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Growth of Agri Start-ups in India

Nagaraju L. G
Assistant Professor
School of Commerce
REVA University
Bengaluru.
India
Cell no: 998o485603
rajuhandpost@gmail.com

Abstract: Agricultural start-ups in India are still at a embryonic stage, with about 300 agripreneurs trying to solve
compound emerging problems in the Indian agribusiness ecosystem. The mutual revenue of all Agritech start-ups in
India is estimated to be less than 100 million USD, which is a drop in the ocean in a market value more than 350
billion USD.Thus, the opportunity to scale and disrupt is huge.India has made a strong name for itself in the global
start-up hamlet. It ranks amongst the top five countries in the world in terms of number of start-ups founded. It is
approximate that India houses around 4,200 start-ups, creating more than 85,000 employment opportunities. By 2020,
the number of start-ups in India is anticipated to increase to more than 11,500, with job creation from these
entrepreneurs reaching 250–300 K by 2020. This paper mainly focuses on growth of Agri startup‟s and how new
startup‟s support for Agriculture development India.
Keywords: Agristratups, Agriculture Development, technology
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I. Introduction
Agriculture in India has shown an increase its average agricultural output since last 6 decades. This increase
in productivity is directly related to Indian Green Revolution (1965) mission, the agriculture sectors got
many rewards from Green revolution like developed Road and Power infrastructure, management of Agri-
inputs and supply chain, including agro mechanisation. As per food and agriculture organisation ofthe united
Nations (2016) the country ranks 139 in per capita in per GDP (nominal)with $2.134 and 122nd in per capital
GDP(PPP) with $7,783 of 2018(world Bank data). Indian agriculture accounted 23% of GDP, and employed
59% of the national total workforce in 2016.1
Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is the largest resource of livelihoods in India. 70 percent of its rural
households still depend principally on agriculture for their livelihood, with 82 percent of farmers being small
and marginal. In 2017-18, total food grain production was estimated at 275 million tonnes (MT). India is the
biggest producer (25% of global production), consumer (27% of world consumption) and importer (14%) of
pulses in the world. India's annual milk production was 165 MT (2017-18), making India the largest
producer of milk, jute and pulses, and with world's second-largest cattle population 190 million in 2012.2It is
the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton and groundnuts, as well as the second-largest
fruit and vegetable producer, accounting for 10.9% and 8.6% of the world fruit and vegetable production,
respectively.

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However, India still has many growing concerns. As the Indian economy has diversified and grown,
agriculture's donation to GDP has steadily declined from 1951 to 2011. While achieving food adequacy in
production, India still accounts for a quarter of the world‟s hungry people and home to over 190 million
undernourished people. Incidence of poverty is now pegged at nearly 30 percent. As per the Global Nutrition
Report (2016), India ranks 114th out of 132 countries on under-5 stunting and 120th out of 130 countries on
under-5 wasting and 170th out of 185 countries on prevalence of anaemia. Anaemia continues to affect 50
percent of women including pregnant women and 60 percent of children in the country3.
While agriculture in India has achieved small piece self-sufficiency but the production is, resource intensive,
cereal centric and regionally unfair. The resource intensive ways of Indian agriculture have raised serious
sustainability issues too. Increasing stress on water resources of the country would definitely need
realignment and rethinking of policies. Desertification and land degradation also pose major threats to
agriculture in the country, in order to solve above issues many agripreneurs are coming in to main stream
and started new agro based startup‟s for fulfilling the gaps raised between production and consumptions of
Food in India

