About Krish-e

Mahindra’s ‘Farming as a Service’ (FaaS) business, Krish-e, was formed by bringing together different parts of the Mahindra Group’s farm equipment businesses and integration to offer a coherent value proposition to the farmers. Samriddhi, the advisory service from Mahindra Agri Solutions, My AgriGuru App, Tractor rental arm Trringo and the precision farming decision all came together under Krish-E to offer a comprehensive one-stop-shop solution three years ago.

The one-stop solution to affordable and accessible farming technologies

Through Krish-e, Mahindra aims to offer affordable and accessible farming technologies and services to over two million farmers, enabling the company to engage with them throughout the entire value chain of farming – right from offering advisory services to selling inputs like seeds and pesticides, and offering mechanised equipment and tractors on rent via a subscription or pay-per-use model.

Krish-e-services are available through the Krish-e suite of digital apps, the Krish-e call centre, and through over 100 Krish-e dealers. The company eventually wants to extend Krish-e to all 2,000 Mahindra and Swaraj dealers.

Expected growth trajectory

Launched just around the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mahindra is expecting Krish-e to grow its Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) four to five times from its current base of $40 million.

India’s untapped rental farming market

Ramesh Ramachandran, SVP- Farming as a Service Head (FAAS) of Farm Sector Strategy at Mahindra & Mahindra, said the tractor market is getting increasingly competitive, and the idea was how Krish-e could help Mahindra approach the customer in a differentiated manner and affect the lives positively at every step of farming.

India has about two million tractor rental entrepreneurs. It is a large unorganised market with roughly INR 30,000 crore of business done annually.

Ramachandran believes the rental farming solutions will open the market for advanced farm machinery as well as the precision farming market, which is still largely undefined.

Agriculture and technology —  the step forward

Ramachandran says that with agriculture increasingly becoming technology-intensive, over the last few years, Mahindra has worked with several start-ups across the agri-value chain.

Mahindra spends significantly on piloting joint projects and comprehensive incubation programmes with start-ups and has invested in some of them.

Impacting the life of the Indian farmer, one acre at a time

Mahindra & Mahindra has so far worked on 13,500 single-acre plots, which are called Takneek plots, wherein Krish-e experts work with farmers in the implementation of modern farming techniques and practices.

They help impart scientific knowledge to the farmers across the crop lifecycle – crop planning, seed treatment, and optimum fertiliser application — that eventually helps the farmer improve yield and gain about INR 5,000 to INR 15,000 per acre.

Read the full article detailing Mahindra’s ambitious plans for its farm technology, published in The Economic Times (both print and digital)