Connecting banana growers to buyers through a simple digital platform

What is shaping horticulture

Horticulture spans fruit, vegetables, flowers and plantation crops, with fast-moving prices and a high risk of post-harvest loss. Growers sell through mandis, traders and increasingly direct-to-buyer channels.

• Prices swing daily in mandi markets
• Post-harvest handling decides how much produce reaches buyers
• Organised retail and exporters set new quality standards

A farmer producer company, working in Jalgaon, Maharashtra. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A farmer producer company

Sector

Horticulture

Team engaged

IT & Development

Services

Web application development, Mobile app development, WhatsApp marketing

Members sold individually to traders at low prices. The producer company wanted to aggregate supply and connect members with bulk buyers, but needed a tool members could actually use.

• Deliver on the brief: connecting banana growers to buyers through a simple digital platform.
• Design around the real needs of grower members.
• Design around the real needs of bulk buyers.
• Define requirements and success criteria the solution would be tested against.
• Deliver a reliable, secure solution the team can run and extend.

The work focused on 2,000 grower members and 40 bulk buyers.

• grower members2,000
• bulk buyers40

Audiences we typically reach in horticulture

Growers and orchard ownersCommission agents and tradersNurseriesFresh-produce retailersExporters and packhouses

Coverage: Jalgaon, Maharashtra. Market: India.

• India

An iterative delivery approach: discovery, design, build and test in short cycles, with the client reviewing each step.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Grower and buyer interviews
3. 3Listing and order platform
4. 4Insight

We built a simple system where field staff recorded expected harvest quantities, buyers could see aggregated supply and place orders, and members received WhatsApp updates on pickup dates and payments.

Web application developmentMobile app developmentWhatsApp marketing

grower members

2,000

bulk buyers

40

• Users and stakeholders from every affected team took part in discovery workshops and acceptance testing.

• Requirements were gathered through workshops, process walk-throughs and a review of existing systems and data.

• Peer code review on every change
• Automated and manual testing
• User-acceptance testing with the client
• Release checklist and rollback plan

• Usage and performance monitoring after launch
• Defect and support-ticket trends
• Process time before and after

• Field staff gained a clear view of upcoming harvests.

Building around field staff and WhatsApp, rather than expecting every grower to use an app, made adoption realistic.

• Build on the core insight: building around field staff and WhatsApp, rather than expecting every grower to use an app, made adoption realistic.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: field staff gained a clear view of upcoming harvests.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The producer company began negotiating bulk sales with several buyers, and members could see when and how much they would be paid.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Deployed solution with documentation and handover
• Support and maintenance plan

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: what quality standards do modern buyers expect?