How this scientist built a Rs 12 crore agribusiness by connecting farmers with consumers

When Dr Ramesh Chandra Biswal was a scientist for Clemson University in South Carolina, he realised that research in India was confined to pen and paper, rarely changing the ground realities. In contrast, the focus was on building solutions in the USA. 

“Being the son of a farmer (Jogesh Biswal), I had seen how middlemen squeezed farmers, leaving them high and dry. I wanted to do something to benefit our growers, consumers and myself. So I quit my job in the USA in 2016 and returned to my native village Khuntubandha in Nayagarh district,” Dr Ramesh tells 30Stades. 

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To weed out middlemen and sell fresh vegetables and fruits directly from farmers to consumers, he launched a pilot project in his native village.

He tied up with 40 farmers in Nayagarh to test the waters with a diesel-operated mobile outlet that travelled across 60 villages. At that time, the inventory had around 1,000 items, comprising vegetables, fruits, groceries and other FMCG products.

The mobile outlet was called ‘Gaon Haat’ (village market), because, according to Dr Ramesh, Odisha's original rural weekly markets had lost their pristine feel.

“We undertook the pilot to gauge the market response. When it clicked with our customers, we shifted our headquarters to Bhubaneswar with three diesel-driven mobile outlets,” Dr Ramesh says. 

He invested Rs 17 lakh to start Villa Mart Pvt Ltd with four employees. “In 2020, the annual turnover was Rs 29 lakh. Today, Villa Mart’s annual turnover is around Rs 12 crore,” the agri entrepreneur points out.

Over 15,000 farmers, 50 farmer producer groups (FPCs) and 60 self-help groups (SHGs) from more than 3,000 villages of Odisha are connected with Villa Mart. 

Villa Mart works on a ‘phyGital’ (physical + digital) platform, using technology for procurement, storage, and sales. This model ensures freshness, minimises waste, and provides a convenient shopping experience for consumers while empowering farmers.

The agri-tech startup directly buys vegetables from farmers through its four procurement-cum-fulfilment centres (PFC). While it has set up two PFCs in Bhubaneswar, it has one each in Puri and Berhampur to market over 150 items through its farm-to-fork model.

The reduction in the number of items from 1,000 to 150 was necessitated because purchasing farm produce and removing chemical and pesticide residues through ozone treatment is a time-consuming process, Dr Ramesh says.

Empowering farmers

The farmers earn 10 to 20 percent higher than market rates by selling directly to Villa Mart. Jitendra Pattanayak is a case in point. He retired as a fire safety officer and began farming on his family land but the middlemen would eat into his profit. He had to sell the vegetables and fruits, grown at his KMP Farm in Jhamujhara village in Dhenkanal district of Odisha, at throwaway prices to traders. 

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However, the sale proceeds shot up in 2024 when he came into contact with Villa Mart Pvt Ltd. The agri-tech startup helps market the farm's vegetables and fruits at the ‘right’ price at the ‘right’ time.

The technology edge

Villa Mart’s eight specially designed mobile outlets, now battery-operated and equipped with sensors, cameras and cold storage systems, move around daily in Bhubaneswar to deliver fresh farm produce at the doorsteps of its customers. A similar outlet is set to commence in Berhampur, the headquarters of the Ganjam district. 

The sensors track factors like temperature, humidity, and ethylene gas, which are crucial for the shelf life of produce. The cold storage system (where temperature is usually maintained at 12 degrees Celsius, and humidity at around 75 percent) keeps the fruits and vegetables fresh. 

“Villa Mart provides us fresh and hygienic produce at prices that are less than the prevailing market rates,” says retired chief manager of Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL) Subhas Chandra Mishra, the secretary of PPL Colony in Bhubaneswar. 

Sustainabilty initiatives and expansion

“We have also taken steps to avoid waste generation. For example, after items like ginger and turmeric are shaped into saleable sizes, their residues, dried in a solar drier, can be converted into powder,” says Dr Ramesh.

“Waste like leftover leaves and peels of cauliflower and cabbage is used to make vermicompost. We sell it to farmers at Rs 10 per kg,” he adds.    

In 2019 Villa Mart received grants of Rs 17.40 lakh in two phases from Startup Odisha after it registered with the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) Department. However, Covid-19 and the lockdown hurt the business and the three static outlets had to be shut down. 

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At that time, Villa Mart expanded operations to include a B2B (business-to-business) wing. “We began supplying products to kirana stores in villages. This has expanded to big retailers now,” he says.

So apart from D2C (direct to customers), Villa Mart also sells to behemoths like Reliance Fresh, JioMart, Instamart (Swiggy), Blinkit and Odisha Rural Development and Marketing Society (ORMAS). 

Several national and International recognitions have been conferred on Villa Mart for its success in the agribusiness space. They include its selection by DO School, Germany to figure among 20 international organisations for ‘Future Food Fellowship’ in 2021.  It figured among the top 10 Finalist Social Venture of India in the TATA Social Enterprise Challenge in 2017-18. It was declared a finalist in the National Startup Award, 2021. It received an equity fund of nearly Rs 10 lakh from IIT, Kanpur, in 2018 as a Social Impact Creating Startup. 

Villa Mart has also procured a bank loan of Rs 1 crore to expand its D2C reach. It is set to open branches shortly in Rourkela, Sambalpur and Balasore.

(Niroj Ranjan Misra is a Cuttack-based freelance writer. He writes on rural and tribal life, social issues, art and culture, and sports.)

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