Agri-Tech In India: Connecting Digital
India holds the record for the second-largest
agricultural land in the world, with around 60% rural Indian households making
their living from agriculture thus creating a huge scope for Agri-Tech startups
in the country.
In recent days, the central and state
governments are proactively pursuing policies to improve farmers’ lives in
India. In fact, the Union government has an aim to double the average farmer’s
income by 2022. But is enough being done to remove inefficiencies in the
agricultural supply chain to make Indian Agri-Tech a lucrative investment
opportunity?
We have to promote and spread awareness about Agri-Tech
in India.
Agriculture, along with fisheries and
forestry, is one of the largest contributors to the Indian Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) thus having the gravity of diversion of manifold production.
There has been an increased focus on
investments in agricultural infrastructures such as irrigation facilities,
warehousing, and cold storage.
A lot of Yojanas have been introduced to
improve farmers’ fortunes and other facilities which could boost agriculture in
India and that should be properly come into action.
A drop in landholdings (average 1.4 hectares),
small and fragmented land holdings, a decreasing farming land versus a growing
population, decreasing groundwater levels, poor quality of seeds, lack of
mechanization, using technologies in fields, low yield per unit crop and a
dependence on middlemen are some of the challenges for the growth of
agriculture in India.
An absence of an organised marketing structure
for produce, malpractices in the existing non-organised agricultural markets,
inadequate facilities for transportation and storage, scarcity of credit, and
limited access to superior technology to get timely information are some of the
many afflictions which obstruct the Indian agricultural sector.
Opportunities For Agri-Tech many fold Startups
Opportunities lie in areas like how to
increase crop production, improving the nutritional value of the crops,
reduction in input prices for farmers, improving the overall process-driven
supply chain, reducing wastage in the distribution system, easily farm
mechanization available, and enabling connectivity of farmers with the masses
by interlinking the consumer and producer.
Agri-Tech start-ups are also leveraging
technology in the area of market linkages such as retail, B2C and B2B marketplaces
and digital agronomy platforms. Technology aided agriculture start-ups are now
able to address input challenges of agriculture in India from the very
beginning. They are able to provide correct information, techniques, and
efficiencies to farmers both for pre-harvest applications and post-harvest use
cases.