India is a land of agriculture. Wherever we grow in India, we can find many agricultural lands. Whatever the type of crop, more than 60% of Indians have depended on farming for many decades. Almost every one of us has farming origins in our families. But even though these many people are lending their services to the nation through agriculture, farming only contributes less than 20% of the national GDP. This has several causes.
Many Indian farmers don’t have a keen idea of technology and the prices of the crops. This leads to the wastage of the crops and selling them at a lower price. Because of these problems, farmers used to suffer so much.
Agri startups in India have come as a boon to farmers. This ecosystem has been made more advanced, coordinated, and robust thanks to the work of agritech startups, and the farmers of India stand to benefit the most from these improvements.
What is meant by Agritech Startups?
Agritech startups, also known as Agricultural technology, promote environmentally friendly and sustainable farming practices along with modern technologies that are extensively used by the agriculture industry to increase profits and efficacy.
As a result of the special relationship between agriculture and India, Agri startups in India have great value and assist many farmers in yielding more quantity of the crop by following sustainable and organic farming methods. Most of the Agritech startups in India encourage farmers to use organic methods like organic fertilizers and pesticides and follow waste segregation methods.
Why are agritech startups in India necessary?
The agriculture sector and farmers in India face certain problems. Let us look at a few of them.
- India’s crop earnings per acre are typically less.
- India’s low agricultural productivity is also due to poor and unorganized water resource management.
- The absence of innovative farming practices lowers agricultural output and results. Poor farming communities are uninformed of contemporary techniques and don’t use them, which lowers profits.
- More wastage and poor agricultural exports result from improper storage and marketing. Essential but often neglected in the context of farming is quality maintenance.
- The absence of industrial research and development has hampered the dreams of farmers who live to farm.
- Numerous farmers and their families have been thrown into disarray as a result of revenue shortfalls. As we know, some farmer suicides have destroyed dreams for their families due to large loan histories.
Because of these problems, farmers are getting less income. For many years, agriculture in India has been a major contributor to the country’s GDP and sets the standard of life for over 60 percent of the people. To put a checkmate to the above problems and raise rural incomes, protect farmer interests, and boost economic turnover while simultaneously meeting our country’s nutritional and food requirements, agri startups are necessary.
These startups are excellent green business ideas anyone can establish. Agritech startups in India require constant support, heavy investment, public exposure, and marketing so that every farmer around the country can know about it.
Benefits of agritech startups
- Agritech solutions reduce crop loss and waste to boost farm productivity and profitability.
- With technology, today’s agritech firms have sped up the acceptance of new technologies and removed numerous obstacles from the supply chain, particularly the inbound supply chain. This helped producers maximize production, find more customers, and boost sales by connecting them to internet markets.
- Agritech enabled product grading, online tracking and labeling, and a more efficient supply chain that minimized leakages, damages, and losses during transportation.
- Building a scalable business with perishable goods like fruits and vegetables was difficult and prevented companies from growing. With the support of tech-enabled warehouses and collection centers, local agritech firms have helped established businesses scale, while consumers have benefited from lightning-fast product delivery thanks to hyper-delivery apps.
- Agritech startups made transactions fairer and eliminated intermediaries that abused farmers and caused massive inventory losses.
- Transparency and efficiency enabled farmers to sell their products online at competitive prices and understand market demand.
- India has a major percentage of small and marginal farmers who still depends on conventional, unscientific methods. Agritech startups opened new capital channels and boosted yield through data, real-time crop monitoring, insights, digitalization, crop and soil health, weather forecasts, and better strategies, resulting in higher revenues and lower wastage.
- Agri startups support eco-friendly products, and they often encourage farmers to use renewable sources of energy to produce electricity, i.e., using different types of solar panels through which the environment around us can benefit.
Five agritech startups in India
1. Kheti Gaadi
Pune-based agritech startup KhetiGaadi operates online. A “full-service Agri solution” ensures end-to-end service. KhetiGaadi links 50,000 farmers online. With the availability of 10 languages, these Agri-e-commerce marketplaces connect farmers, contractors, tractor manufacturers, dealers, service stations, brokers, and agricultural professionals.
This agritech business has simplified the process of purchasing, selling, and renting farm equipment for peasants and other agro professionals in India. It analyses the farmer’s farm’s size, crop, and other parameters to select equipment and tools.
KhetiGaadi provides recommendations for agricultural inputs and assists in solving issues relating to farmers’ land, such as nutrient depletion, seed diseases, bugs, crop losses, and so on. This timely advisory service saved many farms.
2. FarmtoFam
Farm2Fam, a Mumbai startup, grows chemical-free microgreens, and it delivers them too.
Farm2Fam promotes natural nutrition’s power to heal the body. They use technology and traditional Indian farming practices to develop specialized nutritional items. This startup works with Pizza Express, Bay Route, and White Charcoal and serves over 300 people monthly. Special requests are met for consumers who pay more.
3. MeraKisan
Pune-based MeraKisan helps farmers sell directly to consumers online. It promotes small, sustainable producers and local food.
Farmers and manufacturers that work with Merakisan believe in sustainable food.
Merakisan helps farmers sell their goods at reasonable prices. This platform gives clients a chance to meet their local kisan and acquire high-quality, affordable products. It has 500 merchants on its website, giving customers many choices.
4. Ninjacart
Bangalore-based Ninjacart is the best fresh produce supplier. Almost 2,000 farmers supply over 80 veggies and fruits to 800 Bengaluru stores and restaurants daily. The company claims it contributed to a 4% decrease in supply chain waste. Ninjacart can deliver 1400 tonnes of fresh foods from farmers to companies daily in less than 12 hours, giving much-needed profits for farmers.
5. BharatAgri
Pune-based agritech startup BharatAgri educates farmers digitally to improve their farming techniques. BharatAgri provides pesticide, crucial weather, and soil analysis recommendations. They analyze costs periodically to maximize production yields.
BharatAgri helps farmers at each and every stage of farming with both online and offline technology, including In-App chat support, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), and WhatsApp.
Conclusion
Right now, what the country needs most are agritech startups. As a result, many business owners are venturing into the industry and striving to make a difference. These new businesses are getting a boost from government initiatives that make it simpler for them to attract funding. Farmers can finally expect higher prices and support this new approach.
