Connect with:
Wednesday / November 20. 2024

logo
mobile-logo
HomePosts Tagged "AgriBazaar"
Agrotech, Company News, Digital Technologies, India, Start ups

The project will digitally visualize agricultural data spanning over 57,000-gram panchayats across 827 blocks in all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

 Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, inaugurated an AI-driven Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based command centre in Lucknow. Spearheaded by Agribazaar, India’s leading agritech platform and a member of the StarAgri group, this initiative is part of the crop survey project by the Uttar Pradesh Diversified Agriculture Support Project (UPDASP).

Mapping Uttar Pradesh’s Agricultural Landscape

The establishment of this command centre marks a significant milestone in ushering in a new era of data-driven agriculture in the state. Covering a vast expanse, it will visualize agricultural data spanning over 57,000-Gram panchayats across 827 blocks in all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

The project was developed under the guidance of Manoj Kumar Singh, IAS, Agricultural Production Commissioner (APC), Government of Uttar Pradesh. Agribazaar is the nodal agency for the project for the next three years. It will partner with three private companies in its efforts.

“We are deeply honored to lead this pivotal initiative,” said Amit Mundawala, co-founder & Managing Director, Agribazaar. “The comprehensive data collected will serve as a scientific repository, addressing critical gaps in India’s agricultural value chain. By empowering informed decision-making, it will ultimately benefit both farmers and consumers removing information inefficiency in the Indian agri-value chain.

We’ve developed one of India’s foremost integrated agri-tech platforms, poised to revolutionize the Indian agri-sector with affordable yet customized solutions. It’s intelligent, user-friendly, and supported by our extensive on-ground agricultural knowledge, powered by AI and ML-driven future tech.”

Agribazaar is Poised to Transform Indian Agriculture

The inauguration of the GIS-based command centre underscores Agribazaar’s position as India’s foremost integrated tech-driven supply chain platform.

GIS technology holds immense potential to modernize Indian agriculture. As the nodal agency in the GIS-based Command Centre, Agribazaar’s efforts align with the government’s Amrit Kaal vision for agriculture, paving the way for an inclusive farmer-centric agricultural ecosystem.

The project will enable the real-time visualization and analysis of spatial data and provide stakeholders with valuable insights into soil health, crop yields, and weather patterns. These data-driven insights will, in turn, help enhance resource management practices, identify areas for targeted interventions, boost agricultural productivity, and improve access to farm services like credit and insurance—thus strengthening the resilience of India’s agriculture sector.

The project will digitally visualize agricultural data

Agrotech, Environment, Sustainability, Water

The tie-up will help bolster India’s agri-output with the power of micro-irrigation

AgriBazaar signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Rivulis, a global leader in micro-irrigation products and solutions. As part of the collaboration, agribazaar will enable the farmers on its platform to deploy Rivulis’ best-in-class field irrigation management products and solutions to increase their lands’ yield output effectively.

In the first phase of the partnership, agribazaar will facilitate purchasing and installing Rivulis’ drip irrigation systems for the sugarcane farmers on its platforms. Eventually, the services will be offered to all the farmers – over 3,00,000 – currently registered on the agribazaar platform.

agribazaar will leverage agribhumi, its remote sensing engine, to determine the exact condition of the farmland and ensure the use of irrigated water in a uniform manner. It will assess the need of individual farmers based on their land topography, soil conditions, crop selection and weather forecasting. The platform will also provide in-depth field state analytics with the agriculture weather forecast, vegetation indices, and stages of plant growth, among other vital factors.

The MoU signing ceremony was attended by Kaushal Jaiswal, MD, Rivulis India, Richard Klapholz, CEO, Rivulis Israel, and Eran Ossmy, President, Drip Products Division. Amit Mundawala, Co-founder and MD and Amith Agarwal, CEO & Co-founder represented agribazaar.

The tie-up will help bolster India’s agri-output

Agrotech, Seeds

The company has associated with 34 suppliers to offer its latest services and transform the face of agriculture across India

AgriBazaar targets to enrol over 10 lakh armers through its intelligent data engine – Agribhumi. Agribhumi is the intelligent data engine through which AgriBazaar will be focusing on digitising the entire farmer’s crop journey. Agribhumi will have the following technology to ensure that every requirement of the farmer and his crops are available on the app or mobile. 

  • Block chain
  • Embedded systems
  • Internet of Things
  • Audio/Video Chat bot

Currently, tele-calling and sales visits by the staff are being done to train the farmers and introduce them to use the app. The company has partnered with 34 suppliers, including seed manufacturers and other input makers, to deliver inputs at the farm gates. 

Hoping to get 10 lakh growers’ registrations over the next 12 months, AgriBazaar will be providing intelligent data through Agri Bhoomi on its main app, in addition to its web-based portal. As a result, growers and stakeholders can seamlessly access relevant inputs like farm yield estimates and thus enhance their output. 

Besides remote sensing, the company will leverage satellite imagery for crop identification and estimation to provide farmers with information on climate-based cultivation patterns. Soon, it will also use other technologies to help growers estimate per hectare yield perform quality testing, selling and buying. 

