Spotlight On The Size Of India's Agritech Market, Funding Picture & Agri's Tech Advantage

Summary

In this episode by CNBC-TV18, the discussion centers on India's agritech sector, highlighting its vast potential and current limitations due to low tech penetration. The conversation delves into the significant role agriculture plays in India's GDP and employment. Despite a predominant agricultural workforce, productivity remains low compared to global standards. The dialogue explores how technology can drive efficiency and growth, with government's supportive policies and increased smartphone penetration paving the way for transformation. Industry experts discuss challenges and opportunities, emphasizing the untapped potential in agritech market expected to grow substantially by 2027, with forecasts of significant sectoral contributions to the economy and farmer income.

Highlights

• Agritech in India remains largely untapped but brimming with potential. 🚀
• Current tech penetration in agriculture is under 1%, highlighting a massive growth opportunity. 📊
• The government's proactive stance with policies like the Agri stack and subsidies for Kisan drones shows commitment. 🤖
• Increasing smartphone and internet usage among farmers facilitates tech adoption. 📶
• Experts suggest agritech could lead to an additional $95 billion in value creation by 2027. 💰

Key Takeaways

• India's agritech market is a sleeping giant, ready to wake up! 🌾
• Tech penetration in agriculture is below 1%, showing immense growth potential. 📈
• Supportive government policies are crucial for advancing agritech. 🏛️
• Rising internet and smartphone use among farmers is catalyzing digital transformation. 📱
• Agritech startups are poised for growth, possibly creating multiple unicorns. 🦄

Overview

Agriculture plays a pivotal role in India's economy, yet the sector suffers from low productivity compared to other major economies. With over half of the nation's workforce engaged in agriculture, integrating technology could significantly boost efficiency and GDP contribution. 🌱

The untapped potential in India's agritech sector is enormous, with current tech penetration in agriculture below one percent. The government's initiatives, such as developing an Agri stack and promoting technology adoption among farmers, are steps toward transforming the sector. The increase in internet and smartphone penetration among rural populations is further enabling this shift. 📲

Industry experts like Krishna Kumar and Shashank Kumar highlight the potential for remarkable growth in India's agritech sector. They emphasize the opportunities in digitizing agricultural practices and addressing post-harvest challenges, predicting substantial increases in farmer income and productivity through tech adoption. The future could see India emerge as a global farming powerhouse. 🌍

