MUMBAI (India CSR): Khetika, one of India’s largest clean-label food brands rooted in purity and honest choices, today announced the launch of SAATHI (Sustainable Agriculture and Training Hub for Impact) — a farmer-first initiative designed to enhance farmer income, improve crop quality, and promote climate-friendly, sustainable agricultural practices.
India’s agricultural ecosystem has long been affected by structural gaps that directly reduce farmer remuneration. Most farmers continue to earn less due to the lack of direct market linkages, limited training on high-quality crop cultivation, absence of clear incentives to grow better produce, slow or unreliable payments, and heavy dependence on intermediaries. These challenges are further amplified by the slow adoption of agricultural technology. A McKinsey & Company survey** found that only 2% of Indian farmers use precision-agriculture hardware or farm-management software, and just 4% rely on digital agronomy tools—highlighting limited access to systems that could otherwise significantly improve productivity, transparency, and income stability.
Khetika’s SAATHI program addresses these gaps by building a transparent, direct, and tech-enabled ecosystem that strengthens the entire farm-to-market chain. The program enables farmers to establish direct market linkages, grow crops aligned with consumer requirements, and achieve better price realization through end-to-end technical integration, comprehensive training, and continuous on-ground support. SAATHI also tackles consumer-side issues such as adulteration, poor-quality ingredients, and loss of nutrition by promoting pesticide-free, organic cultivation; providing clear Packages of Practices (PoPs); and bringing the entire farm ecosystem together—from input to output—to ensure food purity, nutrition retention, and sustainable farming practices. This holistic model contributes to better soil health, reduced chemical usage, and improved climate resilience.
Each SAATHI Farmer Training Centre will serve as a hub for training, procurement, quality assessment, and farmer support. These centres will include training and meeting spaces, quality-testing labs (for moisture, grading, and sampling), digital weighment systems, QR-coded lot tracking, basic cleaning and grading units, storage areas, and ≤24-hour payment processing—ensuring full transparency and accountability. The centres will also be seamlessly integrated with SuperKHET and SuperGRT (Khetika’s patented digital app) that manages crop quality from seed to harvest.
In its first phase, SAATHI centres will be launched across key agricultural belts in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. Each centre aims to onboard over 2,000 farmers and facilitate more than 40% local direct sourcing. The program will focus on key crops such as chilli, turmeric, coriander, cumin, soybean, mustard, pulses, bajra, sesame, cardamom, black pepper, and clove.
Speaking about the initiative, Dr. Prithwi Singh, CEO & Co-Founder, Khetika, said:“SAATHI is a structural, long-term solution to some of the most persistent gaps in Indian agriculture. Farmers don’t just need support; they need systems that are fair, transparent, and built around their realities. When farmers are trained, empowered, and connected to technology-driven processes, the entire value chain becomes stronger, more reliable, and more sustainable. SAATHI is Khetika’s commitment to aligning purity with prosperity—ensuring that clean, honest food begins with farmers who are respected, supported, and given the right tools to thrive. By building a transparent ecosystem that works for farmers as much as it works for consumers, we are laying the foundation for a future where sustainable agriculture becomes the norm, not the exception.”
Under the program, farmers will receive continuous training on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), organic and low-residue cultivation, soil and water-management techniques, agri-tech tools, post-harvest handling, and financial literacy. Led by Khetika’s sustainability experts alongside specialists from KVKs, agricultural universities, and partner NGOs, these sessions will equip farmers to adopt practical, profitable, and climate-resilient practices. Certified SAATHI farmers will receive preferred procurement terms and long-term benefits within Khetika’s traceable supply ecosystem.
(India CSR)
