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HomePosts Tagged "digital agriculture"
AgroPolicy, Agrotech, Horticulture, India, IT, Live Stock, Start ups

It aims to deliver curated content to farmers on time and upskill the vast network of extension workers for agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, livestock and rural livelihood missions through certified online courses.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding in New Delhi with Digital Green under public private partnership framework to build a national level digital extension platform. The platform will host a digital library of curated multi-format multi-lingual content, help extension workers access and deliver curated content to farmers on time and upskill the vast network of extension workers for agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, livestock and rural livelihood missions through certified online courses.

The MOU is with Digital Green, an award winning social enterprise that is leveraging the power of technology to support small and marginal farmers to enhance their productivity and income, strengthen their agency and build community level resilience. Founded by Rikin Gandhi, a technocrat and social development enthusiast, Digital Green has been working with governments in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, serving over 25 lakhs farmers and having enhanced the capacities of over 4000 front like workers.

Speaking on the occasion, Manoj Ahuja, Secretary, MoA&FW, GoI said that “The proposed national digital platform will help make our extension system more efficient and effective by connecting farmers to the strong foundation of digital agriculture ecosystem that is being built by the government. Digital capacity of this extension system is crucial to help farmers reap the benefits of digital agriculture and will serve as one of the component of digital public infrastructure for Agriculture announced recently in the Union Budget “.

There are over 200,000 extension workers in India in agriculture, livelihood and allied sectors. This ambitious initiative will converge the outreach efforts of departments of agriculture, horticulture, livestock, dairy, fisheries and rural livelihoods under a single digital platform through a decentralised content creation and targeted dissemination. To be launched within six months, the platform will have the portal and capabilities to serve the entire farming community in India and catalyse Agtech and other market actors with newer and higher value proposition.

According to Rikin Gandhi, technology has no value unless it makes a positive difference to the last mile farmer. Thanking the GoI for investing in technology to make Indian farm system future ready, he said that “we are honoured and proud to be partnering with Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and be a key stakeholder in making our small and marginal farmers thrive and proposer. He further added that the envisaged platform will contribute to and complement the national systems to emerge as a digital public good for the farm sector in India.’’

It aims to deliver curated content

Agrotech, Company News, India, Start ups, Sustainability

Funds to be utilised for the enhancement of the technology and expanding into new geographies

Bharat Krushi Seva (BKS) an agritech company started in July 2021 with a mission to drive mass adoption of digital agriculture across India, has raised Rs 43 million in its first round of seed funding from marquee investors, namely S Amit Group, Upaya Social Ventures, Villgro, Criyagen Agri and Biotech, Mintosh Advisory and SiriusOne Capital. The funds will be utilised for the enhancement of the technology and expanding into new geographies. Currently BKS has catered to over 2 lakh plus farmers across Maharashtra and with this new seed funding, will reach out to a further 2 lakh farmers making a positive impact in their lives.

“BKS has a vision to touch the lives of 5 million farmers in the next four years as a part of their ‘Mass Adoption of Digital Agriculture’ campaign. I firmly believe that technology can make a huge difference in the lives of farmers and with our tech-based platform we envision making the lives of farmers easier and self-dependent,” said, Sharayu Lande, Founder and CEO, Bharat Krushi Seva.

“While agriculture in India has problems such as fragmentation, inefficiencies, and climate vagaries, it also brings with it infinite possibilities to create sustainable big businesses. With scientific and data driven advisory being at its very heart, Bharat Krushi Seva is passionately building a comprehensive tech-based platform to profitably solve such complex issues and help each and every farmer grow more sustainably. We are truly excited to be part of this venture, what we can only classify as, our fulfilling journey,” said Lead Investor Amit Mehta, S Amit Group.

“Despite their crucial role in feeding the world, most smallholder farmers are desperately poor and deeply vulnerable to the changes that are affecting our climate. Upaya is excited to partner with Bharat Krushi Seva to give farmers the information and tools they need to increase productivity in an increasingly challenging environment,” said Kate Cochran, CEO, Upaya.

“BKS is bringing substantial value-add to the smallholders farmers in Maharashtra through their technology based Business-to-Farmer (B2F) platform. The uniqueness of BKS platform combined with trust and affordability that multiplying quality in the farm supply chain and increasing production efficiency further reaffirmed our view that the company is on the right track and creating financial impact in the life of the smallholder farmer,” said Mohammad Azhar, Lead Government & Public Sector Initiatives at Villgro.

“We believe agritech has the potential to solve some of the biggest challenges that the agriculture industry is facing today. We are excited to invest in this highly promising start-up and support the highly passionate founders,” said Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, Lead Investor, Mintosh Advisory & SiriusOne Capital.

