HarvestHub: helping a farmer producer organisation pay farmers faster and sell smarter
A farmer producer organisation aggregated produce from thousands of member farmers, but weighing, grading and payments were done on paper, and farmers waited weeks to be paid. We built HarvestHub: a collection-centre app with digital weighing and grading, direct payments to farmers, crop advisory, buyer management and price forecasts — 25 features that put farmers' money in their accounts in days.
Farmers who waited weeks to be paid
HarvestHub's CEO told us that the FPO's biggest risk was not prices or weather — it was trust. Farmers brought produce to collection centres, received a paper slip, and waited weeks for payment while slips were compiled, checked and sent to head office. Some farmers had started selling to traders who paid cash on the spot at lower prices.
Weighing and grading were also points of friction. Manual scales and subjective grading led to disputes, and the FPO had no reliable record of what each farmer had supplied over time.
“Our farmers trust the FPO. They just can't wait three weeks for their money.”
At the collection centres
We spent harvest days at collection centres. Queues of tractors and bullock carts formed early. Weighing was the bottleneck, and every slip was handwritten. Grading depended on the person doing it that day. Farmers asked the same questions: what grade, what rate, when will I be paid.
- Weight they can see, recorded automatically
- Grading that is consistent and explained
- Payment in days, directly to their account
- Advice and prices in Marathi, by voice if needed
Weigh, grade, pay
At the collection centre, the tablet reads weight directly from a Bluetooth scale — no handwriting, no disputes over numbers. Grading uses reference photos for each grade, so every centre applies the same standard. The farmer receives an SMS receipt immediately with weight, grade, rate and amount.
Payments are released in batches directly to farmers' bank accounts once the lot is dispatched, cutting the wait from weeks to days. Farmers without smartphones get receipts by SMS and can check payment status by calling an IVR number.
The team
Field conditions drove the team shape: mobile and hardware integration first, with data science for prices and advisory.
FPO board workshops and centre rollout.
Marathi-first centre app and farmer experience.
Centre app with Bluetooth scales, farmer app.
FPO operations app and buyer portal.
Procurement, payments and IVR.
Price forecasting and crop disease detection.
7 people in total, working as one team.
Decisions we made
Agreed with the FPO board, including farmer representatives.
Manual weight entry or connected scales?
- Type weights into the app
- Read weights from Bluetooth scales
Our call: Read weights from Bluetooth scales. Connected scales removed transcription errors and disputes over numbers.
How to grade consistently?
- Staff judgement
- Reference photos per grade, with sample photos recorded
Our call: Reference photos per grade, with sample photos recorded. Reference photos made grading consistent across centres and gave evidence if a farmer questioned a grade.
Cash or direct transfers?
- Cash at the centre
- Direct bank transfers in batches
Our call: Direct bank transfers in batches. Direct transfers were faster, safer and created a record of each farmer's income.
Smartphone app only?
- Farmer app only
- App plus SMS receipts and IVR
Our call: App plus SMS receipts and IVR. Many farmers used basic phones. SMS and IVR ensured every member was included.
The 25 features
Everything that shipped for farmers, collection centres, the FPO office and buyers.
- 01Farmer lookup
Find members by phone, ID or photo.
- 02Connected scales
Weights read directly from Bluetooth scales.
- 03Reference-photo grading
Consistent grading with sample photos.
- 04Instant SMS receipts
Weight, grade, rate and amount.
- 05Offline operation
Centres keep working without signal.
- 06Direct payments
Batch payouts to farmers' bank accounts.
- 07Payment status by IVR
Check status with a phone call.
- 08Supply history
Every delivery and payment over time.
- 09Crop advisory
Advice in Marathi by app, SMS or voice.
- 10Disease detection
Photograph a leaf for likely diseases and advice.
- 11Market prices
Daily prices from nearby markets.
- 12Procurement dashboard
Collections by centre, crop and grade.
- 13Warehouse stock
Stock by lot, grade and location.
- 14Payment batches
Approve and release payouts.
- 15Member management
Members, shares and KYC.
- 16Input supply orders
Seeds and fertiliser orders for members.
- 17Buyer portal
Buyers view lots and place orders.
- 18Lot traceability
Lots traced to centres and farmers.
- 19Price forecasting
Short-term price forecasts by crop.
- 20Sales and dispatch
Orders, dispatches and invoices.
- 21Role-based access
Centre staff, office, board and buyers.
- 22Audit trail
Weights, grades and payments recorded.
- 23Board reports
Procurement, sales and member payments.
- 24Accounting export
Transactions to the FPO's accounts.
- 25Quality certificates
Lab and quality reports attached to lots for buyers.
Rollout during harvest
We launched at two collection centres before peak harvest, then expanded as each centre's staff completed a day of training. When farmers at the pilot centres received payments within days, word spread faster than any announcement.
- Weeks 1–3Discovery
Harvest days at collection centres; board workshops.
- Weeks 4–5Design
Centre app and grading tested with staff.
- Weeks 6–14Build
Centre app, payments, farmer channels and FPO operations.
- Weeks 15–17Two-centre pilot
Before peak harvest.
- Weeks 18–20All centres
Rollout as each centre completes training.
What we learned
Speed of payment is the product. Everything else mattered less to farmers than getting paid quickly and transparently.
Remove judgement where possible. Automatic weights and reference-photo grading ended most disputes.
- React Native
- Next.js
- NestJS
- PostgreSQL
- Bluetooth weighing scales
- UPI and bank payouts
- Price forecasting model
- Crop disease image model
