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LOTMATE
Coordinate demand
before harvest.
Risk-aware procurement lot matching for processors, FPOs and farm coordinators.
HACKYARD BUILD 2026
From “what arrived today?” to “what should we secure before it is harvested?”
LotMate
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01 — PROBLEM CONTEXT
India loses produce after harvest.
But part of the problem starts before harvest.
Processors often discover supply too late; farmers and FPOs discover firm demand too late.
11.97
million MT
Vegetables lost
₹27,459 crore
7.36
million MT
Fruits lost
₹29,545 crore
₹57,004
crore
combined fruit + vegetable loss
2022 NABCONS estimate
The coordination failure
Expected harvest
exists
Buyer demand
is scattered
Pickup plan
comes late
Price pressure
rises
Waste / distress sale
risk rises
Sources: NABCONS post-harvest loss study (reference years 2020–22), cited by PIB/MoFPI in 2025.
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02 — WHY BUILD THIS
We are building for the people who must make procurement decisions before the crop is ready.
LotMate is processor-led, with FPO/coordinator supply signals supporting the decision.
WHY LOTMATE?
Reduce last-minute procurement scramble
by matching demand to expected supply early
PRIMARY USER
Processors
Need the right crop, quantity, quality window and pickup plan — without overpaying or underutilising capacity.
SUPPLY SIGNAL
FPOs / coordinators
Aggregate expected harvest windows and quantities so member produce can meet real demand earlier.
BENEFICIARY
Farmers
Gain a better chance of planned offtake and fewer distressed, unsold or delayed lots after harvest.
Design choice for the hackathon:
one processor-facing web app; FPO-side data is assumed/seeded for the demo so we can prove the matching logic.
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03 — THE GAP
The missing layer sits between “expected harvest” and “confirmed procurement.”
Today those signals are often fragmented across calls, WhatsApp, spreadsheets, mandi arrivals and personal networks.
10–14 days before harvest
HARVEST DAY
SUPPLY SIGNAL
“1200 kg tomato expected, 4–6 Nov”
Useful before harvest — but only if the buyer can act on it.
DEMAND SIGNAL
“Need 1 tonne/day for 5 days”
Real processor demand — but often sourced reactively.
THE MISSING LAYER
Who should buy what,
from where, and when?
LotMate turns both signals into an actionable procurement lot.
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04 — EXISTING SOLUTIONS
Existing platforms solve important parts of the chain. LotMate focuses on a narrower coordination problem.
We position LotMate as a decision layer — not as “the first agri marketplace.”
Approach
Digital trade / market
Supply-chain ops
Pre-harvest supply signal
Risk-aware lot formation
Pool demand across small processors
e-NAM
e-trading + price discovery
✓
◐
◐
—
—
Ninjacart
marketplace + supply-chain tech
✓
✓
✓
◐
—
Local procurement
calls / brokers / WhatsApp
◐
◐
◐
—
◐
LotMate
procurement coordination layer
◐
◐
✓
✓
✓
Legend: ✓ = core/publicly described capability ◐ = partial/adjacent capability — = not a central publicly described focus
Sources: e-NAM official FPO/trader pages; Ninjacart official procurement/supply-chain pages. Comparison is directional, not exhaustive.
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05 — OUR SOLUTION
LotMate converts fragmented signals into a procurement plan.
Signal → Match → Form lot → Route → Commit
1
Signal
Expected crop, quantity, harvest window + processor requirement
2
Match
Score supply against demand, timing, freshness and weather risk
3
Form lot
Combine compatible farms/FPO entries into a practical procurement lot
4
Route
Estimate pickup corridor / milk-run cost and flag risky combinations
5
Commit
Show a transparent plan the processor can act on before harvest
The output is not “a list of farms.” It is a ranked, risk-aware procurement lot with a reason.
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06 — MATCHING ENGINE
Every recommended lot has a score — and a reason.
Prototype weights are configurable; the point is to make procurement trade-offs explicit instead of hidden in intuition.
LOT SCORE
86
/100
Recommended
Strong demand fit + harvest timing; moderate rain exposure; efficient pickup corridor.
EXPLAINABLE
Example prototype weighting
Demand fit
30%
Harvest-window fit
20%
Environmental risk
(Weather Intelligence)
20%
Logistics efficiency
15%
Data freshness
10%
Competing demand
5%
Risk is not a blocker — it changes ranking and urgency.
07 — WEATHER INTELLIGENCE
A good match can still fail if the harvest window turns risky.
LotMate turns forecast signals into procurement actions — before weather becomes a loss event based on weather models by IMD, ISRO etc.
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LOT RISK WINDOW
Tomato • 1.2 t • expected harvest 4–7 Nov
SEEDED DEMO RISK
4 NOV
LOW
○
Stable window
5 NOV
HIGH
☁
Rain exposure
6 NOV
HIGH
☁
Rain exposure
7 NOV
MOD
☁
Recovery
Signals can include
rainfall
heat
humidity
severe weather
Weather does not decide the lot alone — it changes urgency, ranking and route confidence.
WHAT CHANGES?
Risk enters the�matching engine.
1
Advance pickup
Secure the lot before the high-risk window.
2
Raise urgency
A high-fit lot can move up the queue.
3
Split / reroute
Avoid putting the full plan on one risky window.
Hackathon: seeded weather-risk data for a deterministic demo → Production: swap in live forecast/model APIs through the same risk adapter.
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08 — WHAT WE BRING
Small processors can behave like a bigger buyer — without becoming one company.
LotMate can form a virtual procurement cluster when compatible demand shares crop, window and route.
