Future Of Agritech 2023: Technology and AI Enhancing Agri Value Chain From enhancing the adoption of sustainable cultivation practices to improving crop quality, agritech in 2023 aims to remove roadblocks in the agri value chain and reduce wastage
By Pushkar Limaye •
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Agritech startups are at the forefront of solving and organizing the fragmented Agri industry with tech-first approach. The rural economy has witnessed a growth of 10 per cent YoY over the last five years and has contributed close to half of the country's overall GDP and yet, it has only scratched the surface in terms of potential growth. Over the last decade, multiple enablers from the government and private sector have come up with strategic initiatives that have advanced the growth of digital infrastructure. Internet penetration in rural India has shown significant growth and increased by 30 per cent on a YoY basis over the last five years.
These trends have allowed startups and traditional entities to come up with innovations and disruptive scalable business models that can address the inefficiencies in the sector. From enhancing the adoption of sustainable cultivation practices to improving crop quality to re-designing the supply chain, agritech in 2023 aims to remove further roadblocks in the Agri value chain and reduce wastage and increase TAT and efficiency.
With a tech-first approach, agritech startups are being helped by the number of tailwinds including increased internet penetration, and a conducive environment by regulators and multiple stakeholders.
Market Connectivity– A major part of the agriculture value chain development must look into innovative ways of linking producers to end users. Agritech startups are building seamless digital platforms that can fully integrated value chains and support value chain actors to process the market linkage from the small and marginal farmers faster. Commercials and large-scale farming are now in play because of tech interventions that help the players in maintaining quality standards, delivery requirements etc.
Tech-powered farming - One of the major drawbacks of farming in India is crop selection on obsolete and anecdotal data about which crops are supposed to yield better at a given time of the year. Agritech companies are now deciphering this data with the help of technology including sensors, drones, satellite imagery, soil condition etc to understand the yield more holistically. This farm-level data helps in aligning variables such as irrigation, insecticide requirement, fertilization, crop rotation etc. With advanced analytics that is tech-powered, farmers can make informed decisions and invest in agricultural practices that will give them best returns.
Tractorization - Rental Entrepreneurs are the special communities within the rural set-up, earn their livelihood by renting their tractors for pre-and post-agricultural activities. Without the relevant knowledge about managing their tractors, their driver, diesel expenses etc, the community was functioning in a very obsolete pattern with no set income. With a telematics system , the agritech start-up Carnot Technologies is building a one-stop solution for the multiple needs of REs providing them with real-time tracking of tractors, precision measurement of dental work done (in acres), and real-time fuel status to guard against fuel theft. This helps the REs achieve optimum usage of assets and save fuel resulting in nearly INR 20,000 in additional income for the average user.
Post-harvest optimization - transportation, inefficient storage, and delays result in wastage of agri-produce and processed foods worth multi-millions. Besides the bottlenecks in connectivity, the lack of traceability often restricts the export potential of agribusinesses. . This can be achieved by increasing automation in agricultural operations with tech solutions to reduce manual errors. Services such as end-to-end visibility and digital marketplaces not only facilitate transparent and traceable transactions but also keep all the stakeholders informed. With e-commerce and Q-commerce witnessing growth, enhancing traceability via tech in agriculture is the next major milestone.
Agritech startups are taking charge of the biggest issues plaguing the agricultural sector and helping it grow.
