Green Supply Chain & Livelihood

We are committed to solving several problems related to agricultural value chains including economic upliftment for smallholder farmers, environmental sustainability (reducing global emissions), and reducing food wastage. In addition, our solution presents an opportunity to make a contribution to providing livelihoods for disadvantaged urban populations.

Our solution is an end-to-end multi-stakeholder system that creates value by connecting sustainably produced agricultural products to urban consumers through a transparent/traceable supply chain. Products are delivered through a network of urban micro-entrepreneurs and environmental impact is tracked through satellite data.

If our solution were scaled globally, it could have a direct impact on improving livelihoods for100s of thousands of farmers and urban micro-entrepreneurs. Indirectly, through the technologies that we are integrating and contributions to the regenerative agriculture evidence-base, it has the potential to facilitate millions of smallholder farmers to enter into regenerative farming, thus improving their long-term livelihoods and at scale, completely reversing the impact of global emissions. It also has the potential through the technologies that we would develop in the long-term to reduce the 10-25% postharvest food wastage in fruits and vegetables and to reduce the carbon footprint of traditional cold-chain by 50%. 

(1) For India’s ~120M small/marginal farmers, lack of market linkages forces many into reliance on middlemen with which they have little power and no alternative in event of difficulties; this was highlighted during the Covid-19 closing of wholesale markets that left farmers unable to sell their produce. Furthermore, these markets place little value on premium qualities thus limiting growth opportunities. In the end, farmers receive extremely low prices (as low as 25% of consumer price) for their harvest. 

(2) Traditional farm practices contribute to global environmental issues e.g. agriculture generates 10-14% of anthropogenic GHG emissions (FAO) and adversely impacts farming due to soil degradation. Regenerative farming offers a solution that would reduce reliance on inputs, improve soil health and benefit the environment- experts estimate >40% of global emissions could be sequestered (Rodale Institute). There is also premium value to consumers based on health benefits of natural produce.  Unfortunately, regenerative farming has been hindered amidst counterclaims of lack of evidence and faulty reporting.

(3) India’s urban population faces a livelihood crisis, urban unemployment rate, exacerbated by lockdown regulations and fears, has risen 6% since January 2021.

Our vision is to transform agricultural value chains to impact multiple areas – rural economy, environmental sustainability, and urban livelihoods. We are scaling an end-to-end multi-stakeholder system that creates value by connecting sustainably produced agricultural products to urban consumers.

We work with smallholder farmers and producers of premium agri products e.g., pulses, paneer, and fruits/vegetables focusing on regenerative farming, organic, and regional products. 

In our supply chain, we will measure key indicators such as environmental impact (e.g., soil health). We will share our impact study findings with the scientific community to build on the evidence-base for regenerative farming. We bring our products to our urban-based distribution center through a traceable, transparent supply chain

Our products are sold/distributed through a network of micro-entrepreneur franchisees. We support these micro-entrepreneurs through marketing and partnerships with organizations for capacity-building (e.g. business training) and initial customer-base.

We are integrating several innovative technologies. For supply chain traceability/transparency - QR code and integrated sales tracking system. For soil health monitoring – satellite monitoring key soil characteristics. Later, we will pilot a sustainable cold chain solution that will decrease wastage and increase shelf-life with <50% the environmental footprint of traditional cold chain.

For farmers and rural producers 

• Higher price realization for their premium quality produce/products – e.g. ZBNF, organic, unique products

• Local brand-building / end consumer visibility

• Support and encouragement for regenerative farming benefits leading to lower long-term input costs and higher yields

For urban consumers:

• Access to unique/healthy products

• Quality, traceable, and transparent supply chain – assurance of hygiene, health, environmental sustainability

• Human connection – relationships with local micro-entrepreneurs and rural supply chain stakeholders (farmers/producers)

For the disadvantaged urban population:

• Economic growth opportunity - plug-and-play business model

• Assured initial customer-base

• Ongoing business training and mentorship

• Collaborative team co-learning platform

• Quality supply

• Marketing support

Global – environmental impact

• Contribution to regenerative farming evidence-base – long-term scale opportunities

