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Start ups

Dr Ella underlined the role of start-ups in bringing a gradual transformation in the job sector with the younger generation moving towards being job providers instead of job seekers by assessing their growth in the start-up ecosystem

Dr Krishna Ella, Padma Bhushan Awardee for creating Covaxin, India’s first Indigenous COVID-19 Vaccine and Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech International Limited recently visited the a-IDEA, Technology Business Incubator of ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad on June 3, 2022.

During his interaction with the start-Up – “Farm Sathi” (working on farm robotics for weed and pest control, presently housed at a-IDEA Incubation Centre), Dr Ella underlined the role of start-ups in bringing a gradual transformation in the job sector with the younger generation moving towards being job providers instead of job seekers by assessing their growth in the start-up ecosystem.

Dr G Venkateshwarlu, Joint Director, ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad along with Dr S Senthil Vinayagam, CEO, a-IDEA warmly welcomed Dr Krishna Ella to a-IDEA. Team a-IDEA made a brief presentation on various activities under schemes viz, NIDHI PRAYAS, BIRAC-BIG, Bio-NEST and AGRIUDAAN supported by DST, DBT, NABARD of government of India.

The visit was aimed at having an understanding of the operations & programmes being undertaken at the a-IDEA and start-ups supported by the a-IDEA, ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad.

Dr Ella underlined the role of start-ups

Start ups

Dr Jitendra Singh urged Dhami to promote Agri-tech start-ups in the State to arrest the large-scale migration of youth

Union Minister of State (I/C) Science & Technology; Minister of State (I/C) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh recently had a meeting with Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, during which, among others issues, he impressed upon the CM to promote agri-tech start-ups, since Uttarakhand had a vast potential for it. He also updated Dhami about the Aroma Mission launched by CSIR in the Union Ministry of Science & Technology.

The two leaders also discussed implementation of various centrally funded schemes in the State & the current affairs related to the State.

Dr Jitendra Singh urged Dhami to promote agri-tech start-ups in the State to arrest the large-scale migration of youth and promised all help from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The Union Minister said that the geography and climatic conditions in Himalayan states like Uttarakhand favour the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants and these can be developed into agri-tech and aromatic enterprises. Referring to the huge success of CSIR supported Aroma Mission in Jammu and Kashmir, the Minister said, the same can be replicated in a big way in Devbhoomi.

Dr Jitendra Singh urged Dhami to promote

Start ups

The joint venture together aims to create an ecosystem that is Sustainable, Economic and boosts the Environmental Development of Villages through Agriculture Tourism

A S AGRI AND AQUA LLP, widely recognised as a pioneer in Hi-tech soil-based Vertical Farming in India and one of the largest turmeric producers has announced their investment in Shark Tank fame farmer Pandurang Taware’s startup Agri Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC). The move is a positive step towards bringing attention to Agri Eco-Horti Tourism in India and work on a combined vision of providing the maximum benefits to the farmers, the company statement shared. The joint venture together aims to create an ecosystem that is Sustainable, Economic and boosts the Environmental Development of Villages through Agriculture Tourism.
  

“Agriculture has lot of potential in many ways and if given the right direction, farmers can contribute a lot in the country’s growth. We are looking at working together and bringing hi-tech cluster vertical farming projects under the belt of Agri Eco-Horti Tourism in India. This will serve as a joint platform to further the agenda of helping the farmer community become financially self-sufficient and independent,” shared Dr Prashant Zade, Founder, A S AGRI AND AQUA LLP.

The turmeric produced by A S Agri is consistent in quality, variety, growing method, and contains levels of curcumin suitable for export – giving access to a huge international market.

Pandurang Taware, Founder, Agri Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) shared, “A S AGRI, with its immense expertise has given the much-needed confidence to the farmers to start their own Agri Eco Horti tourism centres. Coupled with vertical farming clusters, the new projects will definitely play an important role in future food production of the country.”

“We’re seeing good reception so far with this model with more than 1500 projects running and this is only going to grow in the coming years with the cluster projects being announced which will benefit lacs of farmers,” Dr Zade shared.

The joint venture together aims to create

Agrotech, Start ups

CropTrails will help SatSure expand and strengthen its international market reach into its target geographies in Africa, LATAM and SEA

Bangalore based SatSure, a deep tech startup working at the intersection of spacetech, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Software as a Service (SaaS) to drive decision intelligence, is pleased to announce the acquisition of SaaS application CropTrails, which was conceptualised and incorporated in the year 2018 by Indore-based startup OEPP Innovations Private Limited.

