Three young men from Patna have launched a start-up that offers better rates than regular middlemen to farmers for their produce.

Farmanze, the company started three months ago by IIM-Lucknow alumnus Sumit Kumar (26), Banaras Hindu University alumnus Ankit Chandra (24), and chartered accountant Vineet Agrawal (26), has tied up with more than 500 farmers in nine districts: Patna, Ara, Gaya, Buxar, Nawada, Jehanabad, Lakhisarai, Begusarai and Sasaram.

The company buys the farmers' produce and supplies it to 15 supermarkets including 9 to 9 and S Mart, 40 grocery stores and a few restaurants in Patna.

"There are four to five middlemen involved from the farm to the market," said Ankit. "The Nawada farmers with whom we tied up first for marketing their sonachura rice were getting Rs 25 to 27 for per kg of rice but we gave them Rs 35 to 38. We sold the rice at Rs 45 per kg in the market, and kept the surplus. We also take care of cleaning, packaging and transportation (of the produce)."

He said a farmer's earning from an acre's produce has gone up from around Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000.

"Farmanze initially tied up with 15 farmers of Warsaliganj of Nawada district and another 24 farmers from Sasaram district," said Sumit. "At Sasaram, we found middleman had exploited farmers to a great extent. There were many who wanted to give up the farming of the Sasaram katarni rice as it was not giving them much profit. The farmers were selling the rice at Rs 18 per kg but from us they get Rs 25 per kg. The (regular) middleman misguides the farmers by saying that their produce is not up to the mark. Farmers are thus in a way forced to sell their produce at a low cost by middlemen."

It was not easy for Farmanze to gain the trust of the farmers, who initially were weary of another bunch of middlemen.

"At every village, we make it a point to go with a known person of that village who can help us break the ice with the farmers," said Vineet.

Ankit added: "It is only because of our transparency that we have been able to collaborate with more than 500 farmers in just three months."

Farmers who have tied up with Farmanze seemed happy. Gopal Kumar, from Lai village around 40km southwest of Patna, said rice for which he got Rs 16 to Rs 17 per kg, he now receives Rs 24 per kg.

"Fifteen people from our village have collaborated with the company," said Gopal. "We are very happy as our profit margin has increased."

Pankaj Kumar, from Usri around 100km southeast of Patna, said the farmers from his village were not getting sellers for sonachura rice for the last two years.

"We could sell the rice only at Rs 25 to Rs 28 per kg but after collaborating with Farmanze, we got Rs 34 per kg for the same variety," Pankaj said.