Page 67 - Avendus Huran Flipbook 2026

Take us back to the first conversation or observation that planted In the beginning, you were not just building a company, but
the idea for DeHaat in your mind. What problem did you see on
the ground that felt urgent enough to build a company around?
The idea for DeHaat began during our early field immersions
across small pockets of Bihar, where we observed a repeating
pattern: farmers had fragmented access to everything they
needed – quality inputs, advisory, credit and reliable markets.
Each challenge alone was manageable, but together they
created a cycle of low productivity and low income. What struck
us was that farmers did not lack ability; but better crop cycle
understanding through a trustworthy ecosystem. That gap felt
too large and too critical to ignore. DeHaat was conceived as a
technology-driven way to bring all these services together and
transform rural livelihoods.
How did your upbringing, education or early life experiences
influence the way you approach risk, farmer empathy and
long-term thinking at DeHaat. Is there a childhood memory that
still informs how you lead?
Growing up in a farmer’s family in rural Bihar taught me to
see risk and decisions from a farmer’s perspective. Early life
exposed me to unreliable inputs, weather uncertainty and
distress selling. Watching a good harvest sold cheaply because
there was no better market is something that has stuck with
me deeply. It taught me that quick fixes harm livelihoods. That
shapes my empathy and long-term thinking at DeHaat: we
prioritize durable solutions, accept slow farmer adoption and
take calculated risks to build lasting trust and resilience rather
than chasing short-term gains.
creating a category. How did you keep conviction when there was
no clear roadmap or benchmark for success in agritech?
Conviction to us came from the clarity of the problem that we
had set out to solve, irrespective of the size or existence of a
category. We had seen farmers face challenges across various
steps of the agri value chain our entire lives owing to limited
accessibility, visibility and knowledge. So even if ‘agritech’
didn’t really exist as a category, the need was unquestionable.
In the early years, we focused on farmer impact, small scale
impact and consistent on-ground feedback rather than external
benchmarks. Every time a farmer returned because he trusted
the model, it reinforced our belief. We knew the roadmap would
be built, not found. That mindset – solve one real problem at a
time – kept us steady when nothing else was defined.
Who were the mentors, early partners or team members who
mattered most in those first 24 months and can you share one
piece of advice or criticism that changed the way you build?
In the first 24 months, my co-founders were my greatest
motivation – we were all self-motivated young engineers building
DeHaat from scratch. Early mentors like Mrs. Jyoti Sinha
(Program Coordinator, KVK) and Mr. Ramapati Nath (Director –
Extension, Rajendra Agriculture University, Pusa) gave me deep
insights into agriculture, while my family members especially
my late father Shri J. P. Shriwastava, a constant pillar, and his
unwavering support pushed me forward.
One piece of advice that profoundly shaped my journey was
to stay patient. Agriculture is an unstructured, slow-moving
sector with many ups and downs; long-term commitment and
perseverance are the only way to build meaningful impact here.
Uth Series 2025 • U40 Business Leaders | 65