“We have made a strategic investment in Bharat Krushi Seva in our quest to develop the agritech ecosystem. These investments are essential for the growth and sustainability of the agriculture industry and prosperity of the farming community,” said Basavaraj Girennavar, Chairman and Managing Director, Criyagen Agri and Biotech.

One of its flagship products, the Automated Weather alerting system, keeps farmers informed about the changing weather conditions and delivers-farm-specific, crop-specific and crop-stage specific actionable recommendations to farmers to reduce the loss in the yield. 

“We have delivered More than 5000 products till date to the doorsteps of the farmers. Our local level supply chain network of retailers and dealers helps farmers get just in time delivery at their doorstep ensuring quality brands and reduction in damage of stocks too,” said Hemant Dhole Patil, Founder and COO, Bharat Krushi Seva.

BKS aims their solutions will help farmers grow a quality yield, extend shelf life and get a better market price through farm sourcing via institutional buyers directly. This will also result in lesser wastage of food. It is not only the social and economic impact that BKS helps a farmer with, but the environment too. Suggestions by BKS have resulted in farmers saving nearly 40 per cent of their total expenditure with an increase in the total yield by 20-30 per cent of optimal quality and nutritional value with minimal use of fertilisers and pesticides.

Funds to be utilised for the enhancement

AgroPolicy, Horticulture

Conference discusses areas such as Natural Farming, Digital Agriculture, Crop Insurance, promotion of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Agricultural Infrastructure Fund

The two-day National Conference of Agriculture and Horticulture Ministers of the States, organized by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in coordination with the Government of Karnataka, concluded successfully in Bengaluru. On the basis of extensive deliberations in various sessions during the conference, the States agreed to increase their contribution in areas such as Natural Farming, Digital Agriculture, Crop Insurance, promotion of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Agricultural Infrastructure Fund towards achieving the Central Government’s efforts for Sustainable Agriculture Development, which will be a concrete step towards achieving the goal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India).

The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar said that there is tremendous potential in the agriculture sector. There is a need to focus on Innovation and technological advancements to address the emerging challenges in this sector and work towards the welfare of small farmers. He said that compared to other sectors, Agriculture performed positively during the Covid pandemic due to specific interventions of the Central Government such as the uninterrupted relaxation given to agricultural works and running Kisan Rail benefitted the agriculture sector and farmers.  Tomar emphasized that there is a need to focus our attention towards better implementation of the policies and programmes of the Government of India in coordination with the State Governments. This includes effective implementation of Digital Agriculture Mission, promotion of FPOs, development of better trade mechanism of agricultural produce through e-NAM, making best use of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi and Agriculture Infrastructure Fund for development of Infrastructure in rural areas. He said that the States need to focus on Crop Diversification keeping in view the demand for high value crops to enable increase in the farmers income. On this occasion, the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shobha Karandlaje and the Agriculture Minister of Karnataka, B.C. Patil were present.

During the two-day conference, discussions were held with the States on important topics for the overall development of Agriculture in the country. The conference also deliberated upon the International Year of Millets – 2023 to be observed in the next year. Keeping in view the importance of Nutritious Cereals, the States agreed to increase their production and area, as well as promote the processing, value addition and marketing of nutritious cereals, taking all possible steps along with the Central Government.

Conference discusses areas such as Natural Farming,

R&D

The demand and importance for precision agriculture is growing significantly in EU countries

ABACO Group, Europe’s leading player in software solutions for land resource management and control with a primary focus on precision agriculture and environmental sustainability, partnered with MarketsandMarkets, a revenue impact and advisory firm, to better understand and expand its geographic reach across Europe and Latin America. The demand and importance for precision agriculture is growing significantly in EU countries. MarketsandMarkets leveraged its Market Intelligence Cloud, KnowledgeStore, to help ABACO assess the adoption rate and market potential for their agricultural technologies in the target countries.

Key findings –

  • Europe holds 27 per cent of the global precision agriculture market i.e., $2.1 billion currently and is predicted to be valued at $4.2 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 14 per cent.
  • The crop monitoring market in Europe is expected to hold 29 per cent of the total market share by 2026, reaching a value of $1.5 billion and estimated to grow at 16.4 per cent CAGR over the next five years.
  • The GIS market in Europe is currently valued at $2.6 billion and is projected to reach $4.7 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 12.6 per cent by 2026. MarketsandMarkets expert analysts helped ABACO with the competitive benchmarking

Antonio Samaritani, CEO, ABACO Group said, “It is very important for us to have a constantly updated view of what is happening globally in the industry. The technological landscape is evolving very quickly, and it is vital that we understand these changes before they take place so that we can accompany our customers on this evolutionary path and bring our expertise outside of Europe. The growth in the market for precision agriculture has opened new vistas for ABACO, because of which we could partner with MarketsandMarkets to fund a worldwide market study on adoption rate and market potential.”

The demand and importance for precision agriculture