CropTrails is a web and android application designed to bridge gaps in the processes of farm management. The mobile application is used as an information collecting tool by the field officers or supervisors to record and digitise information about farmers, farms and crops. The application allows the users to monitor and control the crop cycle, track input usage like fertilisers, access weather forecasts, and track farm visits by the supervisors, among others. CropTrails also doubles as a field force productivity monitoring tool with in-built role-based user management.

This development comes in after SatSure raised $5 million in Pre-Series A funding in a round earlier this year. SatSure shall be transforming CropTrails into a no-code platform for IT teams of agribusinesses to rapidly prototype and build their in-house tool that can be easily integrated with SatSure Sparta’s datasets.

“Farm digitisation tools like CropTrails are necessary for countries such as Nigeria and the Philippines. It forms the first digital layers on top of which other services can be rendered. Thus, this acquisition will help SatSure expand further and strengthen its international market reach into its target geographies in Africa, LATAM and SEA. SatSure will also use the collected data and feed it into its proprietary algorithms to increase its learning rate as part of this deal,” said Prateep Basu, founder and CEO of SatSure.

CropTrails will help SatSure expand and strengthen

Agrotech, Start ups

The team have built a digital platform with a big Bharat footprint – including 500,000 app users, 4 million rental hours and 4 million acres of farmland

Mahindra Group has increased its stake in Carnot Technologies, an ag-tech startup, to approximately 69 per cent. The group has also affirmed its commitment to its vision of making Krish-e, the group’s farming as a service vertical, India’s largest ecosystem of digital products and solutions. As part of the round, an attractive ESOP pool for future employees has also been created.

Talking about the investment Senior Vice President of Farm Equipment Strategy and Head Krish-e Ramesh Ramachandran said, “This investment signals our strategic commitment to Carnot. They have been at the forefront of building for Bharat and innovating specifically for farmers. Since our last investment in late 2020, they have been our partner in leading the digital product and technology vision for Krish-e and in just under 18 months we have built a digital platform with a big Bharat footprint – including 500,000 app users, 4 million rental hours and 4 million acres of farmland. We now deepen the ties and continue building on our strengths.”

Carnot Technologies is a start-up founded by IIT Bombay alumni which developed the leading agriculture IoT platform Simha (rebranded to Krish-e Rental) which now has over 25,000 tractors, harvesters and sprayers working on over 3 million acres of land each season. The platform is protected by 5 patents and was awarded the Qualcomm Design in India award for $100K by then Minister of Cabinet for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad.

“The team has also developed the Krish-e app which through its unique and intuitive farmer centric design is helping farmers earn up-to Rs 15,000 more per acre.” said Pushkar Limaye, Co-founder & CTO at Carnot. “In the course of our partnership with M&M, we realised that someone had to understand our farmers, and make products that are innovative, highly cost conscious and make sense for our farmers. And if it’s not the next generation of engineers and entrepreneurs then who will build them? With this round of investment, we also want to move into top gear, in pursuit of building a great team and a data driven culture within every function.”

The team aims to invest more in their technology and people to scale rapidly in the next year. Carnot CEO and Co-founder Rohan Vadgaonkar added “With our technology and product mindset and Mahindra’s strong brand and presence in rural India, we’re perfectly poised to build India’s largest agri marketplace.”

The team have built a digital platform

Agrotech, Start ups

The device is equipped with advanced features which systematically convert waste into manure in just 10-20 days

Agnys Waste Management Private Limited, an IIT Kanpur incubated company, has developed an automatic composting machine known as BHOOMI (Bio-composting of Horticulture & Organic waste into Manure indigenously), in collaboration with Imagineering Lab, IIT Kanpur, with support from Engineers India Limited.

The device is equipped with advanced features like carbon filters, shredders, air pumps, solar panels, which systematically convert waste into manure in just 10-20 days. The ergonomic design makes it easily operable and in recycling organic waste.

The product’s advanced features like carbon filters, shredders, air pumps, and solar panels make it more efficient and cheaper than the currently available products in the market.The decentralised composting device can easily be installed at any bulk waste generator like apartments, hotels, hostels, institutions, etc.

Abhay Karandikar, director of IIT Kanpur commented, “Proper waste management has always been a pertinent and crucial issue, especially in urban areas. This invention is in line with our commitment to sustainability and environmental conservation. I believe this device would contribute significantly to our #SwacchBharatAbhiyan and #SmartCityMission initiatives.”

The device is equipped with advanced features

Start ups

AgFarm aims to revolutionise the agricultural world digitally by allowing the buyers to access and buy agro-inputs with just a few clicks

Vaman Alawadhi, a young entrepreneur with a passion to craft his own niche in the agro inputs sector, along with his partner Sandeep Chauhan has launched a Dubai based agrochemical start-up ‘AgFarm’.

