DigitalMandi
An early market-information app for farmers that reached 41,000 users—and became a lasting lesson in product stewardship.
DigitalMandi was my first mobile attempt to make agricultural market information easier for farmers to reach. The Android app grew to 41,000 users in 2017, then declined after I stopped maintaining it. Its most durable outcome was a lesson in product stewardship that now shapes Krishi AI.
Problem and intended users
Agricultural prices can be difficult to discover at the moment a farmer needs them. DigitalMandi was intended to put useful market information on a phone in a simpler, more direct form.
My role and contribution
I conceived, funded, built, launched, and initially operated the app independently. I was also responsible for the decision not to continue maintaining it when life and priorities changed.
Evidence and outcome
I documented the app’s package name, 41,000-user milestone, and later decline in a public retrospective on LinkedIn. The product is no longer available as an actively maintained service, and I do not present the historical user count as current usage.
The lesson that stayed
The experience left me with a simple principle: show up. Products need care after launch, not only energy before it. When I returned to the problem years later with Krishi AI, that lesson shaped how I thought about releases, feedback, and the long work of earning usefulness.
Limitations and status
DigitalMandi is archived. There is no current product link or public source repository to offer here, and the case study is a retrospective rather than a claim that the service is still operating. The mission did not disappear; it became part of the foundation for what came next.