Hyderabad City agri start-up reaps riches from Desi seeds

Secunderabad: City-based agri-tech start-up, OneBasket, which is addressing the supply-demand gap in the non-perishables segment is creating win-win situation for farmers and consumers alike.

According to Ernst and Young, the organic food market is in a dilemma. Organic food is healthy but comes with its own challenges for the farmers. For instance, it is difficult to grow, it is labour intensive., takes longer time to mature and generates lesser yield. For consumers, however, it is three times more expensive to non-organic food which is produced using genetically modified seeds.

So, can one eat healthy without it being expensive? The answer lies in Desi seeds also known as Heirloom Seeds. There are many reasons why these seeds are becoming the first choice for farmers and consumers alike: Takes the normal cycle time to grow; Inexpensive for farmers; Very high in nutrition as opposed to genetically modified seeds.

OneBasket has developed a supply chain platform to offer customers a wider choice of groceries produced with Desi seeds. Madhusudan Reddy Salla, thefounder of OneBasket, said "Today 95% of the farm produce available in the market are cultivated with commercial seeds that are mostly genetically modified for better resistance to pests and higher yield.Most of the organic labelled products available also use genetically modified seeds. Since "Organic" has become very popular." He added "Since organic food is more expensive to grow with a lesser yield, farmers opt out of producing them. This results in genetically modified food being labelled as "Oraganic" and consumers paying a premium for no better grade of food."

After one year of sales within Hyderabad OneBasket's customers can differentiate the product by just its taste rather than scanning the QR code that is available behind their products. This encouraged OneBasket to now onboard thousands of farmers that can provide the healthy alternative to commercial grade seeds. Within a year of starting operations OneBasket has already been able to list and sell close to 80-100 tonnes worth farm produce on their platform.