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Importance of Agriculture The chapter titled 'Introduction and Importance of Agriculture' begins with a brief introduction, setting the stage for discussing the role of agriculture. It highlights agriculture as one of India's largest sectors, emphasizing its traditional nature and the underutilization of technology within it. The chapter hints at a discussion revolving around the integration of technology into agriculture, leading to the concept of 'AgriTech.'
• 01:30 - 02:30: Agriculture in India's Economy This chapter delves into the significant role of agriculture in India's economy, highlighting its contribution of approximately 18% to the country's GDP while employing over half of the national workforce. The discussion emphasizes the importance of the sector and identifies the disparity between workforce employment and GDP contribution as an area ripe for improvement through technology and efficiencies, particularly in farm input and output.
• 02:30 - 03:30: Agricultural Technology and Opportunities The chapter discusses the significance of agricultural technology and the vast opportunities within the sector in India. It focuses on the industry's scale, with agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and agrochemicals being pivotal. These inputs are expected to reach significant market sizes by FY26, highlighting the economic impact and growth potential. The transcript underscores India's heavy reliance on agriculture compared to other major economies.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Government Initiatives in Agritech The chapter titled 'Government Initiatives in Agritech' starts by highlighting the low productivity of the agricultural sector in India, especially when compared to countries like the USA, Brazil, and China. Despite these challenges, there is optimism about the future, primarily due to technology interventions in agriculture. Agritech, or agricultural technology, is suggested as a critical area where technological advancements can significantly improve productivity and efficiency in the sector.
• 04:30 - 05:30: Potential of Agritech Market This chapter discusses the potential of the agritech market, emphasizing the application of technology to enhance efficiency in farming processes, from fieldwork to monitoring the entire food supply chain. The text highlights the inevitable growth of agritech, driven by a massive underlying market worth approximately 500 billion dollars, yet currently, technology penetration is below one percent, indicating significant room for growth and innovation.
• 05:30 - 06:30: Challenges and Policies in Agritech The chapter 'Challenges and Policies in Agritech' discusses the potential for growth in the sector due to low current tech penetration, which stands at about one percent. This indicates massive opportunities for development and adoption of technology. The growing internet and smartphone penetration, especially beyond urban areas, is highlighted as a catalyst for tech transformation in agriculture. Additionally, supportive government policies, such as the development of an agricultural technology (Agri-tech) stack in collaboration with agricultural technology companies, are mentioned as efforts to unify stakeholders and enhance agricultural productivity.
• 06:30 - 07:30: Growth Projections for Agritech The chapter 'Growth Projections for Agritech' discusses various initiatives and opportunities in the Indian agriculture sector to enhance access to credit and crop information for farmers. It highlights government support, such as subsidies up to 100% for promoting the use of Kisan drones by farmers, and the creation of a fund for Agri Tech startups. Additionally, it mentions the role of the eNAM platform in providing better marketing opportunities for farmers by enabling them to sell their produce at competitive and transparent prices online. Overall, the chapter underscores the significant opportunities available in the agriculture sector, supported by governmental efforts and other outlined factors.
• 07:30 - 08:30: Segments and Opportunities in Agritech The chapter discusses the potential of the agritech market, focusing on the under penetration of technology in agriculture in India. The conversation features Krishna Kumar, co-founder and CEO at Croppin, and Shashankumar, co-founder and CEO at 'The Heart'. They explore the opportunities for growth within the sector, emphasizing the burgeoning scope for technological advancements in agriculture. The dialogue suggests optimism about the industry expanding, particularly looking into the future from 2023.
• 08:30 - 09:30: Technology's Role in Agriculture The economy has reached the mark of a $3.75 trillion economy, with 90% of the GDP being attributed to agriculture, which employs approximately 47% of the country's population. The country's reliance on agriculture is significant, indicating that any advancements in this sector could lead to a notable improvement in the overall economy. This is particularly important as a large portion of the population engaged in agriculture resides at the bottom of the economic pyramid, thus emphasizing the potential for enhancing national economic growth through agricultural development.
• 09:30 - 10:30: Tech Innovations in Agritech The chapter titled "Tech Innovations in Agritech" discusses the economic impact and potential of implementing technological advancements in the agriculture sector. Currently, agriculture contributes around 400 billion dollars to the economy. However, by adopting agritech solutions and enhancing digital connectivity, an additional 95 billion dollars in value can be generated in the industry. This perspective aligns with a report by McKenzie, which supports the optimistic outlook on agritech's potential to bolster industry contributions.
• 10:30 - 11:30: Funding in Agritech Sector The chapter discusses the impact of various factors on the livelihood of farmers, noting a potential increase in their income by 25 to 30 percent. It also explores the role of government policies in influencing this outcome, distinguishing between those that have been effective and those that have not. However, achieving a consistent behavioral change remains challenging. The chapter highlights the issues of volatility, particularly in relation to storage and export restrictions, which are acknowledged as being influenced by numerous external factors.
• 11:30 - 12:30: Agricultural Insurance and Technology In this chapter, the focus is on the intricacies of agricultural licenses and the impact of decentralized policy-making in India's agricultural value chain. The discussion underscores the importance for policy makers to proceed with caution due to the underlying volatility. It highlights the challenges posed by the need for separate licenses across different districts, crops, and physical locations. This layered requirement results in a slow overall process, emphasizing the complex regulatory landscape of agricultural insurance and technology.
• 12:30 - 13:30: Digital Adoption in Agritech The chapter discusses the current state of digital adoption in the agriculture technology (agritech) sector. It highlights that while online processes have become more efficient, they remain decentralized and need to be integrated more comprehensively. The overall movement towards digital solutions is seen as encouraging, with policymakers playing a crucial role in shaping the future of digital and data infrastructure. This shift is expected to revolutionize the agritech sector by uniting stakeholders on a common platform to address and solve the challenges faced by Indian farmers.
• 13:30 - 14:30: Challenges in Agritech Ecosystem The chapter 'Challenges in Agritech Ecosystem' discusses the projected substantial growth in the agritech industry's gross merchandise value (GMV) from 4 billion dollars in 2022 to 24 billion dollars by 2027. It highlights the opportunities in various sub-segments, particularly the food crop segment, which alone is expected to increase from 3 billion dollars to 25 billion dollars by 2027.
• 14:30 - 16:00: Will Agritech Transform India into a Powerhouse? The chapter explores the potential impact of Agritech on India's economy, highlighting opportunities across various sectors like fiber crops, cattle and dairy, poultry, and aquaculture, amounting to billions of dollars. The food tech segment is particularly significant, with a current opportunity of $25 billion and a projected market size of $341 billion by 2027.
• 16:00 - 25:00: Conclusion The conclusion emphasizes the significant growth potential in agritech, projecting a six to eightfold increase in GMB over the next five years. However, beyond the core market of things that grow in and come out of the ground, there are substantial opportunities across the entire value chain. This includes trading and auction platforms expected to handle over eight billion dollars worth of produce, highlighting existing inefficiencies within these systems.

