India’s smallholder farmers stand at the intersection of two major transformations, which is digital and the other climatic. For generations, they have worked tirelessly on their fields, often losing crops to unpredictable weather and lacking access to modern tools that could change their fortunes. Now, Arya.ag, one of India’s most trusted agri-commerce platforms, is taking a bold step to change that narrative through its new initiative namely Smart Farm Centres (SFCs), which is free for farmers.
Over the years, Arya.ag has built a strong presence in India’s agricultural ecosystem by connecting millions of farmers and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) through a robust network of storage, finance, and market linkages. With the launch of Smart Farm Centres, the company aims to bring the next level of transformation, which is democratizing technology and efficiency in Indian agriculture at the grassroots.
The SFCs are designed to address deep-rooted challenges that have constrained India’s smallholder farmers: fragmented landholding, high input costs, low yields, and limited access to technology and markets. Each centre serves as a local hub where farmers can access digital tools, agronomic training, crop advisory, and even financial services, all designed to make farming more productive and resilient.
However, Arya.ag’s leadership is clear that this transformation cannot be achieved in isolation. Speaking about the vision behind the initiative, Prasanna Rao, Co-founder and CEO of Arya.ag, invoked the wisdom of India’s dairy revolution: “India’s place in the sun would come from the partnership between the wisdom of its rural people and the skills of its professionals. That is what Dr. Kurian said many years ago, and that to me is the true spirit of partnership that can transform rural India,” said Rao.
Rao emphasized that the Smart Farm Centres are built on this very principle namely a collaborative model that unites farmers, communities, professionals, and institutions to solve systemic agricultural challenges.
“As an organization, we’ve worked sustainably on the post-harvest side of agriculture. But we know one entity cannot solve everything. We need partnerships, between farmers, professionals, the government, and corporations, to make real change happen,” he added. The idea behind the Smart Farm Centres, Rao explained, is to demystify agricultural technology and making it simple, accessible, and trusted by farmers.
“When I first spoke to farmers about drones, they thought it was something alien. The goal of the Smart Farm Centres is to take technology to their doorstep in a way that they can use and understand. Solutions must be simple, or they will remain out of reach,” he said.
Arya.ag’s approach also breaks conventional models by ensuring that farmers are not burdened with service costs. Instead, the company has built partnerships that make the model self-sustaining. “It is not necessary that the farmer pays for it,” Rao explained. “There are buyers and institutions who are willing to pay because they see value in getting better produce. Even if a corporate sets aside 2% of its procurement cost, it can improve its margins by 15–20%. That’s the power of shared value.”
The Smart Farm Centres are being implemented in close collaboration with a range of partners from drone operators like Bharat Rohan, soil-testing innovators like fyllo, agronomy experts like FarmBridge, and insurance providers like FINHAAT. Together, they bring practical, localized solutions to farmers right from soil health and crop disease detection to financial resilience.
The initiative also places a strong focus on community-led execution, with local farmer leaders managing and anchoring each Smart Farm Centre. This model not only ensures trust but also builds local ownership.
One such leader, Bharti Awaghad from Dream Vision FPC, Murtijapur, Maharashtra, manages a women-led Smart Farm Centre and works with over 100 farmers. Sharing her experience, she said: “We have told farmers how to reduce costs and increase productivity through Smart Farm Centres. Using the Arya Shakti app, they can scan crop diseases, get instant advice, and attend digital trainings. Even those who can’t visit the centre can access learning through community posts on their mobiles,” she explained.
For Bharti, the initiative has been transformative not just for farmers, but also for her personally. “I am a farmer’s daughter and have a B.Sc. in Agriculture, but it was only after joining the Smart Farm Centre that I truly understood agriculture, which was how to sow, how to harvest, and how to help others do it better. It has been the best experience for me,” she said.
Suman Yadav (CVRP) “This year, the paddy harvest coincided with Diwali and Chhath, so many farmers had planned to delay harvesting. But through the Smart Farm Centre’s weather updates, we were alerted about an approaching cyclone and rain. We quickly informed farmers, who harvested on time and that decision saved their entire crop.
Swapnil Satinge (farmer) “With guidance from the Smart Farm Centre, I adopted a high-yield soybean variety and used the BBF technique for sowing. The tech based advisories helped me manage the crop better, my yield and grain quality both improved. Through crop quality testing support, I also received a premium price in the market.”
In around 10 months, Arya.ag has already established 17 Smart Farm Centres, with 12 more in progress, and all of this in collaboration with farmer organizations and without requiring external subsidies. Rao summed it up saying: “No model can be built on subsidies. Real change must come from shared effort. The Smart Farm Centre is about bringing that partnership to life, between professionals and farmers, between technology and trust.”
Shenoy Mathew, Chief Sustainability Officer, Arya.ag said: “Farmers have long worked within a system defined by uncertainty of soil, weather, policy and markets. The Smart Farm Centres brings them the intelligence and network to face that uncertainty. By bringing technology directly to the farmgate and training local community members to manage these Centres, we shift the power back into the hands of the farmers.This is how resilience is built through information and access.”