II. Background of Study

As per estimates from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), the demand for food grains
would increase from 192 million tonnes in 2000 to 345 million tonnes in 2030 and hence in the next 20
years, production of food grains needs to be increased at the rate of 5.5 million tonnes annually. In such a
situation, where we have promising macro fundamentals in the sector but the enablers and catalysing sparks
are missing, we need a segment of disruptive technologies/enablers who can leverage technology, leading to
increase in productivity, efficiency and output. Agri technology start-ups are such a meaningful solution
across the agricultural value chain and can be in the form of a product, a service or an application. We have
observed decent growth of Agri start-ups in the country in five focus areas: supply chain, infrastructure
development, finance and related solutions, farm data analytics and information platforms. Supply chain
start-ups broadly involve those working in e-distribution, e-marketplace and several linking platforms. The
infrastructure developer subcomponent.4
largely encompasses those in a drip like technology solution, system or components, hydroponics, etc.
Finance-related solutions are around payments, revenue sharing and innovative lending, whereas farm data
analytics comprises farm mapping, field operations and remote sensing involving interventions. Information
platform start-ups are connected to the information dissemination business.
India currently hosts more than 450 start-ups in the Agri-tech segment, and the sector has received more
than $248 million funding in the first six months 2019, (NASSCOM report 2019)5
"Over the recent years, the Agri-tech sector in India has witnessed some of the global and sector-focused
funds directly investing in Agri-tech startup‟s ... As of June 2019, the sector has received more than $248
million funding, a massive growth of 300 per cent as compared to the previous year,"
according to Agritech in India Emerging Trends in 2019 Report, every ninth Agri-tech startup‟s in the world
is originating from India. The report said there has been a 1.7-times increase in average farmer income in
last decade, enabling farmers to try new tech solutions. More than 50 per cent of Agri-tech startup‟s offer
supply chain solutions like market linkage, better access to inputs (Agritech in India Emerging Trends in
2019 Report).6
Agri start-ups have received decent support from the government through supportive policies such as Start-
up India, Atal Innovation Mission, NewGen Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre, the

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Venture Capital Finance Assistance (VCA) Scheme promoted by the Small Farmers‟ Agri-Business
Consortium and ASPIRE scheme. Such schemes along with well-recognised accelerators, incubators and
mentors identified for the Agritech start-up ecosystem have been working in tandem to provide the best
technical support and reduce the gestation period of Agri start-ups. Going forward, Agri start-ups need to
critically address the inherent issues like low landholding size, longer gestation periods, lower return on
investments, lower affordability amongst target groups, and skill and knowledge gaps amongst farmers
while developing and popularising their business models. In order to make Agri start-ups successful, it is
crucial to enable seamless hybridisation of relevant technology by building a promising „new-age
distribution model‟. We need to develop a new way for the farmer to buy products and get information as
well as credit on one unified platform. Merely providing content on an app is not going to solve the issues of
the farming community. Agri start-ups need to customize suitably for wading into a market that has scant
technology adoption rate (due to limited budgets and inconvenience with its usage) and re-orient their
methods of selling, which essentially will be different from urban India and start-ups operating there.7

Demand estimation of Food Grains by 2030

400 355
350
300
250
180 182 192
200 156
150 110 2000
102 95 93
81 76 2030
100 64 57
30 33 43
50 14 6 16 4.515 17
0

Source: Vision 2030 Indian Council of agricultural research New Delhi

The demand for the agriculture and allied sectors is increased by 2030, the demand is increased more than
100% from 2000 to 2030. The food grains alone increased from 192 Million Metric tonnes to 355 million
Metric Tonnes by 2030, for solving above gap possible only with new technologically sustainable
agriculture

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State Wise Agri Start-ups

State Wise Agri Start-ups

11% Karnataka
7% 27% Maharashtra
NCT
7%
Haryana
Tamil Nadu
8%
Telangana
Gujarat
9% 22%
Others
9%

Source: - NASSCOM Report June 2018

From the above pie chart showing total number Agristartup‟s. Among mentioned states Karnataka and
Maharashtra alone have more than 50% of Agri startup‟s in India

