The role of innovations and their actual deployment is integral to accelerate the adoption of technologies at farm level. The information technology revolution in India, new technologies in agriculture, private investments especially on research and development, government efforts to rejuvenate the cooperative movement to address the problems of small holdings and small produce etc are changing face of agriculture in India.

Further initiatives from the central and state governments are strengthening the ecosystem for scaling the deployment of AgriTech in the country. For instance, the National Agricultural Market (eNAM) initiative aims to remove information asymmetry in pricing through an electronic trading portal. State governments are forming technology partnerships to forecast prices of agricultural produce using AI to help farmers in efficiently planning their harvest cycle. With the formalization of ‘Agri Stack’ data sharing will further be formalized further helping scale digital solutions.

As the AgriTech ecosystem in the country matures, there is an opportunity for input and commodity players to expand horizontally by building end-to-end relationship with the farmer. There is also an opportunity for large retailers and ecommerce players to strengthen backward integration into the AgriTech space. Finally, food processing companies could also look at AgriTech to keep a tight check on their quality and operations.

Lessons from across the world also call for building of a robust agritech policy framework in India which includes collaboration between all market participants such as farming communities, agritech companies, food processing organizations, technology providers and research institutions. Cross-country collaboration on agritech technologies and operating models could also be driven through such a policy framework.

The Opening Session will set the context to build a technology led growth strategy for agriculture to ensure resilience and sustainability. The session will draw on lessons /insights from technology advancements and policy frameworks that catalyse innovation and adoption of advanced technologies as a key lever for growth in agriculture, taking cognisance of the impending realities of climate change , and maximizing value creation or small holder famrers. The panel consisting of Senior Government Officials, Industry Leaders and Experts, would deliberate the growth of AgTech and new Govt. initiatives towards positive impact in Indian agriculture.

Despite a pandemic-hit year, AgriTech Start-ups in 2020 saw over $300 million of investments. The number of such Start-ups has shown steady growth with around 600-700 Start-ups dominating the Indian AgriTech ecosystem.

With the dawn of new initiatives and technologies at scale various start-ups have found new dimensions of working in the domain like soil assessment from Space to providing drone-based service solutions to farmers in line with new Drone policy along with IoT enabled cattle management services.

Reflecting on the evolution of Ag-Tech in India with Start-ups getting a tail wind the session would be having seasoned next gen Start-ups who would be discussing their innovation and the impact created towards pushing agriculture to agribusiness. Focus would be on role of their technological innovations and actual deployment which is integral to accelerate the process of transformation.

Reimagining – Mapping Indian DNA to emerging global technologies
Sustainable food production is one of the major challenges of the twenty- This well curated conference will provide a platform to deep dive into global advancements on technology by providing an opportunity to listen to global solution providers about their technology and explore opportunities for their adoption with respect to India.

Focused panel discussions on advanced technology solutions as below:

14 Dec 2021
a) Soil Health and Water management (1630- 1745 Hrs)
b) Farm Monitoring and Disease Prediction (1800- 1915 Hrs)

15 Dec 2021
c) Mechanization & Automation (1630- 1745 Hrs)
d) Post-Harvest technologies (1800- 1915 Hrs)
e) Advanced Biotechnology and Agro-Chem (1930- 2045 Hrs)

The session will provide knowledge on latest developments and at the same time will also open-up avenues for partnerships with Indian private sector where we see points of convergence.

Modern farms create a huge amount of data which can be used for a wide variety of purposes that ultimately benefit farmers in their decision-making processes and help them running businesses that are more efficient and effective. However, lack of open agriculture data standards has much of agri data stored in silos, which in turn is a key barrier to nurturing an AgTech ecosystem in India.

To address the challenge, aligned to the Centre’s digital India program, ‘Agri Stack’ aims to create a unified platform for farmers to provide them end to end services across the agriculture food value chain. The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’ Welfare, GoI has signed MoUs with private sector to conduct pilot projects for promotion of digital technology and other best practices in the farm sector. MoUs have also been signed for different operations under AgriStack.

Similarly, various State Govt have really transformed agriculture ecosystem in their states leveraging entrepreneurship with disruptive and futuristic ideas. For example, State Government of Karnataka over the past five years have leveraged farm management technology solutions to help farmers grow the right crops and adopt smart-farming techniques and practices, during the crop cycle. State Government of Telangana with Telangana State Technology Services Ltd and ITE&C Department & Agriculture Department has conceptualized a project called ‘Saagu Baagu’ aimed at creating a cross section of the Agri-Tech Industry and the start-up community to explore the potential of deploying emerging technologies for making a difference to the agriculture sector in the State.

While the initiatives are expected to fuel innovation and investment towards the agricultural sector it is equally important to ensure that the flow of information is balanced and transparent. At the same time the pilot projects must be effectively coordinated in partnerships with the state governments. Additionally, it is important for India to understand current data sharing mechanism globally and draw relevant learnings for India. It is equally important to address the lack of an advanced tech hardware industry in India and the availability of such high precision hardware like sensors, variable rate kits, cameras, etc. There is a need to build strategies towards addressing cost barriers and making it affordable for farmers towards mass deployment with the support of Govt. schemes and benefits.

Given this background the session will focus on strategies towards leveraging ‘Agri Stack’ for scaling digital agriculture and precision farming, PPP frameworks towards helping farmers realize higher income and better profitability, global learnings on ensuring integrity and data protection state experiences around project conceptualization, deployment, learnings, and successes.