With 70% of the Indian households dependent on agriculture, the intervention of Agritech startups in the agriculture sector has been a boon to Indian farmers. Agritech startups introduced a broad array of technologies to the Indian agriculture domain including drones, IoT based sensor networks, automated irrigation, software analysis for pest and disease control, soil health analysis etc. These new-age technologies leveraged by Agritech startups have helped farmers strive against numerous challenges such as uncertain climate, market fluctuations, low productivity and water scarcity.
Growth of Agritech Startups in India
Agritech startups began to take their shape in India only in recent years. However, with healthy tailwinds such as penetration of high-speed internet in rural areas and digital content ecosystem, adoption of advanced technology and government support, Agritech startups began fast-growing across the country.
Beginning with 23 startups in 2013, currently, over 450 startups run in India, innovating and easing the complex agricultural practices and networks within the sector. Agritech startup opportunities in India mainly include:
- Fintech platforms
- Offering farming services and machinery on rent
- E-commerce and market linkages
- Nanotechnology
- IoT and Big data
- Post-harvest technologies
- Smart machines
- Precision farming
Difference between Agritech Startups in India and Global Agritech Startups
Globally, Agritech startups are gaining prominence. The prevalent areas under agritech startups include agricultural biotechnology, robotics, farm management, sensing and IoT, mechanisation, farming systems, etc. In 2016, the global agritech investment was 3.23 billion USD and India is one of the top six countries with the highest number of deals in agricultural technology. Also, India offers an exceptional breeding ground for Agritech startups as the Indian government is in a bid to double the farmer’s income by 2022.
However, the global investments in agri-technology in agriculture are much higher than that in India. While the precision agriculture and farm management segment dominates in terms of funding globally, investment activity in India is directed towards supply chain tech and output market linkage. Also, a comparison with global investment funding patterns reveals that precision agriculture and farm management companies in India are underfunded. Although Agritech startups operating in the various segments of agriculture in India have received a cumulative investment funding of US$532m as of April 2020, the startups have not been able to make global linkages so far. Thus, India must concentrate on financial services, precision agriculture, quality management and traceability to aid the growth of agritech in India.
Headway towards Growth with Indian Agritech Startups
Agriculture and farming practices within India are complex and vary from one region to the other. Thus Agritech startups must come up with custom solutions to boost the sector. While agritech funding and start-up infrastructure in India are growing at a fast pace, there is a lot to be done in terms of investments in technology to take Agritech to a level that is comparable to global funding levels. However, Initiatives such as eNAM, localised data generation and state-wise research will further accelerate the adoption of agritech and potentially boost the agriculture sector.
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