Agriculture has always been the lifeblood of Bangladesh, feeding the nation and sustaining millions of families. It contributes approximately 12 per cent of GDP and employs over 37 per cent of the workforce. Millions of farmers contribute to the country’s food security and livelihoods.
Over the past decade, sectors such as banking, telecom and e-commerce have rapidly adopted digital technologies, making their services more efficient and accessible. Recently, agriculture has also begun embracing technology.
In a village in northern Bangladesh, a small-scale farmer can now check real-time prices for his vegetables and sell directly to retailers without relying on middlemen. Platforms like iFarmer, Fashol, and Krishi Shwapno are helping farmers increase their income, streamline their supply chains, access finance and advisory services.
Jamil Akbar, co-founder and COO of iFarmer, remembers how the company’s journey began. “From the beginning, we saw that farmers’ biggest challenge was access to finance,” he said. “Even when they managed to get loans, the interest rates were extremely high. That’s where we wanted to intervene.”
The idea took inspiration from a traditional rural practice known as borgachashi, or sharecropping, where farmers share land and resources to make cultivation possible. “We thought, if we could make this model more trustworthy, transparent and scalable through technology, it could really help the farmers,” he explained.
Since then, the company has grown into a platform that supports farmers in multiple ways. The company helps farmers gain access to affordable credit, ensures access to essentials like seeds, compost, and pesticides. They also connect farmers directly to buyers and provide expert service. Today, iFarmer is operating in 26 districts and working with more than 200,000 farmers, according to the company.
Krishi Shwapno, founded in 2019 by Sayed Zubaer Hasan, focuses on tackling supply chain and pricing challenges in agriculture. Coming from a family involved in agri-business, Zubaer saw firsthand how farmers had little control over pricing and how the absence of data made fair distribution difficult.
“Once farmers reached the market, the price was fixed by traders, and producers had no say,” Zubaer said. “From my childhood, I thought if this issue could be solved in any way.” That idea eventually led him to start Krishi Shwapno while still a university student.
The company now collects products directly from farmers and uses demand data to distribute them across different regions. This system aims to prevent surpluses in certain areas while ensuring farmers receive fairer prices for their produce.
Zubaer noted that the biggest challenges have been in technology adoption and logistics. “Because of the lack of data, we can’t distribute products according to their actual demand,” he said. Logistics also pose difficulties, including packaging, loading, unloading, hygiene, and vehicle tracking. “When a farmer produces 1,000 kilograms of products, around 300 to 400 kilograms get damaged during these processes,” he explained. Krishi Shwapno is working daily to reduce such losses.
Fashol, meanwhile, emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic, when its founder noticed a significant gap between the prices of agricultural products in villages and those in wholesale markets. Weak logistics added to the inefficiency of the supply chain. Initially, the founder began selling his own products directly to retailers, bypassing middlemen. This generated more profit and highlighted a wider problem faced by farmers.
Traditionally, farmers sell their produced goods to local markets, where traders purchase and send them to wholesale hubs. Middlemen then buy the products before selling to retailers, leaving farmers with a smaller share of the final price. Fashol redesigned this system: farmers now send their products to agricultural distribution centres (ADCs), from where the goods go directly to retailers. By eliminating intermediaries, farmers receive better prices, while retailers access fresher products at lower costs.
To further improve efficiency, Fashol has developed three apps. Jogaan helps farmers view real-time wholesale market prices and facilitates nationwide product delivery. The Fashol app connects businesses such as retailers, restaurants, and food service providers directly with farmers. Banijjo serves smaller retailers, enabling them to source local vegetables and other food items directly from farmers. The platform currently operates over 40 distribution hubs and has connected more than 24,000 farmers, with plans to reach one million in the next year.
Together, these platforms are showing that the country’s oldest profession can thrive in the digital era. They are ensuring that the future of Bangladesh’s agriculture is not only rooted in the soil but also connected to the cloud.
