FOCUS AREAS FOR AGRI-TECH STARTUPS: Technology Friendly AgroTourism
1. FARMING-AS-A-SERVICE (FAAS): Agri equipment renting is another area
likely to see market traction. As longer gestation periods are a typical
feature for this sector and modern equipment is expensive and unaffordable for
the average farmer, renting can take the burden of the input costs away from
the farmer.
Eg.: EM3, Goldfarm, Farmart etc Agriservices offers farming services and
machinery rentals to farmers on
2. BIG DATA: going forward, development of farm specific, data-driven
diagnostics to determine soil and crop health will be a big opportunity area.
Startups are based on drones or tractor-based solutions to get data on field,
pertaining to both weather and agricultural data to determine risk. Growing
smartphone penetration will enable precision decision-making in farming
activity to farmers and help drive increased productivity and revenue while
reducing unit-costs. Eg.: Agrostar, RML Agtech are are some frontline start-ups
in this line.
3. MARKET LINKAGE MODELS: Innovations to help farmers with timely and
accurate estimation of sowing and harvesting in sync with consumer demand
patterns. Eg.: MeraKisan.com helps consumers in India to order fresh food and
goods sourced from local farmers.
4. FINTECH FOR FARMERS: Farm income is mostly in cash and it presents an
opportunity for Fintech startups to digitize payments for farmers through
payment gateways linked to their accounts. Such startups can also create the
credit profile environment for funders and lenders.
5. IOT FOR FARMERS:our next generation Smart farming in agricultural business
including concepts like high-precision crop control, data collection, automated
farming techniques which will remove inefficiencies and bolster productivity.
Information on crop yields, rainfall patterns, pest infestation and soil
nutrition can be used to improve farming techniques over time. Eg.: Stellapps
leverages cloud computing, data analytics and wearables to improve agri-supply
chain parameters, including milk production, procurement, cold chain, animal
insurance and farmer payments.
GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES SCHEMES INITIATED BY GOVT:
The Indian Govt. of India has placed
a strong impetus on this sector and aims to double the income of farmers by
2022.
1. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY):
a. Launched in 2016, the scheme provides financial support to farmers and
cover their crop losses. The scheme covers rabi, kharif crops as well as annual
horticultural and commercial crops.
b. PMFBY is a crop insurance policy and premium payable on the principle
amount to the farmers.
2. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY):
a. Under the scheme, allocation of USD7.64 billion has been made for investment
in irrigation, expanding cultivable area, improve efficiency of on-farm water
to reduce wastage, enhance adoption of precision irrigation, etc.
3. Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY):
a. The scheme ensures the promotion of organic farming and balanced use of
chemical fertilizers and enhance the quality of farm produce.
4. Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA):
a. This technique facilitates retrieval of data and data entry from the
internet-based web portals without having internet by using a simple mobile
phone.
b. More than a dozen of services of innovative technology like USSD are
being operationalized for farmers and other stakeholders.
And with this technology friendly agriculture based business agro Tourism
have most potentials for new generation building and techno savvy entrepreneurs
to go ahead.