In an exclusive AgroSpectrum interview, S Soundararadjane, CEO of HyFarm, detailed how the company balances immediate farmer profitability with long-term resilience and global standards through its Paathshala demonstration farms. By combining cost savings, water efficiency, regenerative practices, and digital traceability, HyFarm ensures farmers earn more today while meeting ESG and quality benchmarks for the future.

Scaling to 30,000 farmers and one million tonnes by 2028–29 involves integrated solutions across finance, infrastructure, seed quality, climate-resilient varieties, and cold-chain logistics. The Paathshala model has driven measurable reductions in cultivation costs and resource use, while reinforcing soil health and sustainability. While currently focused on potatoes, Soundararadjane envisions adapting the model to other crops once the approach is proven at scale.

Vision and Strategy

HyFarm’s stated mission is to uplift farmer economics while building a globally competitive potato ecosystem. How do you balance short-term profitability for farmers with long-term resilience and global standards?

That balance is at the very heart of HyFarm model. For too long, Indian agriculture has been caught in a cycle where either farmers chase short-term survival, or companies push only long-term global benchmarks. At HyFarm, we believe the two must move together.

In the short term, farmers must see visible, measurable gains — reduced cost of cultivation, premium prices for processing-grade potatoes, and assurance that their harvest is procured without risk. That’s why HyFarm absorbs procurement risk and focuses on real savings: 30 per cent less water use, 15 per cent lower fertilizer inputs and 12–15 per cent reduction in cultivation cost already observed and demonstrated in our HyFarm Paathshala trials.

In the long term, we align those same practices with global standards — traceability, ESG metrics, and processing consistency.

Short-term farmer economics and long-term ESG standards are not opposites — they are two sides of the same coin.

A farmer who adopts regenerative irrigation today not only saves money but also generates verifiable data for carbon and water footprints tomorrow. This is what global QSRs and retailers demand, and it future proofs both the farmer and the value chain.

So, for us at HyFarm, the formula is simple: Profitability today, Resilience tomorrow. The farmer earns more immediately, while the system evolves to meet world-class standards in traceability, sustainability, and quality.

With a goal of collaborating with 30,000 farmers and procuring one million tonnes by 2028–29, what are the biggest execution challenges you foresee — and how do you plan to overcome them?

Scaling to 30,000 farmers and one million tonnes is not just a volume ambition — it’s about building an ecosystem at scale. The challenges are real, but so are the strategies to overcome them.

Farmer engagement at scale – Trust and knowledge transfer cannot be one-size-fits-all. That’s why we’re expanding Paathshala demonstration farms and farmer clusters. When farmers learn by doing — side by side — adoption spreads naturally, farmer to farmer.

Infrastructure bottlenecks – Cold storage, grading and logistics remain weak links in Indian agriculture. HyFarm is enabling through vendors establish cluster-level cold stores, aggregation points, and GPS-tracked logistics, ensuring that even remote farmers can connect seamlessly to modern supply chains.

Financing, risk, and seed quality – Many smallholders lack access to affordable credit. At HyFarm, we’ve designed a system that makes it easier for them to participate and grow. Farmers pay only 50 per cent of the seed cost upfront, with the balance seamlessly adjusted against their produce payments at harvest. To further build confidence, HyFarm absorbs 100 per cent of the procurement risk and guarantees an assured, pre-agreed buyback price — so farmers never fear rejections or market volatility. And equally important, seed quality assurance is provided directly by the company, ensuring they begin with certified, disease-free, and high-performing seed. This combination of financial flexibility, guaranteed pricing, risk absorption, and assured seed quality gives farmers both confidence and liquidity to scale with us.

Climate variability – Potato is highly sensitive to heat and water stress, and this is one of the biggest risks farmers face. That’s why we are working closely with breeders to develop early-maturity, climate-resilient varieties, while also deploying IoT sensors and AI-driven advisories to help farmers adapt in real time. In addition, varietal trials are laid across multiple clusters to identify the ideal planting windows, the right package of practices (POP), and to fine-tune recommendations to local conditions. This ensures that every farmer, whether in Gujarat, UP, or Punjab, follows a customized POP designed for their agro-climatic zone — turning climate risk into a managed variable rather than an uncertainty.

Global compliance – As we scale, we must ensure full alignment with international residue limits, ESG metrics, and traceability standards. Our FarmOji mobile app plays a central role here — it adheres to Global Good Agricultural Practices (Global G.A.P.) protocols and guides farmers with actionable recommendations, including the use of greener, safer chemistries that meet both domestic and export requirements. Coupled with our digital traceability stack, every lot is auditable — from seed lot to storage to fry. This ensures that Indian produce doesn’t just meet local demand but is also globally compliant, sustainable, and export ready.

To put it simply, execution is about stitching together farmers, infrastructure, finance, and technology into one integrated system. That’s how we will not just reach one million tonnes, but do so in a way that is globally competitive and farmer-first.

One million tonnes is not just a number — it is a movement of farmers, technology, and trust.

Innovation & Practices

Farmers reported 12–15 per cent cost reduction and up to 40 per cent water savings. Beyond immediate savings, how do these changes impact India’s broader agricultural sustainability story?

The real driver of these outcomes is HyFarm Paathshala — our “living school in the fields”. It is here that farmers learn by doing: testing IoT-based irrigation, balancing nutrition and adopting regenerative practices side by side with their traditional methods. When farmers witness results first-hand — less water used, fewer inputs, better yields — adoption becomes natural, not forced.

That’s how we’ve seen 12–15 per cent reduction in cost of cultivation and up to 40 per cent water savings. But these are not just farm-level efficiencies — they are part of India’s larger sustainability story:

Water: In a water-stressed country, saving 40 per cent irrigation water per acre extends groundwater lifelines for the next generation.

