Mumbai Class 12 student builds FasalForward platform to help farmers get fair crop prices

Ansh Jalan, 17, a Class 12 student at a school in South Mumbai, has built a platform called FasalForward for farmers. It aims to help them get a fair price for their produce. The website compares rates across the state's mandis, forecasts prices for the next 30 days and advises farmers whether to sell their crop now or hold it for a few days.

Jalan said: "I realised that many farmers depend only on the rates quoted by middlemen and do not check mandi rates themselves, even though all the information is available on the internet. So I thought it would be helpful to bring this information from different government websites to one place. This technology helps carry a part of my world to theirs. The platform can also help farmers move away from contract farming and take advantage of better market prices."

Jalan said he met a man in Jalgaon who sold his chana crop at the wrong time and lost roughly tens of thousands of rupees as a result. Had he waited a little longer, he would have made a considerably larger profit. According to Jalan, piling price information in front of farmers does not solve the problem. A forecast can help them decide, he said, because it also accounts for factors such as spoilage and storage.

The project began in Jalgaon, a district known for banana cultivation. The platform automatically pulls APMC rates directly from government portals. Instead of showing complicated charts, it presents difficult data in a clear, simple form. Using an advanced predictive model and decision trees, it helps farmers plan around prices amid heavy weather uncertainty, such as the current drought.

About 50 users have joined the website so far. The student claims the predictive model works with about 70 per cent accuracy. The platform has also launched an app as it widens its reach. At present the system forecasts prices for 18 different crops across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. So that more people can use it, it works in English, Hindi and Marathi.

The idea came to Jalan while he was travelling across Maharashtra for sports. After talking to farmers and understanding their difficulties, he decided to put his coding knowledge to work for people. He also spoke to developers of existing farming apps and met farmers around Pune to understand their needs.