III. Objectives of the study

1. To highlight current status of Agriculture startup’s In India
"India's agriculture sector is advancing steadily towards its digital transformation and the startup ecosystem
is playing a critical role here, bringing innovation and disruption in much-needed areas,
Adoption of technology in agriculture has always needed a structured institutional focus and technology
firms are trying to break into the agricultural landscape using newer business models (NASSCOM President
Debjani Ghosh 2019)8.
The oxford dictionary defines startup as a newly established business. Merriam- Webster, startup‟s means
the act or an instance of setting in operation or motion or fledging business enterprise, according to Eric
Ries, the creator of the lean Startup Methodology, “A startup is a human institution designed to create a new
product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty”9. The website startup‟s commons defines
startup‟s as a team of entrepreneurial talent developing new innovations, in identifiable and investable form,
in progress to validate and capture the value of created innovation with ambition to grow fast with scalable
business model for Maximum impact.
Agri-tech is defined as a segment of companies using technology in the field of agriculture leading to
increase in productivity, efficiency and output. Agritech can be applied across the agricultural value chain
and be in the form of a product, a service or an application. According to MatthewHaughn“Agri-tech is the
use of technology for forming that is developed to improve efficiency and profitability. While most
commonly used in horticulture, and agriculture, Agri-tech is also found in forestry, aquaculture and
viticulture10.

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In a bid to double the farmer‟s income by 2022, the Government of India is endlessly looking for ways to
boost agricultural production, food processing and marketing avenues through the integration of latest
technologies and innovations; thus, creating a huge scope for food and Agritechstartup‟s in the country
(Balaji, 2018)11. India has made a strong name for itself in the global startup community. India ranks
amongst the top five countries in the world in terms of number of startup‟s founded. It is approximate that
India houses around 7200-7700 start-ups, creating more than 85,000 employment opportunities. It is
anticipated that the number of startup‟s in India will increase to more than 11,500 by 2020, with job creation
from these entrepreneurs reaching 250-300K by 2020 (NASSCOM, 2018a; FICCI 2018).12
In the year 2017 $ 53 million was poured into Agritechstartup‟s over 17 deals Agritech, startup‟s are
bringing new innovation in to the farming space in areas like storage, improving supply chain, quality seed
procurement, increased production logistics and distribution(Dipti Nair 2018).13
Indian Agritechstartup‟s have received 300 per cent more funding in the first six months of 2019 than the
total funding received in 2018. Agritech companies raised $ 248 million until June 2019, which was only $
73 million in 2018, according to NASSCOM. “Farmers and Agritechstartup‟s in India have evolved rapidly
over the past few years due to digital penetration and funding, majorly driving the growth in this sector,”
says the report. New areas in the Agritech sector such as market linkage, digital agriculture, better access to
inputs, farming as a service (FaaS) and financing are attracting more and more stakeholders to connect with
this new trend in agriculture. Indian Agritech companies are also focussing on South East Asia, Europe,
Africa and South America (Samrat Sharma 2019)14

Focus areas of Agri-Startups

Sl Focus Area Services Startup’s
No
1 Big Data Determine Soil and Crop Health, Drones
or tractor-based solution to get data on
field, Data based decision making to
farmers for improving productivity and
reducing unit costs.

2 Farming as a Agri-equipment renting, because

Service moderns equipment is expensive these
services can reduce input costs for small
and marginal farmers.

3 Market Timely and accurate estimation of

Linkage sowing and harvesting in sync with
Models consumer demand.

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4 Fintech for Digitise payments for farmers through
Farmers payment gateways linked their accounts,
create credit profile environment for
funders and lenders.
5 IOT for Smart farming like high-precision crop
Farmers control, data collection, automated
farming, information about crop yields,
rainfall patterns, pest infestation and
nutrition.