AgriBazaar has successfully mapped yield estimates in three to four districts in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan on a pro bono basis. The company has now been given the responsibility of mapping a few more districts in these states. AgriBazaar has also developed a proprietary algorithm for crop classification in mustard and wheat. The company gathers data and profiles besides details on product diversification and accordingly provides advisory on what earnings to expect and how to expand. 

The company has associated with 34 suppliers

Agrotech, Foodgrains, Interaction

Connecting farmers to markets, AgriBazaar is a new-age digital (electronic) e-mandi for small-farm owners (farmers), merchants and buyers where they can buy and sell agri-produce directly at mutually transparent and best price mechanisms without the involvement of middlemen. Founded in 2016, the idea behind AgriBazaar delivers tech-enabled future-ready solutions to the farming community in a frictionless manner and revolutionise the way post-harvest management services are processed across the country. AgriBazaar facilitates Rs 9000 crore gross merchandise value (GMV) worth of transactions since its inception, making it one of India’s largest online agri-trading marketplace. With a team of information technology professionals, data scientists, agronomists and on-field workers the platform has developed and provides advanced solutions including crop monitoring, image-based testing, and AI-based satellite-imaging for crop-yield estimations, weather tracking and soil moisture detection, among others. In addition to these core services, the platform also offers allied services such as market intelligence, quality testing and agri-produce insurance. At present, the innovative platform connects around 10,000 traders & processors, over 100 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) with its network of over 2 lakh farmers across India. Amith Agarwal, Founder & CEO, AgriBazaar shares his views with AgroSpectrum, on the various ways to make profitable production of food crops in India. Edited excerpts;

How is AgriBazaar contributing to the profitable production of food crops in India?
AgriBazaar provides crop advisory services that help farmers move towards scientific farming with a higher yield, lesser wastage and optimum inputs costs. It is assisting the Indian government in building a farmer database through intelligent data. Crop advisory, smart data and yield estimates will drive profitable food production in our country.

Besides export and processing, what are ways to utilise the surplus production of food crops in the domestic and international market?
Ensuring that farmers can find buyers and vice versa for their produce is a first step in providing an equitable demand-supply gap. AgriBazaar, India’s first and largest private electronic mandi, facilitates the digital-first approach to farmers selling their produce. It allows farmers to save time, transparently ascertain the deal and get higher realisation (selling price) for their crops. With its population size, India needs efficient ways to utilise surplus production by finding buyers and sellers in a fast, reliable, and fair manner.

How would you envisage the future of the food crop market in India?
India’s food crop market is moving towards premiumisation of the small farmers’ produce; farmers will start growing crops that fetch higher price value and require lesser inputs and costs. For example, we witness farmers adopting changing crop patterns like growing mustard with a higher value from traditional rice or wheat. Nutrition fortification and natural farming based agriculture is the future. And consumers expect clean (less chemical and fertilizers) and healthy food crops in the future.

The food grain export industry is struggling with issues such as rejection of food grain consignments by 27 European countries due to pesticide residue. In such a situation, what inputs are required to make food grain production more profitable?

The increase in food grain production demonstrates the willingness and commitment of the government and industry to promote India’s agriculture sector and harness its potential. However, to ensure that these efforts result in a more significant market share, especially in international markets, the government needs to implement good agricultural practices and provide a framework for using lesser chemicals in the fields. Furthermore, awareness needs to be created at the grassroots levels to ensure that our food grain production adheres to international food safety requirements and we go for global food, safety & health certifications as per EU and other nations where we want to export.

What steps should be initiated to strengthen food crop processing and procurement according to you?
A majority of the challenges faced by food crop processing and procurement result from the traditional bottlenecks faced by India’s agriculture sector. Adopting technology in agriculture (agritech) is helping in solving several pain points across the spectrum of the traditional agriculture value chain. For instance, agritech firms like AgriBazaar offering quality management and traceability services can address the problems of uneven quality and lack of large-scale quality testing. Likewise, supply chain technology and output linkages agritech providers can help resolve inefficiencies in the post-harvest supply chain. At AgriBazaar, we have developed a business model to address these end-to-end challenges while catering to the interests of the growers and buyers. Our mission is to empower the sector by developing technology to deliver efficiency, transparency, and traceability in the agri value chain.

What are the challenges faced by the startup industry in food crop processing?
The food processing sector is uniquely positioned at the intersection of agriculture, manufacturing and services. It is currently valued at $260 billion. It can evolve into a sizable growth engine for the Indian economy. That said, it is also true that the sector is marred with challenges that range from supply-side bottlenecks to infrastructure challenges, from quality issues to intermediaries who hamper the farm-to-fork transition of the produce. And capital investment has been weak, and the government needs to create policies to attract private and global capital in this sector.
We aim to fix the broken supply chain by directly linking the farmers with food processing companies – by connecting demand with supply. We started with the idea that a technology-driven platform could help the agri value chain operate significantly fewer overheads and hidden inefficiencies. We digitised the agri value chain with proof of origin and authenticity, enabling traceability whilst bringing down agri-trade commissions from 2-3 per cent to 0.5 per cent.


Dipti Barve

dipti.barve@mmactiv.com

Connecting farmers to markets, AgriBazaar is a