Spotlight On The Size Of India's Agritech Market, Funding Picture & Agri's Tech Advantage Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] and welcome to this episode of not about Market time YouTube with me as always banglamanga all right what are we going to talk about today I mean there's so many things that we've spoken about already well you know it is one of the largest sectors for India it is traditional that we don't really put the tech angle to it as much as we should uh is it what I'm thinking it is is it farming let's just say Well it definitely is farming but when you add Tech to it you get Aggregate and that's
• 00:30 - 01:00 what is on top of mind and that's what we speak about today on man about markets so let's Dive Right In uh you know agriculture is a critical sector we of course know it contributes close to 18 to the country's GDP and in employees more than half of the Nationals Workforce so this gives you a sense of the importance of the sector and we'll tell you why this itself presents an opportunity 45 of the workforce accountants were just 18 of the GDP and that's where efficiencies are needed and that's where Tech spot on and you know Farm input and output if you talk about
• 01:00 - 01:30 the sector at large they're huge Industries in India agriculture inputs is essentially your seat fertilizers agrochemicals or any external thing that you put in the soil which can help to the yield and the output is the essentially the crop use now these two are expected to be close to 86 million and for 30 billion dollar industries by f526 a huge contribution I mean these are some numbers yes these are some of the numbers in fact India has the highest dependence on agriculture if you look at any other major economy but
• 01:30 - 02:00 despite this stuff isn't talking about It suffers from low productivity so when we compare the output per agricultural employee in India and the series yield per hectare we see that India severely lands behind countries like the U.S Brazil China and others as well so there is hope on the horizon and this is where we talk about the opportunity all right so that's about agree let's talk about tech now here's the agritech here's where the tech comes in agritech or agricultural technology simply the
• 02:00 - 02:30 application of technology to produce more with less to make farming process more efficient from field to monitoring the food supply chain itself the air intake explosion is not just a possibility but it's inevitable and the need of VR in fact there are a few reasons why we say that and that's what we talk about on mad about markets very often a working underlying agree Market of almost 500 billion dollars and we have a current Tech penetration of only less than one percent so 493 billion
• 02:30 - 03:00 dollars the underlying okay so it's a tech penetration some one percent and that's where the opportunities for growth are massive secondly the rapidly Rising internet and smartphone penetration in India that we talk about ever so often the penetration going Beyond just the metals and that makes it right for Tech adoption and transformation itself and then you have the strong impetus coming in from the government with supportive policies for instance the government is developing an Agony stack in collaboration with agritex to make it easier to bring various stakeholders together to improve
• 03:00 - 03:30 agriculture in India to boost access to credit crop info also providing subsidy up to 100 to promote kisan drones uptake by farmer a fund for Agri Tech startups is also in the pipeline and the enam which is a platform that promotes better marketing opportunities for Farmers to sell their produce through online competitive and transparent prices so I mean it is a massive opportunity which is the stairs yes and the government push and raise factors you outline let's
• 03:30 - 04:00 bring in our to understand if that's really played out as we think it has uh welcome our guests now Krishna kumaru the co-founder and CEO at croppin and shashankumar the co-founder and CEO at the heart gentlemen welcome to my about markets and Krishna I'll start with you how big do you think the potential of the agritech market can be given the under penetration of tech in the sector at the moment I think Indian agriculture is poised to grow uh if you look at uh in in 2023 we
• 04:00 - 04:30 hit the mark of 3.75 trillion dollar economy and 90 of the GDP comes from agriculture and this deploy is close to you know 47 percent of the total population in the country right so and largely we depend on the agriculture right if this improves uh the whole country uh economy will also improve because most of the people from the bottom of the pyramid are engaged into this so I think there is a huge
• 04:30 - 05:00 potential I mean so if you look at the contribution from agriculture is around 400 billion dollar right and uh just by adopting making this whole Agri Tech and digital connectivity we can you know additional value can be created of almost around 95 billion in this industry and this was the report uh uh reported by McKenzie in one of their reports and I think I'm very much aligned with that and we'll also see the contribution which will go