2. To study the role of Agri startup’s for Indian Agri development

Ministry of Agriculture in affiliation with Startup India launched the Agriculture Grand Challenge on 15th
December, 2017. The challenge is a unique opportunity for Agri-tech start-ups with a commercially feasible
solution to solve for innovative challenges in the sector. The idea is to support the technology base by
funding/ providing incubation support to the best elementary concepts while helping talented and creative
innovations to pursue promising avenues at the frontier of the technology. It will provide start-ups with
access to priority infrastructure, and make Agriculture an attractive sector for the country's best young
brains.15

Importance of Technology on agricultural Value Chain in India

INPUTS
•Getting Agriculture inputs directly on Phone
•Weather Forecast through apps
•Decision support solution for farmers like selling crops at appropriate rates
•Pest Management Solution and Nutritional Management Solution

HARVESTING
• GSM Mobile Controlled motor
• Hi tech Irrigation systems like drip, sprinkler
• Auto steering Tractorsl powered by GPS
• crop Counting Machines
• Machine learning Algorithms to differentiate between Weeds and Crops

STORAGE
Machine based image in technology to sort based on color, size type etc.
wireless sensor to monitor crops connected with smartphone
measuring grains moisture content

MARKET LINKAGE
• Web and Mobile applications to sell directly from farm produce
• price forecasting model prevant inflation
• Dynamic product pricing
• online marketplace for grain
• using data to track a supply chain

Schemes from GOI for Agri startup’s

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Pradhan Mantri FasalBimaYogana(PMFB)
The Pradhan Mantri FasalBimaYogana was introduced in 14th January 2016 with a aim of reducing
agricultural distress and farmers welfare. These scheme financial supports to farmers for crop losses. This
scheme covers Rabi, kharif, horticultural and commercial crops. Farm Guide is a data-driven tech startup‟s
striving to bring all stakeholders in agriculture ontoa digital platform, these startup‟s working for achieving
PMFB in India.16

Pradhan Mantri Krishi SinchayeeYogana(PMKSY)

The PMKSY has been formulated with a vision of extending the coverage of irrigation Har Khet ko Pani and
improving water use efficiency Per Drop More Crop. This programme came in to existence on 1st July 2015.
Under this scheme USD 7.4 Billion has been made for investment in irrigation, expanding cultivable area,
enhance adoption of precision irrigation and improve efficiency of on-farm water. As per 2018-19 total
11.58 hectors of Micro Irrigation achieved.17

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yogana (PKVY)

It‟s a traditional farming improvement programme was launched in april 2015 to support and promote
organic farming and improving soil health. This scheme encourages the farmers to adopt eco-friendly
concept of cultivation and reduce their reliance on fertilizers and agriculture chemicals to progress yields.18

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Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA)

this scheme was approved on 29th March, 2005 with a aim of strengthen research extension and farmers
linkages, shared ownership of agricultural technology system by key shareholders and also develop new
partnerships with the private institutions including NGOs.19

Zero Budget Natural farming (ZBNF)

Is a set of farming methods and also a grassroots peasant movement. This scheme announced by current
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to reduce cost of production of farmers and thereby double their
income.The neoliberalization of the Indian economy led to a deep agrarian crisis that is making small scale
farming an unviable vocation. Privatized seeds, inputs, and markets are inaccessible and expensive for
peasants. Indian farmers increasingly find themselves in a vicious cycle of debt, because of the high
production costs, high interest rates for credit, the volatile market prices of crops, the rising costs of fossil
fuel-based inputs, and private seeds. Debt is a problem for farmers of all sizes in India. Under such
conditions, „zero budget‟ farming promises to end a reliance on loans and drastically cut production costs,
ending the debt cycle for desperate farmers. The word „budget‟ refers to credit and expenses, thus the phrase
'Zero Budget' means without using any credit, and without spending any money on purchased inputs.
'Natural farming' means farming with Nature and without chemicals.20

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List of Agri startup’s and their Focus in India

