Aarialife forays into Agtech journey with Kheti Buddy

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], June 5 (ANI/PRNewswire): As more people get conscious of watching what they eat, they take a deeper interest to know what goes into cultivating that food, that's where food traceability comes in.
It wasn't too long ago when Vinay Nair, a Harvard alumni invested in his wife, Richa's venture, Aarialife. Dr Richa Nair, a doctorate in Biochemistry with a passion to resolve environmental issues through science, focused on improving crop quality by manufacturing bio-based agri inputs through her company, Aaria Biolife.
Today, it serves 40,000 plus farmers across Maharashtra by promoting organic and residue-free farming through its innovative organic products.
Driving down to the farms to meet and interact with farmers, primarily to educate farmers on use of safe agri inputs made them realize the lack of usage of technology in agriculture compared to other sectors which gave birth to 'KhetiBuddy'- an agri-tech platform.
KhetiBuddy is an end-to-end technology platform that connects every entity of the food value chain in the agri ecosystem offering information, guidance, and traceability even to home growers with its range of products and services. After having tested this with 5000 plus farmers and 100 plus home growers, the platform is now going live on the World Environment Day, June 5,2020.
KhetiBuddy's mission is to build a transparent information system that tracks where the food comes from, how was it grown, improve farming practices and provide that transparency to everyone who consumes it.
"It is every consumer's right to know and we are set out to make it happen through science and technology," says, Vinay Nair - Founder and CEO at Aarialife.
There are close to 40 million farmers in Maharashtra and Gujarat and more than 65,000 households in Pune alone who are interested in growing food at home. That's where KhetiBuddy intends to focus over the next one year before scaling up further.
"We are excited to join the agtech journey, and what differentiates us from others is that we are looking at both - rural and urban markets. We believe, our experience of serving farmers and home growers over a decade, can make a difference as our on-ground agri sector understanding enhances our technology development," says Dr Richa Nair - Founder and Chief Scientific officer.
"There are several technology solutions available that give data to farmers, however the challenge is, how to use the data effectively and that can only happen if you know the science behind it and can communicate it in a simple way in a language they understand - that is the key focus of KhetiBuddy," added Richa.
"Vinay and Richa's passion to solve such a universal problem is what drew me to believe in the cause and be a part of this purpose driven initiative" - quoted Amit Maheshwari - Investor and Strategic Advisor to Aarialife Group.
KhetiBuddy will be launching three products viz. KhetiBuddy - Farm, KhetiBuddy - Home and KhetiBuddy - Enterprise. "We want to address the B2C and the B2B segments and have a strong pipeline of products and services set to launch in the next one year," says Vinay.
A team of agronomists who have been serving the farmers offline will now serve farmers & home growers on live video interface.
Not only does the platform help grow better food, but offers enormous value to agri input companies, farming enterprises, export houses, food processing units and every other intermediary involved in the agriculture value chain. Additionally, the contribution this platform offers to urban India who are keen to grow their own vegetables in their backyards, should bring a transformative change to their culture.
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