The second-largest agricultural land in the world is in India with about 65% livelihood depending on it. Agriculture is growing at a CAGR of 16.4% over FY10 to FY18, whereas the Indian agriculture industry was worth $39.1 billion by 2019. As agriculture research and development were prior based on the increasing productivity and quality but never concerned about farmer’s income, the Government of India now aims to double the income of farmers. There are certain initiatives taken by the government. Apart from this, Indian agri startups are playing a major role in securing the future of agriculture in India.
Agri startups are focusing their research, designs, and developments of their products to meet farmers’ demand rather than making them general purpose. The aim of technology-driven agriculture has increased investments in agritech. In 2019 the total funding for the agritech sector was $244.59 billion which was ~350% more than the amount of funding in 2018. Agri startups are expanding rapidly and helping farmers at every stage of farming with their services like working capital, purchasing right seeds, nutrients and pesticides, harvesting, and even selling crops in the market. These services are based on computer vision, spectroscopy, IoT (Internet of Things) based devices and technologies like AI (Artificial Intelligence), drones, satellites, robotics, and so forth.
Agri startups are essential to the Indian economy as the contribution of the agriculture sector to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is reducing. Though there were problems like lack of government support, lack of structured data, fewer investments, poor infrastructure, and undeveloped policies, now government as well as other investors have understood the need of agri startups and started investing in it. Market demands are changing and consumers prefer high quality and safe food which can also be traced from filed to market including all procedures it has gone through. IoT in agriculture India is possible only with agri startups as it will be available for farmers in their budget along with the company’s services within their reach.
IoT in agriculture India can provide real-time disease risk management solutions, crop health, and other crop-specific or farm-specific parameters required for farmers to take necessary actions. Currently, Indian agriculture is suffering problems like the use of outdated technology, improper infrastructure, and farmers unable to access markets. Agri startups and IoT in agriculture India have the potential to change this scenario and thus the future of agriculture in India looks promising with agriculture services and products made in India.