• 05:00 - 05:30 to the livelihood of the farmer it will increase by 25 to 30 percent what would help in terms of policy intervention I mean which government policies according to you have moved the needle and which ones haven't the overall the behavioral change uh you know could not be ensured I think one is the volatility right and uh right I mean because sometimes uh you know the the storage restriction the export restriction and and we all understand because there are many external factors
• 05:30 - 06:00 uh uh you know policy makers basically they need to be cautious for but in general the overall uh you know the volatility uh the two is that you know that uh still the overall licensing requirement right I mean towards Agri value chain I think that's highly decentralized considering agree the State subject in India so for example you require licenses for each and every District each and every crop or the physical location where I think uh the overall uh you know the the speed is slow uh while the overall process is
• 06:00 - 06:30 transparent online now very efficient but still it's decentralized and basically it has to be done in a piecemeal manner but uh but I think uh the way how overall things are moving that's very encouraging and I would repeat I think the way how in general the policy makers are talking about out the overall digital or the data stack I think that is going to be a game changer you know for the entire sector because that will bring all the stakeholders at a common platform you know to solve all the issues of Indian Farmers all right then please hold your thoughts it's time
• 06:30 - 07:00 for us to Crunch the number so let's get cracking the Agri Tech gross merchandise value or gmv that's projected to experience an eight-fold growth between 2022 and 2027 going from 4 billion dollars all the way to 24 billion dollars and that is the number we're going to talk about now within the agritech segment if you break it up into various sub segments they also present pretty big opportunities for instance the food crop segment alone is expected to grow from three billion dollars all the way to 25 billion dollars by 2027
• 07:00 - 07:30 similarly in fiber crop you have a one and a half billion dollar opportunity cattle and dairy three billion poultry 2 billion and aquaculture another one and a half billion dollars putting together all of this and that is the 34 billion dollar number that we're talking about the largest chunk of it of course coming from the food Tech market so let's take a closer look at the pool Tech Market itself uh the opportunity like we said is 25 billion dollars but the underlying addressable Market is expected to grow all the way to 341 billion dollars from 2027 and that is an opportunity you do
• 07:30 - 08:00 not want to miss incredible growth trajectory right I mean I was looking at all the second means all of them going and you're doing six to eight times over the next five years in the GMB but that's only about things that go into and come out of the ground there is a big opportunity outside of that as well beyond the core agritech Market that we speak about there are a lot of incremental opportunities across the value chain which includes the likes of trading and auction platforms which are estimated to transact over eight billion dollars worth of produce and that's where a lot of inefficiencies are
• 08:00 - 08:30 already farm gate warehousing aims to manage more than 10 billion dollars worth of Agri Commodities then there is quality assessment which is projected to cover a GMB of 5 billion dollars worth of produce itself annually fintech is another one which is expected to facilitate loan disburses was over three billion dollars so what does all of these things that I'm talking about mean in the next five years the Indian agri-tech industry itself is poised for a remarkable growth what is remarkable 50 compounding over the next few years
• 08:30 - 09:00 that would mean 8 to 10 unicorns two to three public lists things and a positive impact the most important one a positive impact on 40 million plus farmers and users which would mean that the potential increase in total farm income could surpass 100 more than meeting the government's estimate well a form of an opportunity like you said earlier right so Shashank can we put that to you then you know within agritech itself since you're present across the Spectrum what are the fastest growing segments and the
• 09:00 - 09:30 biggest opportunities that you see I think uh view specific thing which is the last mile digitization piece because still the Indian farmers and 85 of the farmers are small uh they require they need to be in the mainstream as far as their access to agree value Chain Services is concerned so one is the overall Last Mile digitization whether it's about a digital farmer advisory or the farmer financing the two is the post Harvest value Edition because every year we have 40 post Harvest loss within India so the post Harvest value addition
