How agritech initiatives brought digital transformation

Recently, the United Nations stated that rising population, increased wealth creation, and urbanisation are perceived threats to global food security. This means that the agriculture sector will have to undergo a shift in approach just like in the past when steps such as mechanised farming and green revolution brought significant productivity improvements.

The agriculture sector must be able to recognise these emerging challenges and should have in place transformational perspectives for solving them. The accelerated and evolving growth of technology is offering new possibilities to agriculture in improving both productivity and farmer’s income.

There is a new tribe of Indian entrepreneurs, who are keen on leveraging this opportunity offered by technology in solving age-old problems in agriculture. These agritech companies come with a long-term commitment to address concerns and issues faced by the farmer and seek to seamlessly transform a traditional farmer’s approach to agriculture. They believe, with the incorporation of new technologies, that Indian farmers will be able to match their global counterparts.

This article attempts to understand the initiatives taken by existing digital technology companies that have brought transformation in agriculture.

Companies transforming agriculture

In this article, we are focusing on specific technologies that have brought significant shifts in agriculture. Here, we are citing specific companies and their initiatives that have made transformational changes to agriculture and the life of the farmer in general.

e-Choupal by ITC: This company, which was largely known for manufacturing tobacco products, surprised everyone with its foray into FMCG, especially food products. To accentuate its supply chain, ITC created a comprehensive digital knowledge hub for farmers with 6,100+ installations of internet kiosks covering 35,000 villages to serve over 40 lakh farmers. Since its inception in 2000, the initiative has not only benefitted the farmers doing business through the network but also compelled public-sector-managed food grain corporations to upgrade their existing systems.

Trringo by Mahindra & Mahindra: This company is a familiar name in agricultural circles as the manufacturer of tractors and farm equipment and to stay ahead of the curve, it is keen on exploring existing tech-based opportunities in agriculture sector. Towards this endeavour, the company has developed a mobile-based app called Trringo that allows farmers to rent out tractors and other farm-related equipment. This enables other farmers to utilise farm equipment without making a sizable investment. With Trringo, farmers benefit from the latest machines, which directly translates to reduced dependence on manual labour, eventually leading to improved productivity and good crop quality.

mKrishi by Tata Consultancy Services: Commonly known as TCS, Tata Consultancy Services is an IT bellwether and is known around the world for its expertise in information technology. TCS has started offering personalised advisory services in audio and visual formats through its mKrishi platform on communication devices such as mobile phones. In general, it is not surprising that a whole lot of government departments and entrepreneurs are trying to leverage the increased penetration of mobile phones in India through mobile-based apps.

Other tech-based initiatives in agriculture

Apart from these big companies, there is a host of new-age entrepreneurs who are keen on providing technological solutions in agriculture. The main thrust of all these ventures is to reduce the duration of crop cycles, save water and energy, and reduce dependence on agro-chemicals. Besides this, some of these ventures are focused on increasing efficiency in farm management, strengthening farmer-market linkages, and improving cold chain logistics for value addition. Here is a list of some notable ventures.

Stellapps Technologies: This is a new-age venture with a focus on providing dairy farm optimisation and monitoring services, especially for small- and medium-herd farms. Its tech tools and applications are known for leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, cloud mobility, and data analytics to improve milk procurement and production, increase cold chain usage, improve animal insurance and regularise farmer payments.

Ekgaon Technologies: This is an IT-based network integrator offering a range of services to farmers, rural businesses, and women. It has created a network with mobile communication technology to encourage the sustainable development of women self-help groups (SHGs) and marginal farmers across the country. Presently, its network comprises over 900,000 women and 300,000 farmers across numerous villages in India.

AgNext Technologies: This is a Punjab-based start-up that uses drones, among other digital technologies, for creating hyperlocal farm data collection and crop analytics platforms. Apart from drones, it utilises computer vision, spectral analytics, and IoT to analyse and provide results on food quality to enable farmers to effectively trade their produce. Currently, it is leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence and advanced data science for providing better services to its customers in agribusiness.

Skymet Weather Services: As the name suggests, this company provides agri-risk solutions by monitoring and predicting the weather. The company can measure and predict yield at the village level for any crop with a high level of precision. It can even predict the weather in the short-, medium-, and long term.

EM3 Agribusiness: There are some companies in the field of agriculture that have grown quickly to operate as medium-scale businesses. A perfect example is EM3 Agribusiness, which is a pioneer in providing Farming-as-a-Service (FaaS). The company runs agricultural centres that offer machines needed for critical farm operations on a pay-for-use basis. At these centres, the company deploys agro-professionals who are conversant about agronomy and associated aspects.

Technology leads the way

India’s present-day agricultural policy is focused on encouraging innovation, entrepreneurship, and out-of-the-box thinking for achieving high growth and income security for farmers. After PM Modi’s announcement about his government being keen on doubling farmers’ income, the urgency to attain better productivity is no longer an option but a necessity.

The start-ups highlighted in this article are in alignment with the aforementioned policy goals. Having said that, there are visible bottlenecks when it comes to access to finance for scaling and commercialising potentially valuable agri-technology. Furthermore, there are impediments to accessing farmer networks for implementing pilot projects by start-ups.

These gaps can be bridged if the government takes a proactive approach towards improving funding deficiencies and technology infrastructure in India. Once there is consensus in the government about the immense potential of agritech, an amicable business environment would be the need of the hour where agriculture start-ups are able to grow and flourish.

Nikhil Das is Founder, Agdhi