Introduction: Shravya Reddy (Pilani, ’03) is the founder of Farm Chakra, India's first crop investment product for sustainable farming. She is also a Board Member at the Presidency High School, where they work towards making learning meaningful, intuitive and fun for students, teachers and parents.
Farm Chakra and its journey
Right after graduating from BITS, I worked at Schlumberger for 6 years across Africa, North America, the Middle East, and Asia in various roles in Operations, Sales, Business Development and Strategy roles. I always wanted to have a global career and after six years I was thrilled to have accomplished that. Despite all that, there was a void. I had an existential crisis in 2014 and I looked for meaningful work, which eventually led me back to my hometown- Nizamabad.
After transforming a K-10 School, I joined hands with Raju Reddy and Phanindra Sama in building and scaling KaKatiya Sandbox(KS), a social incubator in Telangana. Through various KS initiatives in agriculture, we had an immersive experience of rural India. Farm Chakra evolved from that experience. We are developing ‘Farming as an asset class’. Our portfolio has eco-friendly farms that have the potential to scale sustainably. We employ local farmers and collaborate with them to use advanced techniques and grow higher-quality produce to increase value per acre.
Tell us about the concept of Crop Investment.
Farming is a high-risk, high-reward business and could be a nice asset class to diversify investments into. Investors invest a token amount and they make returns from the sale of the produce. At the end of our 3-year lock-in period, we share returns with crop investors based on the performance of our crop portfolio.
Our crop investors are agri-enthusiasts, believers of our work, and some who are just making smart investments!
We manage our portfolio of farms actively – we lease out the land, employ local farmers, and take decisions to grow our venture. Currently, we are building the expertise that is needed to grow and build a high-yielding crop portfolio.
How is Farm Chakra different from other agricultural start-ups?
At Farm Chakra, we have identified that farmland owners are in need of partners to manage their farms in exchange for hassle-free recurring income. Farm Chakra is a trusted farming partner for such farmland owners.
Our vision is to raise agricultural productivity through sustainable farming practices and innovative financial models that enhance farmer’s capacity and provide integrated market access.
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