Processor A
300 kg
Tomato • 5 Nov
Processor B
500 kg
Tomato • 5–6 Nov
Processor C
400 kg
Tomato • 6 Nov
compatible
demand
1.2 TONNE
virtual lot
one pickup corridor
milk-run
Still separate
✓
Contracts
✓
Payments
✓
Buyer identity
✓
Commitment
Why it matters: smaller processors gain procurement scale; farmers/FPOs see a larger, clearer demand signal.
09 — PROCESSOR INTERVENTION
Processors are not passive buyers — they are the intervention point.
Capacity building for smaller units turns scattered demand into a stronger, more reliable local market signal.
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SMALL UNIT TODAY
Reactive procurement
×
Calls at the last minute
No forward view of supply
×
Idle / uneven capacity
Raw material arrives unpredictably
×
Fragmented transport
Small loads cost more to move
LOTMATE CAPACITY LAYER
Build procurement capability,�not just another listing page.
1
Plan demand
Post quantity + timing before harvest
2
See supply early
Expected harvest becomes actionable
3
Pool compatible
demand
Share pickup economics without merging payments
4
Learn from history
Build a record of intake, timing and utilisation
STRONGER PROCESSOR
A credible demand anchor
✓
Planned intake
Better use of existing processing capacity
✓
Lower friction
More efficient pickup and procurement
✓
Clearer farm signal
Farmers/FPOs see demand earlier
✓
Bigger combined pull
Several small units can absorb a practical lot
CAPACITY-BUILDING EFFECT
1
Stronger small�processors
2
Dependable�local demand
3
Earlier�commitments
4
Less crop reaching�harvest without a buyer
MVP capacity building = procurement planning + visibility + collaboration + better utilisation. Physical upgrades/finance can be future partner layers.
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10 — PROTOTYPE
The processor sees four decisions — not twenty data tables.
Desktop-first Flutter Web prototype focused on the procurement workflow.
01
Post requirement
02
Review matches
03
Inspect risk
04
Accept / cluster
New requirement
Crop: Tomato
Qty: 1,200 kg
Need: 5–6 Nov
Offer: ₹ / kg
Find lots →
Suggested lots
86
Lot A
1.2 t
79
Lot B
1.1 t
73
Lot C
1.3 t
WHY 86?
Risk view
MODERATE
Rain exposure
Data fresh • 6h
2 competing buyers
Act earlier
Procurement plan
Lot A
1.2 t • 3 farms
14 km pickup
Cluster available
Confirm plan
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11 — FEASIBILITY
The prototype is simple enough to build now — and modular enough to improve later.
For the hackathon we mock the external risk inputs so the matching logic remains the star.
Flutter Web — processor procurement workspace
Requirement entry • recommendations • risk cards • cluster suggestion
LotMate matching service
lot formation • configurable score • route estimate • explanation
Data adapters
expected supply • processor demand • risk/weather • distance/logistics • freshness
Hackathon data
seeded FPO/farm data + seeded demand + mock weather-risk feed
PRODUCTION PATH
01
Replace mock risk
Plug weather / remote-sensing / local advisories
02
Learn weights
Calibrate by crop, processor, region
03
Add live supply
FPO/coordinator capture or integrations
04
Close the loop
Commitment status + pickup + outcome feedback
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12 — IMPACT
We will measure whether coordination improves — not just whether users click.
The first pilot should prove earlier procurement, clearer offtake and more efficient pickup.
3–7 days
Earlier coverage
How much processor demand is matched before harvest instead of after arrival?
%
Supply with offtake
Share of expected FPO/farm supply linked to a processor commitment before harvest.
km / tonne
Pickup efficiency
Can lot formation and clustering reduce fragmented procurement travel?
%
High-risk lots acted on
Do processors respond earlier when environmental or competition risk rises?
North-star outcome: less produce entering harvest day without a credible buyer + pickup plan.
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13 — GO-TO-PILOT
Start narrow: one crop, one corridor, a few processors — then learn fast.
A coordination product becomes useful with density, so the pilot is intentionally local.
Pilot
1 crop
2 FPO/coordinator sources
3–5 processors
Prove
Compare matched vs manual procurement
Track timing, pickup, spoilage risk
Expand
Add more crops + corridors
Integrate live risk and supply feeds
Scale
Processor SaaS / coordination fee
Partner integrations
Why this can work: processors already have demand; FPOs already aggregate supply. LotMate makes the handoff earlier and more structured.
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03
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APPENDIX
Evidence & comparison sources
Official/public sources used for problem context and directional competitor positioning.
Post-harvest loss
PIB / MoFPI — NABCONS study (2022; reference years 2020–22): fruits 7.36 MMT / ₹29,545.07 cr; vegetables 11.97 MMT / ₹27,459.08 cr.
Food processing challenge
MoFPI Annual Reports — processors face seasonal/perishable raw material, supply-chain gaps and weak production–processing linkage; sector includes many tiny/micro/small units.
e-NAM
Official e-NAM pages — FPO aggregation, digital lots/e-trading, price/quality information and logistics links.
Ninjacart
Official Ninjacart pages — end-to-end agri marketplace and procurement/supply-chain capabilities, including harvest/supply calendar capture and demand forecasting.
LotMate comparison
Directional feature comparison based on publicly described product capabilities; not a claim that adjacent features cannot exist in other products.
“We are not claiming the market has no procurement platforms. We are narrowing the problem to pre-harvest coordination for processors and making the recommendation risk-aware and lot-based.”
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LOTMATE
Don’t wait for waste.
Coordinate demand before harvest.
We bring three things together:
01
Expected supply
harvest window + quantity before arrival
02
Processor demand
real requirements and transparent offers
03
Risk-aware lot formation
timing + environment + logistics + competition
THE PITCH IN ONE LINE
LotMate is the
procurement coordination
layer between expected
harvest and processor
demand.
MATCH EARLIER