Traditional, innovative foods on display at expo
Speaking at the inauguration, Director of ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchi, R. Selvarajan said that India has significantly progressed from the days of famine. It was now exporting agricultural products and this was achieved through research.
Out of the eight varieties of bananas that had received geographical indication (GI) tag, three varieties were from Tamil Nadu: Kanniyakumari Matti Banana, Sirumalai Hill Banana and Virupakshi Hill Banana. Bananas were very popular, he said.
He pointed out that the Centre in Tiruchi had introduced several varieties of bananas and also traditional and innovative products. Some of the products included banana stem juice and pickles, banana flower thokku, low fat chips and other value added products which had received good reception from the people, he said.
Assistant General Manager (NABARD) A.S. Sakthi Balan said that efforts were being taken to promote new ideas and back them financially. There was a need to invest in new ideas, he said. There were supply chain constraints which needed to be identified and rectified, he added.
MADITSSIA president A. Kodeeswaran welcomed the gathering. He said that the main objective of the expo was to help people understand the business and encourage start-ups. Chairperson of the expo A. Anbarasan said that the idea was to introduce the people to technology and improve the business overall.
Vice-Chairperson V. Suraj Sundara Shankar said that seminars will be held as part of the expo. Experts will be presenting papers on various topics for the benefit of the people. Secretary V. Senthilkumar proposed a vote of thanks.
Buildex 2025, a building material and property exhibition, organised by MADITSSIA was also inaugurated at Ida Scudder auditorium. Products related to construction and architecture and interior design were on display at the expo.
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Deep dive at the start Before starting their digital diary, the duo went into the market to study their needs more carefully. Says Nishant, 'Sachin and I hired 220 students, SmartU Village Ambassadors (SVA) from our area, who were conversant with the farmer community. We conducted a survey to determine what would work. As suspected, we found that not many were tech-savvy or conversant with apps. Moreover, WhatsApp was commonly used by all, albeit for different purposes. They didn't need to learn how to use WhatsApp. So WhatsApp it was.' Nishant and Sachin tied up with a third co-founder, Ramsha Sheikh, who has a master's in IT, to develop their WhatsApp solution, which they called SmartU, now known as GramIQ. Building GramIQ Ramsha used a Chatbot to converse with the farmers. It included several categories in which they could include their cost inputs. 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We need these funds to enhance the technical backbone of the platform and scale our farmers' outreach programme, so we can get more farmers to use GramIQ and expand our operational capacity to reach farming communities across India. We have 180 million farmers in the country.' Competition Competition will always be there. Their competitors are Krishify and FarmERP, which offer mobile-based information platforms. However, says Nishant, 'Our unique selling point lies in simple, WhatsApp-based farm financial management, which is more accessible for non-tech-savvy farmers. Moreover, we provide segmented data that they could not as of now.' India has 180 million farmers who want to optimise their operations and increase their profits. Our model is free for farmers. Through our data, we generate revenue by helping agri-businesses connect with the right set of farmers. Future plans 'We want to become a rural intelligence engine. Whenever someone wants to promote anything to rural India, they should come to us. We should be part of their go-to-market (GTM) strategy,' says Sachin. Part of that plan is to develop a data platform, GramIQ, that is a rural intelligence engine designed to empower rural India. Says Nishant, 'This platform will create village-level digital touchpoints operated by local youth, offering services to farmers and gathering on-ground data. The model not only supports rural employment but also strengthens our data intelligence and distribution moat in India's agricultural ecosystem.'
