NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Nearly 5,000 farmers in Samastipur, Begusarai and Muzzaffarpur districts of Bihar are reaping benefits of a smart decision taken last season. Instead of selling their produce cheap, immediately on harvesting, they warehoused yields and waited for grain prices to appreciate in the off-season. Ergos, a Bengaluru-based startup that offers micro-warehousing, seeded the idea.

“Farmers are forced to sell immediately after harvesting,” says Kishor Kumar Jha, founder-director, Ergos. “Withproper warehousing, farmers can store their produce and sell when prices move up.”

The plan seems to be working as maize farmers who have tied up with Ergos have got 20-30% higher prices for their grains a few months ahead of harvest.

What makes Ergos practical and transparent is a mobile phone app, which lists out the stock held by farmers in warehouses and real-time market price of grains. The farmer is certain of his stock in the warehouse, and is also aware of market trends which allow him to set his price.