Fertilizers: Using 12–15 per cent less fertilizer reduces both farmer expenses and nitrous oxide emissions, directly supporting climate goals.

Soil health: Practices taught in Paathshala — like balanced nutrition and regenerative inputs — enrich soil organic matter, turning farms into long-term carbon sinks.

Farmer economics and sustainability are not two journeys — they are one road, walked together.

So, the impact goes far beyond one season. Paathshala is not just cutting costs — it is seeding a culture of sustainability, where thousands of smallholders together form India’s response to climate change and global ESG expectations.

In a crop like potato, quality is paramount. How do you define ‘quality’ in global potato markets, and what practices are most critical for Indian farmers to consistently meet that benchmark?

In the global potato ecosystem, “quality” is not subjective — it is a precise language, and in French fry markets, it is non-negotiable. Quality is defined by three factors:

High dry matter – for crisp fries and lower oil uptake.

Low reducing sugars – to avoid dark fry colour and acrylamide risks.

Uniform size and shape – to maximize processing efficiency and recovery.

For Indian farmers to consistently meet this benchmark, three practices are critical:

Seed quality and variety choice: Certified, disease-free seed of fry-grade varieties ensures uniform tuber development and the right biochemical profile.

Nutrient and water management: Precision irrigation and a balanced potassium-to-nitrogen ratio directly influence dry matter content and sugar accumulation.

Harvest and storage discipline: Timely canopy kill (De-haulming), careful harvesting to minimize bruising, and strict storage protocols preserve fry colour and processing quality.

At HyFarm, we bridge these requirements through Paathshala field training, IoT-guided advisories, and end-to-end traceability from storage to factory. This alignment ensures that a fry from Gujarat can compete with a fry from Belgium or the Netherlands — not only in taste, but in quality integrity and reliability.

In a nutshell, seed purity, precision agronomy and disciplined storage are the three non-negotiables of fry quality.

Market & Global Competitiveness

Gujarat is already a potato hub, but India hasn’t yet emerged as a Netherlands-style potato powerhouse. What structural shifts are needed?

To claim that position, India needs a system upgrade across the value chain and we see nine structural shifts as essential:

World-class seed systems, at scale – A strong seed multiplication program is the foundation. We need faster varietal pipelines — early-maturity, heat-tolerant, fry-grade potatoes — backed by certified disease-free seed and rigorous QA processes. This ensures uniformity, purity, and traceability right from breeder seed to the farmer’s field. Equally important, we must offer multiple varieties to farmers in key markets like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab, so that local agro-climatic conditions are matched with the right genetics.

Standards as the lingua franca – Farm-level Global G.A.P. adoption, strict MRL compliance, and consistent fry-quality benchmarks that global QSRs and retailer’s trust.

Cold chain where it matters – Cluster-level pre-cooling, modern cold stores with telemetry, and reefer transport to ensure quality “travels.”

Platformed smallholder scale through collective farming – India’s strength is in its smallholders, but fragmentation reduces efficiency. By organizing group and collective farming initiatives around clusters, with shared mechanization, common input access, and digital protocols, we can make fragmented acres behave like integrated estates. This model allows farmers to retain ownership while gaining the advantages of scale.

Finance & risk rails – Embedded input credit, assured pre-agreed buyback price, 50 per cent upfront seed payment with harvest adjustment, and HyFarm absorbing 100 per cent procurement risk.

Processing integration & storage biology – Linking agronomy with storage and processing outcomes, with fry colour and recovery tracked back to field practices.

Water stewardship at scale – IoT irrigation, phenophase scheduling, and regenerative water-use practices made standard.

Human capital & extension 2.0 – Farmer learning platforms like HyFarm Paathshala, turning sustainability and precision agronomy into everyday practice.

Export-ready logistics & policy alignment – Dedicated port infrastructure, quicker Phyto clearances, and recognition of India’s traceability stack in bilateral trade.

This is exactly the architecture we at HyFarm are building. Starting with a robust seed multiplication program and multiple variety choices, then scaling through collective farming clusters, Paathshala-led training, FarmOji traceability, and cold-chain integration — all underpinned by assured pricing and risk absorption. That’s how fragmented smallholders become a globally reliable supply base, and how India steps forward as the next potato powerhouse.

When smallholders connect through platforms, they don’t just farm locally — they perform globally.

Looking ahead, do you see Paathshala as a model that could extend beyond potatoes — perhaps into other crops or states — or will its power always lie in being laser-focused on India’s potato economy?

HyFarm Paathshala is currently and primarily focused on two pillars:

Seed potatoes — ensuring purity, disease-free planting material, and a strong multiplication program

Processing-grade potatoes — enabling farmers to consistently meet the stringent requirements of French fry markets: high dry matter, low sugars, and uniform size.

The idea is to evaluate this program over a three-year period, demonstrating proof of concept at scale. Once validated, the practices can be replicated across many farmers:

Processing-grade potato production in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh

Seed potato production in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

This focus ensures both supply-chain resilience for India’s processing industry and long-term competitiveness in seed systems.

That said, the DNA of Paathshala — demonstration farms, peer-to-peer learning, micro-checklists, and traceability-linked outcomes — is crop-agnostic. Over time, the same model could be adapted to other crops. But for now, our mission is clear: build depth and excellence in potatoes and prove that India’s smallholders can meet global standards at scale. Depth in potatoes first, breadth across regions and possibly crops later.

— Suchetana Choudhury (suchetana.choudhuri@agrospectrumindia.com)