Bengaluru, Sept. 24 --





At his 2.9-acre farm in Chintamani, Karnataka, Ramesh Gowda grows beans, carrots, cauliflower, onions and tomatoes. In recent years, that produce has made its way into the dark stores of Swiggy Instamart, BigBasket, Zepto and Amazon Now. "For them, consistency matters. They want good produce, and they want it regularly," says Gowda.

In Maharashtra's Manchar region, Mahesh Patil, a second-generation farmer, also counts the quick-commerce crowd among his buyers. He supplies onions, lady's fingers, cabbage, mulberry and mangoes to Amazon Now, Zepto and Instamart.

Patil also sells his produce through mandis in Manchar and nearby cities but has no plans to commit to one platform, wary of tinkering with a model th...