• Reduced atmospheric carbon, increased soil carbon content, reduced erosion, decreased chemical ground pollution

Provide scalable-verifiable monitoring and data collection to track ecosystem conditions, e.g. biodiversity, carbon stocks

The soil-monitoring data that we collect from our farmers will contribute to growing scientific evidence on the efficacy of regenerative farming methods. We would plan knowledge-sharing collaborations with organizations such as “National Coalition for Natural Farming” and “India Climate Collaborative”

Create scalable economic opportunities for local communities, including fishing, timber, tourism, and regenerative agriculture, that are aligned with thriving and biodiverse ecosystems

Utilizing the data collected through our satellite monitoring combined with our supply chain tracking and values-based marketing, we will be creating premium value for the regenerative farmers with which we are working, specifically - higher price realization for their crops than they would otherwise be getting selling through their traditional channels due to the value of documented traceability and quality farming practices to end consumers. In our experience, we have seen between 10-20% premium for such products, which would result in approx. a 10% price premium for farmers.  In long-term, this premium can be increased even further by building on the human connection of our traceable supply chain

Our core procurement/farmer-base, supply chain, marketing, and distribution were established through our “Farm to Consumer” (F2C) initiative. In early 2020,  Krishi Star in collaboration with Asian Development Bank and Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board launched a Covid-relief project to provide market access to smallholder farmers by linking them directly to consumers. We have built direct farmer market linkages from rural Maharashtra into Mumbai and Pune and connected with 2000+ consumers. 

Our capacity-building partner has engagements across Mumbai with urban disadvantaged populations from which we will select promising micro-entrepreneurs. They have also procured and marketed products such as dal, mangoes, and channa sourced from ~1,000 organic and ZBNF farmers near Nashik and Aurangabad, serving a customer base of 150 consumers and 3 institutional buyers. 

The satellite tracking, sustainable cold chain, and source traceability technologies that we will be integrating are described in the subsequent technology question.

Our solution combines both system and product innovations to create catalytic impact. Specifically:

• Aligned incentives

• End-to-end impact

• Innovative technology integrations

Our system innovation is that we are building a value chain driven collaboratively by multiple aligned and highly-motivated stakeholders that will enable a strong multiplier effect in both scalability and resource efficiency. Through our capacity-building partners, we are creating a replicable model for rapidly scaled growth through micro-entrepreneurs. We also are connected with rural capacity-building entities to strengthen our impact with farmers and rural producers. 

Similarly, since our model is impact-oriented from end-to-end, our impact is multiplied - one product sale benefits urban entrepreneurs, rural farmers, and consumers, and contributes to environmental sustainability.

Our product innovations are purposefully selected innovative technologies integrated in our system that themselves also have high potential to be independently catalytic. We are not only utilizing the technologies; we are also helping them scale. For example, the sustainable cold chain solution we are co-developing with technology partners has potential to improve our solution and also independently transform last-mile cold chain delivery, thus bringing sustainability and reducing food wastage. Similarly, the satellite imagery and analysis technology has great potential to scale in other areas such as crop planning.

Related to this solution (excluding other areas of Krishi Star operations): 

Current 

• 1,500 farmers

• ~350 customers

• 1 micro-entrepreneur pilot (dark store distribution and marketing)

One year

• 1,500 farmers (maintain same farmer base for first year)

• 7 micro-entrepreneurs

• 1,000 customers

Five years

• Direct (expansion to 5 cities)

  • 100 micro-entrepreneurs

  • 15,000 customers

  • 7,500 farmers

• Indirect Potential

  • 30M farmers through adoption of natural farming (based on states in India that are looking at large scale propagation of natural farming methods, e.g., Andhra Pradesh targeting roll out to 6M farmers)

  • 15M farmers through reduction in agricultural waste due to lack of cold chain in which up to 15% is wasted postharvest (based on area under cultivation for fruits and vegetables)

• # Farmers
• Increase in price realization (vis-à-vis market benchmark)
• Carbon sequestering (to be estimated using our data collected)
• Profit generated for microentrepreneurs
• # Microentrepreneurs

Full time - 10 members 

part time - as required for expert consultation 

At the company level, we have embraced the methodologies of design research; senior leadership have all taken several related courses together including Acumen Academy’s “Lean Principles for Social Impact” and “Rapid Prototyping”. We have also hosted internal training sessions on Design thinking. 

