Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF) has launched an on-ground agri-pilot in Varanasi and Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, aimed at reducing post-harvest losses in the vegetable value chain.
The pilot is designed to bridge the gap between innovation and adoption by enabling farmers to access practical and affordable solutions that can improve incomes and reduce wastage.
The pilot project spans 30 villages and over 1,000 farmers, with a focus on highly perishable crops like tomato, brinjal and cauliflower, which are vulnerable in areas with limited access to cold storage, pack houses or aggregation infrastructure, a media statement said. With few viable post-harvest options available locally, farmers are often forced to sell immediately after harvest regardless of market demand or price, leading to both wastage and reduced earnings.
The statement said Varanasi and Mirzapur have historically faced gaps in post-harvest infrastructure, with most small farmers relying on local aggregators, middlemen and rural haats to sell produce. Only 20-30 per cent of farmers access the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) system to sell their produce, limiting price discovery and market access. Even though vegetables can generally be stored for three to seven days, farmers have limited capacity to store produce and are forced to sell quickly after harvest.
While farmers are aware of post-harvest losses and are actively looking for ways to reduce wastage, affordable and easy-to-use technologies remain out of reach for most rural communities.
Based on this, MIF has created a portfolio of five startups and six post-harvest technologies that address key challenges around storage, handling and shelf-life improvement at the farm and village level. Selected for affordability, feasibility and ease of adoption, these solutions are being introduced through practical demonstrations and direct farmer participation, enabling farmers to assess their usefulness in real farming situations, it said.
The grassroots implementation is being led by the implementing partner Samunnati Foundation, leveraging its strong grassroots presence and farmer network across Uttar Pradesh. The pilot has currently started with activities focused on mobilizing farmers, baseline assessment and real-time feedback from the field.
Over the next few months, the pilot will track improvements in post-harvest management, reduction in losses, increase in marketable yield and better price realization to assess its overall impact on farmers’ income. It will also evaluate adoption levels, sustained usage of solutions, satisfaction scores and willingness to pay with the aim of strengthening the model for future scale.
The statement estimates that 20-25 per cent of farmers will adopt these post-harvest solutions and farmer producer companies are expected to play a key role in their dissemination and expansion. These interventions are expected to reduce supply chain losses and wastage by 20-30 percent. Additionally, by extending the shelf life of produce by three-five days, the pilot aims to enable farmers to access more remunerative market prices and reduce the pressure to sell immediately after harvest.
Quoting MIF chief Suranjana Ghosh, the statement said, “Post-harvest losses are one of the most persistent and economically damaging challenges in Indian agriculture. What makes this problem difficult is not the absence of innovation, but the gap between innovation and adoption. Through this pilot, we are working closely with farmers in Varanasi and Mirzapur to understand what solutions actually work on the ground – economic, Operationally and practically, our ambition is to create a scalable model that can be replicated across India, helping to reduce wastage and providing meaningful income impact to farmers.”
Published on February 26, 2026
