AgriTech: Startups Leading Technological Advancement in Agriculture
Startups are undoubtedly disrupting traditional agriculture, creating a win-win situation for both farmers and businesses by introducing digital technology that increases efficiency and productivity. Agritech, like fintech and EdTech, has emerged as a promising field for both businesses and investors. Consider this: according to NASSCOM, India had 38 agritech startups in 2013, but it now has more than 450 Agritech startups, with the number growing at a rate of 25% per year.
Technological Advancement in Agriculture
Startups are undoubtedly disrupting traditional agriculture, creating a win-win situation for both farmers and businesses by introducing digital technology that increases efficiency and productivity.
Agritech, like fintech and EdTech, has emerged as a promising field for both businesses and investors. Consider this: according to NASSCOM, India had 38 agritech startups in 2013, but it now has more than 450 Agritech startups, with the number growing at a rate of 25% per year.
In India, agriculture employs more than 58 percent of the population, but it accounts for only 20 percent of GDP, indicating a growing need to harness potential technology to improve the economic and business prospects of all stakeholders.
Challenges and Rise of Agriculture
Many challenges and uncertainties plague Indian agriculture, resulting in inefficiencies in the ecosystem, such as a lack of good quality seeds, poor market linkages, inadequate irrigation facilities, and data loss.
However, the advent of agricultural technology has created a space for innovation that can boost efficiency and productivity. This is where we've seen startups jump in and create enormous value by leveraging new-age technologies like IoT, AI, Machine Learning, Precision farming, and so on, and marrying them with big data to make sound decisions.
In the form of unmanned drones that can be used for irrigation, artificial intelligence has also opened up a new window in farm management. Weather forecasters, automated machinery, AI-enabled planting and weeding, and automated harvesting are some of the other applications of AI. AI is also used in soil testing and analysis, predicting suitable environments for crop safety.
Also Read: AgroStar- Agri Business Startup for Farmers in Rural India
List of Some AgriTech Startups
Krish-e by Mahindra & Mahindra Group, a popular agriculture app, provides a customized crop calendar for your farm as well as useful agriculture knowledge about weed control, irrigation, fertilizer management, seed treatment, pest and disease management, and crop diagnostic and treatment. This farm software, which is available in eight widely spoken Indian languages, is the go-to technological solution for increasing farm output.
AgriCentral is an Agriculture app for Indian farmers that help them make critical farming decisions to increase profitability. AgriCentral guides farmers into the digital farming era by utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as global positioning, satellite imagery, big data analytics, machine learning, and image analytics.
Krishify is a one-stop marketplace for farmers. It assists farmers in discussing various cropping issues and determining their agricultural input requirements. Most importantly, the app facilitates social networking in the lives of millions of farmers by connecting them directly with businesses. Our primary goal is to help every professional in Indian agriculture improve their business prospects.
This app is referred to as the "Kisan Suvidha app." It gives farmers up-to-date and relevant farming information. Furthermore, the app is available in several Indian languages. It includes a variety of features such as weather information, crop protection, agri advisors, and many more.
Bijak aims to address the information gap and lack of accountability in agricultural commodity trading. Bijak is a platform where suppliers and buyers can not only transact or discover each other but also find meta-data about each other to make a faster and more reliable transaction through the application.
Also Read: Top Five Urban Farming Startups in India
