Singhal: need to stitch technologies
The Indian agriculture-technology is growing at a rate of 25% year on year and the start-up ecosystem is playing a critical role, bringing innovation and disruption in much-needed areas.
Highlighting this, Salil Singhal, Chairman, CII National Council on Agriculture, highlighted the need to stitch together the various ongoing tech initiatives towards a holistic effort to improve efficiencies in Indian agriculture.
He was speaking at the AgTIVE 2019 (Ag-Tech Innovations for Viable Enterprise) was launched at The Global Dialogue on Digital Pathways in Agriculture at New Delhi on 5 Dec 2019. The Summit is a flagship event under CII Ag Tech program.
“AgTIVE 2019 is an attempt to understand, analyze, and draw insights from and for the rapidly evolving agri-technology innovation ecosystem in the country”, said Singhal, also Chairman Emeritus of P I Industries Ltd.
He also pointed out that innovators have been captured in a report under four broad heads of Data Analytics; Post-Harvest Technologies; Mechanization and Automation and Value Chain Management.
Separately, CII, as part of its overall agenda on agriculture, has prioritized technology led agricultural transformation and it is in context that the Advanced Technology Program was conceptualized towards facilitating creation of a conducive ecosystem for accelerating uptake of advanced technology.
Addressing the Dialogue, Parshottam Rupala, Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, pointed out that the need for ensuring technology uptake at farmer level is critical.
This, he added, will happen only when the solutions create value for farmers.
Rupala also stressed on the need for real time data collection and management for the growth of agriculture in India.
The Indian agriculture-technology is growing at a rate of 25% year on year and the start-up ecosystem is playing a critical role, bringing innovation and disruption in much-needed areas.
Highlighting this, Salil Singhal, Chairman, CII National Council on Agriculture, highlighted the need to stitch together the various ongoing tech initiatives towards a holistic effort to improve efficiencies in Indian agriculture.
He was speaking at the AgTIVE 2019 (Ag-Tech Innovations for Viable Enterprise) was launched at The Global Dialogue on Digital Pathways in Agriculture at New Delhi on 5 Dec 2019. The Summit is a flagship event under CII Ag Tech program.
“AgTIVE 2019 is an attempt to understand, analyze, and draw insights from and for the rapidly evolving agri-technology innovation ecosystem in the country”, said Singhal, also Chairman Emeritus of P I Industries Ltd.
He also pointed out that innovators have been captured in a report under four broad heads of Data Analytics; Post-Harvest Technologies; Mechanization and Automation and Value Chain Management.
Speaking about the CII Ag Tech Program, B Thiagarajan, Co-Chairman, CII National Council on Agriculture, spoke about Network of Agri StartUps, Venture Financiers and Incubators (NAVI) platform that is supporting ventures by matching them with Incubators and Accelerators, helping asset Portfolio for Investors and providing arena for multi-stakeholder interactions.
At present 60+ start-ups are registered on the platform, noted Thiagarajan, also Managing Director, Blue Star Limited.
He also mentioned about another key component of the program AgHack – Agri-Virtual Grand Challenge Hackathon 2019 which provided an ecosystem to students where in 280 Participants from 29 Universities participated.
An important area of deliberation during the summit was around assessing existing partnership between Innovators, Industry, Academia and Government and scope of scaling these. It was identified that farmer centric models creating enhanced value for farmers are finding greater traction from various partners.
Another key area of discussion was Future of Investment in AgTech. It was discussed that increased formalization and digitization in agriculture is creating an interest towards agri venture investments.
“Farmer platform and Fintech are picking up very fast while post-harvest management and farm gate interventions are still nascent but offer huge opportunity for scaling,” said CII. Existing gaps in investments were mainly seen in life sciences and agri biotech.
Other sessions during the day focused on the future trajectories of key technologies and how they will have a wider impact across the sector catalysing the uptake of innovation and bringing a transformative change.
The Global Dialogue on Digital Pathways in Agriculture also saw an Innovators Pitch – AgLive 2019. The session provides innovative startups a platform to pitch their technology and win recognition by CII and opportunity for mentorship and scaling. The past winners of CII AgLive have successfully secured funding and scaled over the years.
The event saw participation from Government, Innovators, Technology solution Providers, Venture Capitalists and other stakeholders of the Agri Innovation ecosystem. fiinews.com
