A Mumbai-based startup aims to ensure uniformity in grading and sorting fruits and vegetables using artificial intelligence. Started in 2018 by mechanical engineers Khistij Thakur and Rakesh Barai, Agrograde aims to provide farmers and farmer-producer companies (FPC) with an easy labour-saving device to sort and grade their produce. Artificial intelligence and video imaging are at the core of this device. Thakur said this device’s genesis lay in their initial days of entrepreneurship when they wanted to solve the issue of returns of footwear ordered through e-commerce platforms. In 2018, when they were in the third year of their mechanical engineering degree, their solution was meant to help consumers order the proper footwear on e-commerce platforms by analysing pictures. “AI helped in deciding on the right size,” Thakur said. After they ran out of resources, the young entrepreneurs decided to turn their gaze on agriculture. The core members of the company are Rakesh Barai, Gaurav Pardeshi, Aniket Ghadage and Thakur. Behind this decision were their roots in agriculture and an understanding of the sector’s ills. Grading and sorting are basic value addition in agriculture but are hardly practised at the grass root level. Typically farmers take non-sorted produce to the markets and are paid an average rate for their produce. At the traders’ end, sorting and grading are done but only through manual labour. Also, given the extent of manual error that creeps in, the process can hardly be called foolproof. Agrograde’s machine uses artificial intelligence to grade and sort the produce mechanically. Users can provide inputs about the grade required and the machine sorts the lot and bags them in the required dimensions. “Our machine provides sorts and grades much more efficiently than the manual method. Also, it solves the problem of labour shortage,” he said The startup till now has raised Rs 1.85 crore in multiple rounds of funding. The machine, Thakur said, is both cost-effective and energy efficient. Currently, the company has a manufacturing facility in Chakan, near Pune, and to date, has placed seven machines, including a few prototypes. “Our main aim is to ensure farmers can vouch for the quality of their produce and provide sorted and graded delivery of produce,” he said.
