Project Outcomes
Open digital infrastructure in agriculture can reduce transaction costs, improve farmer incomes, and enable climate-smart practices. With food demand rising and resource constraints intensifying in India, interoperable systems like Beckn are vital for creating inclusive, scalable solutions. By linking farmers, financiers, and service providers on a common protocol, such innovations can help build resilient rural economies while advancing sustainability goals.
The objective of this project was to explore and develop open digital infrastructure for rural agriculture and energy services using the Beckn protocol. While previous pilots had tested closed, app-based models for agri-commerce, this project aimed to research and prototype an open, interoperable system that could connect farmers, farmer producer organizations, lenders, and service providers seamlessly.
The work began with field and desk research on the challenges of rural agriculture, including access to credit, fragmented digital platforms, and inefficient resource use. This was followed by a deep dive into the Beckn protocol, its architecture, and integration with complementary technologies such as Aadhaar for KYC (Know Your Customer), Unified Payments Interface for micropayments, IoT ( Internet of Things) devices for telemetry, and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning models for advisory and credit scoring.
Based on this foundation, high-impact use cases were analyzed and modeled — including pay-as-you-go solar pumps, soil-health lab marketplaces, bulk-buy auctions, and carbon MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification) systems.
System diagrams, flow models, and prototype integration blueprints were created, enabling design of demonstrable MVPs. Cost-benefit and feasibility comparisons were conducted to benchmark open-protocol models against proprietary alternatives.
The key deliverables were a Beckn integration blueprint, a stakeholder and use-case map, and a portfolio of scalable applications for agriculture and rural energy. This work contributes to building sustainable, inclusive, and interoperable digital public infrastructure for smallholder farmers.
Key technology/tools used: Beckn Protocol, UPI, Aadhaar/DigiLocker, IoT devices, AI/ML models.
Open Digital Infrastructure use-cases. Attribution: Hargun Kaur / Synapses