SL Name of Focus
No Startup’s
1 Bohecod Bombay Hemp Company was incorporated in 2013 supports Indian
Agriculture and sustainable living. They assist regional farmers in
cultivating the crop by providing optimum seeds, best practices in
cultivation techniques and innovating agro- products.21
2 Agricx Provides accurate, quick and portable and easy to use image-based
Lab quality assessment. they currently offers a solution to warehouses and
enterprises clients with a plan to expand across the food production
supply chain.22
3 Gold Farm Its Bangalore based Agri-tech startup‟s, the company offers mobile
app-based tractor booking platform for formers in India, also provide
solar water pumps for farmers working in power deficit areas in India.
The aim of this company is to facilitate the doubling of farm income for
a million farmers in India by 2022.23
4 Agrowave It‟s basically a Supply chain startup in India. Its Mobile e-vendor of
fruits and vegetables that serves small and medium business directly
from farmers. they provide services like, mapping production &demand
using machine learning, plan to use block chain technology for
traceability and using AI to map quality with price.24
5 FASAL It‟s a Agri-tech platform developed by Wolkus Technology Solutions.
It is an AI-powered IOT plat form for agriculture ecosystem that
records a variety of growing conditions on the form. The uses artificial
intelligence and data science to make on farm perditions.25
6 Airwood Ainono pioneers the use of Real-time Intelligence and Agri 4.0 to solve
this intractable problem with next-generation Agri-data science and
artificial intelligence, its Real-time precision Agriculture solutions
stabilises and increases yields by 2X by monitoring over 50 farm
variables, and the predictive supply engine controls the planting –
material and just-in-time harvests to precisely match supply and
demand, thereby doubling price realisation and income for the farmer.26
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7 Cropln Basically,headquarted in Bengaluru, Karnataka digitised 3.1 million
acreas of farmland, enriched the 1.6 million farmer lives. its gathered
data on 265 crops and 3500 crop varieties.
It‟s a leading Agri-tech organisation provides SaaS based solutions to
agribusiness Globally. CropIn enables its clients to analyse and
interpret data to derive real-time actionable insights on standing crop,
help to enable businesses to utilise technology to effectively drive their
initiatives around digitisation, compliance, Sustainability and
traceability.27
8 EM3 Agri Its Agritech startup in India established in the year 2014 by Rohtash
services Mal and Adwitiya Mal. They provide pay-per-use farm services for
every step of the cultivation process, including development, land
preparation, seeding sowing, planting, crop care, harvesting and post-
harvest field management. Farmers can access their farming services
through mobile app.28
9 Ninjacart Ninjacart is India‟s Largest Agri marketing platform, solving one of the
toughest supply chain problems through technology. They connect
vegetables and fruits farmers directly with businesses. The startup has
been funded by Accel Partners, Nandan Nilekani, Mistletoe (Japan) &
Qualcomm Ventures.29
10 FarmLink FarmLink is a data science and technology company with a passion for
helping farmers. Their focus is to drive increased adoption of high-
quality data and precision agriculture tools to improve productivity,
profitability and sustainability of farm operations around the world.30

AGRI STARTUP ECOSYSTEM IN INDIA

Enables such as Incubators/Accelerators are also important partners in the overall Startup ecosystem which
supports and accelerates successful development of businesses. It provides array of business services,
technology and infrastructure support including office space, mentoring and funding (equity or debt) through
grants or investor networking opportunities. Accelerators, incubators and mentors identified for the
Agritechstartup‟s ecosystem, along with the pronounced policy and schemes, need to work in tandem with
the start-ups to provide the best technical support and reduce their gestation period. Apart from the existing
knowledge, digital and financial gaps in the target segment (i.e. farmers), Agritechstartup‟s are also marred
related to people, process and technology. Some successful examples of Incubators/ Accelerators in the
Agritech chain in India are depicted below
NAME FOCUS
Association for Innovation Development of Entrepreneurship in
Agriculture (a-IDEA) is an agriculture-focused technology business
incubator. aIDEA being one of the very few Agri-focused incubators
in the country has a unique approach of supporting the broad spectrum
of technologies in the value chain of agriculture starting from farm to
fork. Through this approach a-IDEA intends to nurture, support and
scale technologies that can bring efficacy in the value chains, improve
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productivity and benefit the stakeholders involved in such Agri-value
chains. These incubators mainly focused on Sustainable inputs, smart
agriculture, innovative food technology, supply chain technology,
fisheries, soil water and weather technology, ICT and IOT in
Agriculture, animal Husbandry, vertical farming, Agri-Biotech, post
Harvest Technology, Farm Fresh retail and Farm Mechanisation. 31

