REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)
For Deployment of Soybean Grain Analyser Application
Closing Date for Submission
June 27, 2026, at 23:59
NATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP NETWORK (hereinafter referred to as “NEN”). NEN is a charitable Trust nonprofit organization with its office at 6th Floor, Bhive Workspace,48, Church St, Haridevpur, Shanthala Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka,560001, India is an independent non-profit & cross-domain AI impact organization, based in India, developing and deploying AI solutions to create impact at scale by improving lives and livelihoods across the global south. NEN has partnered with the Central & State Governments, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoAFW), Ministry of Health, non-government organizations (NGOs), and global non-profits to ensure that our innovations will improve the lives of those who need them the most. At NEN, we take on intractable problems where technologies such as AI can potentially be transformative. We balance scientific rigor with empathy to keep the communities we are trying to help at the core of our work.
We are currently building AI-based solutions in the Agriculture , Health & Education domains such as Digital Farmer Diary, Conversational Agents for Agriculture , Pest and Disease Surveillance in Agriculture, Cough Against TB, Newborn Anthropometry , Oral Reading Fluency to name a few.
In the contemporary agricultural landscape in India, fair quality assessment of agriculture commodities leading to fair pricing is a critical and pervasive challenge for smallholder farmers nationwide. Local practices for determining grain quality & subsequently grain prices often rely on opaque and inequitable & non-scientific methods, leading to significant power asymmetry between buyers and smallholder farmers.
With 11.34 million acres of land dedicated to soybean cultivation, it plays a crucial role in shaping the agricultural landscape of India. Smallholder farmers depend on intermediaries and middlemen to assess the quality of the crops and decide a price for the produce. Traditional & unscientific quality assessment for soybeans involve buyers selecting a sample from a farmer's sack for assessing characteristics such as texture, shape, moisture (often determined by putting it under their teeth), presence of foreign material and color. The entire price for the farmer's soybean harvest hinges on this single sample assessment. These practices are detrimental to the farmers.
To address this challenge, we are developing an AI powered Soybean Grain Analyzer mobile application designed to empower smallholder farmers by providing a scientific, accessible, and affordable tool for quality assessment.
NEN is conducting a deployment of the Soybean Grain Analyser in 2026 aimed to empower small holder soybean farmers to get trustworthy, reliable and real-time quality assessment of their produce. This provides opportunity for fair negotiation and fair pricing to smallholder farmers including women farmers. The platform leverages smartphone-based image analysis and artificial intelligence to support objective grain quality assessment primarily for small holder farmers, farmer collectives i.e. Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Farmer producer companies (FPCs) & also create value for the market actors such as aggregators,oil processors & agri-tech platforms.
This RFP invites multiple highly qualified agencies, including civil society organizations such as NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs), Farmer collectives (Farmer Producer Organizations,Farmer Producer
Companies, Cooperatives, etc.), and Corporate Social Responsibility foundations to undertake the RFP for Deployment of Soybean Grain Analyser Application. Through this RFP, NEN wishes to onboard multiple organisations that can together take up the deployment of Soybean Grain Analyser. Selection will be based on performance and the deliverables listed in sections IV–VI. NEN & the selected partner will formalize the association through a service level agreement. Selected partners will be compensated for the deployment activities, and further details regarding scope, targets, deliverables, and payment terms will be outlined in the subsequent sections of this document.
Organisations with presence in states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh will be given preference.
- Farmer Outreach & training : Training is crucial for the successful deployment and adoption of the Soybean Grain Analyzer among smallholder farmers & farmer collectives (FPOs,FPCs).
- On-the-Ground Deployment and Adoption: Successfully deploy and drive the adoption of the multilingual, AI-powered mobile application, among smallholder farmers, field extension workers & farmer collectives.
- Women’s Participation and Inclusion: Ensure meaningful participation of women farmers in training,and mobile application usage. Strengthen women's access to soybean quality information and market price linked decision-making.
- Institutional Integration: Integrate the Soybean Grain Analyser into the procurement operations of the farmer collectives. Support the use of the mobile application during actual soybean procurement transactions.
Submission Details
All responses to this RFP must be received no later than June 27 , 2026. The proposal should be submitted only through e-mail in PDF format, addressed to the Procurement Team at the following email address: procurement@wadhwaniai.org. The email's subject line must contain the title of the RFP: Proposal for– Deployment of Soybean Grain Analyser Application – National Entrepreneurship Network (Name of the partner).- Only shortlisted agencies will receive an acknowledgement and will be invited for an e-meeting to present their proposals.
- Any proposals received by NEN after the deadline for submission of proposals prescribed in the timeline of this document are liable to be rejected.
For detailed information, please check the complete version of the RFP attached below.