Vikash Jha, Gunvant Nehete and Sharayu Kulkarni
Founders, RuKart

The team's Subjee Coolers preserved produce during lockdown, and portal allowed direct-to-customer sale

Small-scale farmers, who had been harvesting their rabi crop with the hope of a good turnover, were hit by the lack of transport facilities, labour and access to storage when India shuttered in March. Desperate to avoid wastage and put food on the table, many sold the harvested produce at throwaway prices. "Most smallholders don't have the means to own industrial storage facilities," says Vikash Jha, co-founder of RuKart Technologies, a Kalyan-based start-up that had helped build Subjee Coolers in Odisha, Maharashtra and Bihar. While farmers with no access to storage took to distress sale, those who had invested in these coolers were able to wait for the situation to stabilise and sell at nearly 30 per cent higher prices. Jha, 29, who hails from a family of farmers in Madhubani district of Bihar, along with fellow IIT Bombay mates and co-founders of RuKart, Gunvant Nehete and Sharayu Kulkarni, developed a web-based platform to help farmers who had invested in their technology in the lockdown. The portal allowed them to sell their produce to customers directly, without additional charges.