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the National

Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM)‟s
technology business incubator a-IDEA has launched „Agri Udaan‟ a
food and agribusiness accelerator 2.0 along with IIM Ahmedabad‟s
Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE)
This is the government‟s initiative to promote innovation in
agriculture and help startup‟s gain mentorship and connect with
potential investors.32
IIT Madras' Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI) is a
registered not-for-profit society established in Oct 2006. Its mission is
to incubate start-ups whose focus is to impact rural/underserved
societal segments, leveraging ICT (Information and Communication
Technologies)
RTBI is an independent, non-profit institution which has the unique
distinction of having been funded both by the World Bank‟s InfoDev
Project and the Government of India‟s Dept of Science and
Technology‟s as the only incubator focusing on rural technologies and
businesses in India today. Its goal is to combine entrepreneurship with
social development in rural India, with information and
communication technologies as the primary development tools.33
The startup‟s can draw on the expertise and support of 500
professionals of the Deshpande Foundation‟s Hubballi sandbox who
are actively engaged in programs for skill development, agriculture,
livelihoods and healthcare for these rural and semi-urban customers. 34

IIM Ahmedabad has launched India‟s first Food & Agri-Business

accelerator for start-ups in food and agri-business sector in partnership
with agriculture research management institutes. BarrixAgro Sciences
and Greenway Grameenare the investee start-ups of CIIE.35

ICRISAT launched Innovation Hub (iHub) to support agricultural tech

entrepreneurs, scientists and technology experts can collaborate to
innovate cutting edge ideas across the whole agriculture value chain.36
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Indigram Labs Foundation (ILF) was founded in 2015, as Technology

Business Incubator with the support of NSTEDB, DST, GoI. We
believe that entrepreneurs have a unique opportunity to make the
positive global change while remaining profitable the story started a
long time ago with the success of our host organization, Indian
Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP) in setting up more than
1,800 Agri-based ventures through its ACABC program and is
currently promoting 250 FPOs in 18 states. This experience became
the seed for entrepreneurship development through IndigramLabs.We
aims to support 100 innovations in the next 10 years through the
process of mentoring, funding, networking & leveraging platforms
that yield the stated results.37

Challenges of Agri-Ecosystem in India

1. Low landholding Size: - small landholdings by farmers doesn‟t allow mechanisation of the farm to
be cost effective.
2. Return for the Investors: - Agritech is a long term business which requires patience form investors
beforegenerating the return
3. Talent Retention: - Agritech start-ups and enterprises are finding it hard to retain technical talent
working in this sector.
4. Long Gestation Period: - Farmers will take time to develop full trust Agritech technologies which
might affect investors interest.
5. Technology Affordability:-farmers income still a concern in major parts of India making hard for
them to afford the agriculture technology
6. Skill Adaptability: - making farmers adaptive of the required skills for working on these technologies
requires lot of effort
7. Acquisition of Agritech companies: - in India we see very less of Agritech startup‟s being acquired
by large business which are hindering them in scaling up their levels. Global success stories like blue
river climate crop. Got acquired by john degree and Monsanto respectively.

Top Firms focusing in Indian Agriculture

TCS has mobile delivery based advisory platform mKrishi. It provides information
system for farmers which help them access localised information and advice on
agricultural issues. It is a easy tool to sea food growers in stocking, pond
management, feed and water test management and sampling in addition to providing
weather forecast and graphical records.38
Tech Mahindra enables companies to transport produce and meat grown at farm
and deliver it as fresh, real time alerts/ notifications on violations, monitor
storage temperature and humidity levels ensuring food quality.39

It helps in connecting the dots between on-field data and business insights of the
farming ecosystem to transform operations across the agriculture lifecycle.

