus Agritech:
The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technology across all sectors. What has been your experience at Gramophone in the last one year?
Mr. Harshit Gupta- Gramophone
Agriculture products are an essential commodity so there was a regular demand for them even during the pandemic. One thing that worked in our favour was, 2 years back we opened seven Gramodaya centers across Madhya Pradesh, where farmers can walk in and get advisory services at the centers. These Gramodaya centres also act as warehouses for us and equip us to deliver faster and efficiently. This experience of farmers interacting with us through physical centers made them more comfortable while purchasing our products and services online during the shutdown.
During pandemic, farmers started valuing the convenience of home delivery of agri products. We were able to deliver products to them while taking precautions and ensuring the supply chain continuity which helped us increase our business too. A major problem that the farmers were facing was access to seeds for sowing crops, we were able to fulfil that requirement very smoothly and the response from farmers has motivated us to do better.
Focus Agritech:
We would want to know more about your channel program and how are you setting up distribution channels in remote areas of the country?
Mr. Harshit Gupta- Gramophone
Gramophone business approach is based on the ‘Hub and Spoke model’. When we had a good number of farmers in a particular region, we set up Gramodaya centres which served two purposes. Farmers now had a physical reach which increased their trust in us and distribution became more efficient and timely. For example, the farmer needs insecticide / pesticide urgently if his crop is affected by disease to minimize the attack and save the crop and our Gramodaya centres address that requirement very well. We have also created a network of rural delivery agents for delivery from the centers to the farmer’s doorstep.
Focus Agritech:
What is the next 3-5 years vision for Gramophone and what are few of your initiatives for scaling up business?
Mr. Harshit Gupta- Gramophone
In the coming 2-3 years, we want to scale up Gramophone’s business by establishing a franchise model in more states.
To be able to meet our growth plans we have created a ‘Super Fasal program’ in which we will give farmers end to end service. First, we will do soil testing and based on the soil testing report we will prepare a fertilizer schedule for the farmer’s crop. During the cropping cycle, we will give them timely advisory through calls, app notifications and field visits. Once they harvest their product the farmers need market linkages. We are also working on providing market access to farmers by connecting them to right buyers for their crops so that they can get good returns.
Vote of Thanks!
Focus Agritech would like to thank Mr. Harshit Gupta for sharing his rich experiences at Gramophone, his vision for the company and his deep understanding of the problems faced by farmers in India. We wish him the very best for his future endeavours and we are very optimistic that Gramophone will continue its journey of transforming the agriculture sector in India.
Read the next article on our website ‘Gramophone: Increase your yield with this technology app’