These skills have been applied to our on-ground strategy and implementation planning - through which we have built our business helping smallholder farmers by sourcing products directly from farmer-owned businesses and marketing through our social impact business food brand since 2014. Beyond these core operations, we have engaged on numerous independent development projects for the benefit of smallholder farmers in partnership with Asian Development Bank and GIZ – e.g. building market linkages for tomato farmers in Maharashtra and building market linkages for apple farmers in Himachal Pradesh. During these projects,  heavily employed design research methodologies such as tools such as “farmer ride-alongs” and “farmer group co-creation sessions” in designing our solutions.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are very much related to our Krishi Star values of integrity, compassion, learning, initiative, and courage.

Two years ago, our team decided to amend the vision of our company. Our original vision was improving incomes for smallholder farmers, however, we decided we wanted a company whose vision was to have a positive impact on the world around us - employees, stakeholders, community, industry, even competitors. Helping farmers would remain an important part of that vision and the main driver of business activities, however, we wanted this greater vision and our values to drive what we did at the company. We created a team, one male and one female, that is tasked with building our culture and creating HR policies accordingly.

Inclusion 

Our HR team has put together a leadership development course in which all of the senior managers are trained in topics, several of which are meant to ensure that everybody on the team feels valued and respected. Two in particular are our modules on “judgement-free-feedback” and “conflict resolution” which focus on navigating interpersonal situations in a manner that allows everybody’s circumstances to be heard and understood.

Diversity 

The team has diverse backgrounds across sexuality, ethnic background, religion, and age.

Equity 

We have implemented an evidence-based feedback system wherein feedback positive and negative is documented and overseen by the impartial HR department. In case of any actions or issues raised, there is a formal review process in which tangible evidence must be presented to warrant action.

(1) Networks for scale:

At Krishi Star, we are firm believers in partnering with like-minded organizations and individuals to positively impact the world. The solution being proposed for this challenge is itself a collaboration with two like-minded organizations that share our vision. Currently, our impact is India-focused, however, through strategic partnerships in the future, we strive to expand our model. As such, we are very keen to continue to build our network on a global scale – Solve’s peer support groups, access to the cross-sector social impact community, greater Strive and MIT networks, and related events will all be invaluable in building this network.

(2) Impact measurement:

A key component of our solution is transparency and accountability to the impact within our supply chain. We look forward to Solve’s monitoring and evaluation support to help us design innovative ways to evaluate our impact more effectively.

(3) Contributing to other impact-driven innovations:

Related to our desire to build networks for scale is also our desire as a company and individually to connect with other innovators who we can help. As discussed in the previous section, our vision is beyond just helping farmers and direct beneficiaries – we are also highly motivated to support other organizations that share our value of bringing positive change to the world

We feel that the core competencies that will drive the success of our model would be the areas we would look forward to engaging with like-minded partners and receiving guidance and support in:

(1) Business Model / Partnership building Maintain stakeholder alignment and motivation (building strategies to continue to engage with other organizations and to strengthen our microentrepreneur network)

(2) Marketing / brand-building Increasing our ability grow the brand to increase customer engagement

(3) Impact Measurement Learning effective ways to measure and report our impact - for our own internal goals and to increase customer and stakeholder engagement

(4) Robust scalable model Ensuring that as we scale our product / service distribution we are doing so in the most efficient way while maintaining quality

• Organizations promoting micro-entrepreneurship in urban centers to explore for future expansion

• Climate change organizations with which to integrate our findings

Our project tries to create resilient ecosystem by ensuring urban and rural livelihood diversification through the practice of regenerative farming. This model not only will make farming more sustainable and profitable for farmers but will help our planet combat issue of climate change. Our product will also provide data driven models for future interventions.

One of the key goals of our model is to reduce carbon footprint of agricultural practices and Agri-Supply chain. The model is based on the idea of climate sustainable mode of farming called regenerative farming practices, with other technological and process innovations to reduce carbon foot print of entire value chain.