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Infosys mobility solutions integrate geospatial imagery and data for smart agriculture, livestock management
and logistics;it‟s also offers precision farming solutions for site-specific crop management.40

It‟s helped AQUATEK, a brand of Monsanto Corporation to improve there

product. Cognizant prepared an intuitive interface that can be viewed
across a wide range of devices. The solution involved satellite-linked, soil
moisture probes to monitor water usage and crop health maps to monitor
possible risks to crop health.41

Total startup’s in Agricultural Sector (2013-17)

Startup by Segment

36
Infrastructure
65 Farm & Data Analytics
information Platform

230 30 Finance
Supply Chain
5

Above pie chart showing total number of startup‟s by segment wise. As per the data of NASSCOM annual
report2018-19 there are 366 Agri-tech startup‟s, among 230 Startup‟s are working for supply chain solution.

New initiatives for Promoting Agriculture

1) Planning to provide air cargo support to promote agriculture exports from India.
2) Allotment of 2000 crore (USD 306.29 million) for computerisation of primary agricultural credit society
(PACS) to ensure cooperatives are benefitted through digital technology.
3) New Agri-Udaan programme launched to boost innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture.
4) Launched Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) with an investment of 50000 crore (USD 7.7
billion)
5) Extension of the urea subsidy to the farmers till 2020 estimated at 45,000 crore (USD 6.95 billion)

IV. Methodology
The present study is based on secondary data. The data has been procured from the related articles, research
papers,and reports of Ministry of agriculture, NASSCOM2019, ICAR report, startup‟s India report, some
has been furnished from the website of agricultural startup‟s, incubators and department of agricultural
websites.

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Findings
1) Agriculture contributes a significant figure to the overall economic growth of the country (GDP) and
determines the standard of life for more than 60% of our people.
2) Indian agriculture and grocery market are huge. It is the world‟s sixth largest, with retail contributing
around 65 to 70% of the sales.
3) Agricultural exports from India reached USD 28.09 billion during the April 2017-january 2018 with
exports of Basmati
4) India has set a target of achieving an ambitious target of doubling farm income 2022. It has also planned
to increase the average income of a farmer to 219,724 (USD 3,420) by 2022-23 from 96,703(USD1,505)
in 2015-16
5) According to NASSCOM annual report 2018-19 there are 366 Agri-tech startup‟s, among 230 Startup‟s
are working for supply chain solution.
6) These das top firms are entering arena of agriculture like Tata, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and Cognizant.
These companies are investing in to new technology in agriculture.
7) Small holding is the major problem for adopting technology solution in to agricultural sectors in India.
8) Incubators/Accelerators are supporting innovative entrepreneurs to make their intangible idea to tangible
products.
9) Many Agristartups are working for new Argoequipment‟s, it leads India moving towardstechnology-
based agriculture,
10) Government of India schemes are making farming sustainable and support double income in farming
community.
11) Many organic materials are revolutionising in Indian agricultural products.
12) Agristartups bringing new ecosystem to nurture innovation,
13) India ranks 114th out of 132 countries on under-5 stunting and 120th out of 130 countries on under-5
wasting and 170th out of 185 countries on prevalence of anaemia. Today‟sagristartup‟s addressing these
issues.
14) Government of Indiataken many initiatives for solving agrivaluechain problems like, inputs seeds,
harvesting, market linkage and storage solutions.

V. Conclusions
India currently sheltered more than 450itech sector start-ups in the Agritech sector, the sector in India is
growing at a rate of 25% year on year, also witnessed some of the global sectors directly focused on
agristartup‟s. According to June 2019data Agritech sector attracted $248million funding, a rise 300% as
compared to the previous year. Digital transformation and start-up ecosystem playing a vital role for
bringing new innovation in this sector. Since last five years more than five global Agritech companies
started in India, many agristartup‟s are focusing market linkage, digital agriculture, better access to inputs
and financing are gaining attraction, these technological mechanisms help local farming become a
sustainable and profit yielding enterprise.

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