Parakh: Transforming Post-Harvest Value Chains with AI-Based Grain Quality Assessment and Digital Trade Platforms

Agricultural trade and procurement systems in India continue to face structural challenges limiting farmer income and reducing trust in formal markets. Farmers often operate within closed trading environments with restricted buyer access, limited competition, and inadequate transparency in price discovery. Quality assessment of grains is largely manual and subjective, leading to inconsistent grading, disputes, and suppressed prices. In government procurement systems, these inefficiencies further impact operational efficiency, traceability, and farmer confidence.

Parakh is an AgriTech platform designed to modernise agricultural trade and procurement by integrating two core innovations. The digital open-market trading platform enables farmers to sell produce to any registered trader at any time through competitive digital bidding, expanding market access, improving price discovery, and reducing dependency on local intermediaries. Upjao's AI-based grain analysers objectively evaluate grain quality using machine-based systems, eliminating manual bias and directly linking quality grades with price outcomes.

The first pilot focused on enabling open digital trade for commodities such as bajra and paddy. Approximately 300–400 farmers were connected, facilitating 300–400 bids and enabling a total trade value of approximately 50 million INR. Competitive digital bidding increased trader participation and improved price transparency. Farmers experienced an average 7% increase in profit realisation, driven by healthy competition and wider buyer access.

A second pilot deployed AI-powered grain quality assessment machines for paddy procurement in partnership with GUJCOMASOL within a cooperative public-sector framework. Approximately 500 farmers were directly connected, with 32,517 gunny bags procured, totalling approximately 2,277 metric tonnes and procurement value of approximately 100 million INR. Objective, machine-based grading enabled A-grade paddy farmers to receive a 5% price premium. The system removed subjectivity from quality assessment, improved transparency, and strengthened trust between farmers and procurement agencies.

Beyond pilot deployments, Parakh supported government paddy procurement under State Civil Supplies operations, benefiting approximately 3,300 additional farmers. Across all pilots and deployments, approximately 4,100–4,200 farmers benefited, with total trade and procurement value of approximately 150 million INR and average farmer price improvements of 5–7%. The platform demonstrates a modular, commodity-agnostic model that can scale across APMCs, PACS, FPOs, cooperatives, and state procurement agencies, aligning with national priorities around digital agriculture and transparent procurement. Inclusion considerations ensure that small and marginal farmers can access digital trade without significant smartphone or connectivity requirements.
For additional context and detailed documentation of this use case, please refer to pages 35-36 in the attached Casebook.