A Kolkata-based agritech startup is proving that sustainability isn’t just good ethics, it’s good business. And India’s farmers are reaping the rewards.
In the paddy fields of West Bengal, a quiet disruption is underway. Farmers are swapping decades-old chemical regimens for smartphone alerts and bio-based solutions. The result? Yields up 30%, costs down 20%, and soil that’s regenerating instead of degrading.
That’s exactly what Anup Ganguly, founder, Farmology, envisioned for this Kolkata-based agritech venture founded in 2019. While doing that he set an audacious target: bring 500,000 farmers onto its platform by 2030, creating an ecosystem worth ₹500 crore ($60 million). But the real metric the company is chasing isn’t revenue, it’s soil health.
Farmology’s solution is simple: give farmers both the intelligence and the inputs to farm smarter.
The company’s app provides satellite-based crop monitoring, AI-powered pest alerts, yield predictions, and input recommendations, all delivered in regional languages. Every insight is hyper-localised, based on real-time data from the farmer’s own fields.
Connecting it to the ground, Farmology’s biological and patented products replace or reduce dependence on chemical fertilizers. The hormone-free solutions include growth promoters and organic pest controllers designed to rebuild soil microbiomes rather than destroy them.
Anup Ganguly, founder, Farmology explains, “We are not in denial for the use of products in the soil and doesn’t demand farmers abandon chemicals overnight. Instead, it offers a hybrid approach that delivers visible results within a single season, building trust through proof rather than promises.”
The ₹500 Crore Vision
“The first Green Revolution saved India from famine. But it came with hidden costs,” says the Farmology team. “We’re building the next chapter—one where productivity and sustainability aren’t trade-offs.”
The numbers suggest they’re onto something. Farmology’s hybrid model that is combining AI-powered precision agriculture with patented biological inputs is producing measurable impact across four states.
When Legacy Becomes Liability
The challenge Farmology is tackling isn’t new, it’s generational. India’s Green Revolution of the 1960s transformed the country from a food-deficit nation into an agricultural powerhouse. But decades of chemical-intensive farming have left Indian soil depleted and farmers were spending more on fertilizers and pesticides while yields plateaued.
That’s the gap Farmology identified: not a knowledge problem, but a delivery problem.
The company’s app provides satellite-based crop monitoring, AI-powered pest alerts, yield predictions, and input recommendations, all delivered in regional languages. Every insight is hyper-localized, based on real-time data from the farmer’s own fields.
The Trust Economy
Perhaps Farmology’s most valuable insight came not from data science, but from human observation.
During early field visits, the team noticed farmers regularly asked for agronomic advice before buying the products. “The primary agenda is always the solution to the problem they’re facing at that moment,” the founder explains.
That behavioral insight became the foundation of Farmology’s go-to-market strategy. The app isn’t a sales tool disguised as advisory, it’s genuinely advice-first, combined with profits following as a consequence.
The 70% Yield Jump That Changed Everything
In North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, one small-scale vegetable farmer decided to experiment with Farmology’s recommendations on a single acre. Within one season, his yield increased 70%.
With the profits, he purchased another acre of land and built his family’s first brick house, a milestone that represents more than economic advancement in rural India. It’s social mobility, made possible by regenerative agriculture.
Stories like his are multiplying across Farmology’s growing farmer network in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh.
Impact goes beyond the bank accounts. For many farmers, it represents a reconnection in the form of resoration with land that was declared damaged.
The Tea Crisis
Farmers were using chemicals because they believed it necessary for crop protection unaware those same chemicals were destroying their product’s value.
By developing tea-specific biological inputs and a digital platform for tea garden management, Farmology helped growers simultaneously cut costs, reduce residues, and improve quality. Tea quickly became one of the company’s priority crops, apart from paddy, vegetables, and maize.
The Psychology of Change
Generations of Indian farmers have been conditioned to equate chemical inputs with crop security. Reducing usage by even 50% can feel existentially risky.
“There is a strong fear of crop loss in their minds which deters them from going fully into biological solutions,” Farmology acknowledges. “That is the risk they are not willing to take.”
The company has forged partnerships with agricultural dealers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), plantation owners, and government bodies including BIRAC, DST, and MEITY.
Support from the Improving Lives Foundation in 2025 is accelerating the mission to create a connected network where sustainable farming becomes the default, not the exception.
An upcoming carbon-tracking module will help plantations measure emissions and comply with increasingly stringent global export standards, positioning Indian agriculture to lead in climate-smart practices rather than merely comply with them.
The Road to 2030
If the first Green Revolution made India food-secure, Farmology’s bet is that the next evolution will make it future-secure.
The company’s farmers are pioneering a model that increases productivity while healing ecosystems, growing more with less, earning more by regenerating soil, and demonstrating that India’s agricultural sector can be both climate-resilient and economically vibrant.
That farmer in North 24 Parganas isn’t an outlier. He’s a preview of what becomes possible when technology listens, nature cooperates, and farmers reclaim agency over their own success stories.
Farmology was recognized as a finalist at the Sankalp Bharat Awards 2024, showcasing its AI-driven agronomy platform and patented biological inputs among India’s most promising impact enterprises working to transform agriculture and empower farming communities.
