Problem Statement

Small farmers lose value at two points. First, without proper drying or cold storage, they are forced to sell immediately after harvest, even when prices are low, because holding crop without a place to keep it means losing it to spoilage. Second, even the farmers who do have somewhere to hold their crop have no way of knowing when the market price is actually worth waiting for, so storage on its own solves nothing without also knowing when to act. Government funding for drying and cold storage infrastructure already exists through schemes like PMKSY and NABARD, but individual small farmers cannot access it alone, and even where such facilities exist, none of them currently tell a farmer the moment their stored crop is worth selling.

Solution

A solar powered drying and cold storage facility where farmers store their crop instead of selling it immediately.The moment a nearby mandi price crosses their MSP,the facility automatically sends an SMS to the number the farmer registered at drop off, telling them it is time to sell,with transport.

In Detail

We are building a solar powered drying and cold storage facility, funded through existing government schemes and operated by local KVKs and FPOs, with a built in price advisory system that runs directly out of the facility itself. How the facility works. A farmer brings their harvest, paddy or wheat to the drying section, fruits or vegetables to the cold storage section, instead of selling immediately after harvest. At drop off, an operator registers the farmer's crop, quantity, and phone number. The facility itself is solar powered, reducing running costs, with a grain drying zone and a separate cold storage zone built to handle both crop types under one roof. How the SMS advisory works, right from the storage spot. Because the crop is already sitting at the facility, the facility becomes the natural place to also solve the second half of the problem, knowing when to sell. Our system checks nearby mandi prices against MSP on an ongoing basis using Agmarknet, the government's public price database. The moment a nearby mandi's price crosses that farmer's MSP, the facility automatically texts the farmer at the number they registered, telling them it's a good time to sell and which mandi is offering the best price. If no mandi is meeting MSP, the message instead points them to the nearest government MSP procurement centre. Farmers who registered more than one crop can also be told which of their stored crops is worth selling first. A farmer without a stored crop can still use the same number to check today's price directly by text or call, but the facility itself is the primary point of contact, not a separate app or service. Transport, included as part of the same visit. Since the crop is already physically at the facility, we are also building in transport from the facility to whichever mandi the alert identifies, so a farmer without their own vehicle is never stuck holding a good price they can't act on. How the facility is funded. Government support for exactly this kind of infrastructure already exists, PMKSY's Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure scheme, the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, and NABARD's warehouse infrastructure fund. None of these schemes cover the full cost alone, so KVKs and FPOs act as the applicant and operator, using grant support to reduce the upfront burden. Staffing splits two ways, unskilled roles like storage handling, loading, and security are filled through MGNREGA, which guarantees 100 days of work a year, extendable to 150 in specific drought or forest area cases, while technical and supervisory roles are regular hires. How the facility earns revenue, without charging farmers. The advisory, storage, and transport are all free to the farmer. Revenue instead comes from a small facilitation commission charged to the buyer or trader when crop is sold through the facility, rental of spare drying and storage capacity to local traders during off season periods, and an annual operations support component from government or CSR partners, similar to how a public facility receives running support separate from its construction grant. Monitoring for authorities. A live dashboard tracks the facility itself, current capacity, stored inventory by crop, and an employment roster showing each worker's days toward the MGNREGA cap. A second view tracks advisory activity generated from the facility, how many farmers were alerted, how many sold above MSP, and how often the procurement fallback was used. What makes this different. Existing platforms like e-NAM and DeHaat offer price information alone, disconnected from any physical place to actually hold your crop. Ours is the only model where storage and price advisory are the same visit, a farmer drops off their harvest once and is looked after from that single point, on when to sell, where to sell, and how to get it there.