AgFarm aims to revolutionise the agricultural world digitally by allowing the buyers to access and buy agro-inputs with just a few clicks. Following their vision of producing and providing high-quality agro-based products to Indian consumers the newly launched company has now opened its offices in India as well.

AgFarm will be the first agrochemical company whose products, which includes herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and plant growth regulators, will only be available on e-commerce platforms like nurture.retail, DeHaat, AgroStar, FAARMS etc at never-before attractive prices. At these platforms AgFarm will unlock the digital connections between manufacturers, retailers and dealers and will also allow them to buy the products at affordable prices with best quality assurance. Other than getting the delivery of AgFarm products at their doorstep the buyers will also get additional discounts by using digital payment modes.

Vaman Alawadhi, the Director of AgFarm, said, “It is high time to modernise the agriculture sector in India in every possible way to ensure food quality, food safety, and cost competitiveness. Today, when we are on the verge of adopting modern technologies such as IoT, AI/ML and agri-drones in farming, we should also adopt and promote digital buying and selling of agro inputs to break the vicious circle of mediators and give the dealers, retailers and farmers direct access to manufacturers, leading to fair prices and authentic products for them.”

AgFarm aims to revolutionise the agricultural world

Interaction

Progressive farmers, women entrepreneurs, start-ups and FPOs participated in the fair

Union Minister of State Kailash Choudhary has inaugurated Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela 2022 in New Delhi on March 9, 2022. The three-day Krishi Mela is being organised by the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) under the guidance of the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar.

Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, DARE and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) presided over the function. On this occasion, Choudhary dedicated “Pusa Agri Krishi Haat Complex” developed in two acres. Farmers and Farmer Producer Organisations will be able to do direct marketing of their products in the ‘Pusa Agri Krishi Haat Complex’.

With this facility, consumers will be able to buy the products of farmers directly, which will free them from middlemen. There is a provision of 60 stalls, haats and shops in this huge complex to promote farmer entrepreneurship. Thousands of progressive farmers, women entrepreneurs and start-ups from different parts of the country have participated in the fair.

Choudhary said that the government has not only implemented MSP by increasing the rate on more crops but has also increased the procurement. Ten thousand new FPOs are being built in the country at an expense of Rs 6,865 crore. Facilities are being mobilised in villages from the Agriculture Infra Fund of worth one lakh crore rupees. Special packages have also been given for the sectors allied to agriculture. He called upon the farmers to move forward and take the advantage of the schemes in collaboration with the government.

The major attractions of the fair are: Smart/Digital Agriculture, Agri Start-ups and Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO), Organic and Natural Farming, Protected Farming/Hydroponic/Aeroponic/Vertical Farming, Advisory for promotion of Export of Agricultural Products. The fair will showcase new varieties developed by the institute, while other innovative technologies of IARI, such as the solar powered ‘Pusa-Farm Sun Fridge; Pusa Decomposer, Pusa Complete Bio-Fertiliser.

Progressive farmers, women entrepreneurs, start-ups and FPOs

Agrotech, Start ups

The company aims to nurture innovation by blending start-up ingenuity with our expertise to deliver transformative solutions in the food and agri space

YES Bank, one of the fastest growing banks in India has announced the launch of an annual start-up enabler programme ‘Yes Bank Agri Infinity’ on February 14, 2022. The programme seeks to co-develop digital financial solutions for the food and agriculture ecosystem by mentoring entrepreneurial ventures in the sector. Starting from February 14, 2022 to March 31, 2022, the programme will last up to six months.

Yes Bank Agri Infinity is an Agri-Fin-tech enabler programme, tailor-made for co-evolving and accelerating innovative, tech enabled, digital financial solutions in the Indian food and agri domain.

Through this programme, the company aims to nurture innovation by blending start-up ingenuity with our expertise to deliver transformative solutions in the food and agri space.

Programme highlights:

  • Access to YES BANK’s digital banking infrastructure and robust customer network
  • Mentoring by senior banking professionals on credit scoring models, risk assessment and risk mitigation
  • Opportunity to work with Bankers to design and prototype innovative digital financial solutions
  • Project Partnership for piloting new innovative solutions
  • Strategic Support in investment pitch and fund-raising advisory
  • Analysis of start-up’s current digital financial solutions/cash & transaction management and Hands-on advice on implementation of financial solutions from a banking perspective
  • Equity infusion in select start-ups with matching value propositions

“As part of the Agri-Fin-tech enabler programme, early as well as growth-stage start-ups interested in exploring tech-enabled financial innovations in the Agri space are invited to apply with their proposals,” Yes Bank said in a statement.

The company aims to nurture innovation by