• 09:30 - 10:00 for the for the better price realization for the farmer and last not the least is in general the export considering the entire world is looking at India uh you know to solve the global Food Safety and Security issue what about you I mean how will Technology Drive the growth in agriculture sector I mean how are governments in various organizations making use of this Tech so I think uh we are seeing a lot of uptake not only in India but globally not only in private sector but also with the implementation
• 10:00 - 10:30 organizations like uh developer agencies and the governments who are coming forward and taking this uh solution to give you an example because of this Euclid War there is a shortage of Wheat and the prices have gone high and we have engaged with the Nigeria government to predict wheat in their country much in advance so they're taking they take a decision how much to import basis what is happening in the country right the other example could be basis this kind of intelligence can I take a decision of how much uh fertilizers to be imported
• 10:30 - 11:00 Per County based on the you know how the farmers are taking the crops in that county right and and this is all driven by the deception of supply chain because the prices has gone high and you need to be very optimal in making your decisions so I think you know technology is definitely going to be Forefront and uh and uh you'll see the much bigger driven by this be prepared for a lot of tech jargon because now we're going to talk about how Agri Tech players are actually transforming the way agriculture is
• 11:00 - 11:30 traditionally being done across all stages of the value chain in agriculture I mean for instance data analytics and machine learning play a crucial role in improving productivity then there are platforms and data driven solutions for Price Discovery price transparency that Empower Farmers by providing access to zero time information on both input and output prices you have Imaging and how can AI technology stay far behind they are actually utilized to monitor crop quality allowing for Automation in
• 11:30 - 12:00 grading output and yield classification itself there are platforms for produce traceability that enhance visibility and transparency across the supply chain we have Robotics and drones which emerged as valuable Tools in agriculture as well and farming as a service faas can optimize equipment utilization and reduce ideal time so much efficiency makes our food quicker fast richer it does and so much technology and the amount changing it let talk about
• 12:00 - 12:30 that because finding in this agritech sector has been on an impressive growth trajectory and that intersecting in the increased amount of interest and confidence in the industry so from 187 billion dollars in 2018 you've seen funding go up all the way to 1.2 billion dollars as of 2021 then of course we know there was a funding winter and funding came down to about 1.1 billion dollars and as in the first six months of this year we've seen about 161 billion dollars flowing across various deals that have happened despite
• 12:30 - 13:00 stomachs in fact Aldi Tech was one of the better performing sectors when you look at the startup ecosystem overall in terms of funding well we spoke about a lot of funding we spoke about a lot of technology so let's ask what are the key areas in which debt is changing the way Agri is done Krishna could you explain with an example of how cropping is partnering with the government in the Pradhan mantri fasal bhima yojana if I take an example of working with the you know government in terms of uh yojana the biggest challenge was you
• 13:00 - 13:30 know to underwrite this risk right how do you make this payment faster when the crop you know the Pharma crops is has failed it used to take two to three years to establish that right and by then Pharma Pharma needed that money much earlier than that now government wanted to infuse this technology to monitor this remotely using you know satellite technology that can you can we model this yield prediction and the crop health and the estimation of the
• 13:30 - 14:00 acreages on those crops in that uh Insurance unit and uh and that can help us to take a faster decision and then you know farmer can see the payouts much faster if the crop fails in that in that direction it also reduce the cost of cost of what government is spending to do the crop cutting experiment to establish these yields so you know in a in a crop season of when the Harvest comes you know it's a too much too much window to establish the profiting experiments and we almost do 10 million
• 14:00 - 14:30 such crop cuts across the country it's a huge cost so every crop cut will cost you let's say 1000 to 1500 rupees so I don't multiply that by 10 million of those crop cuts which has to done across the country to establish the yield and then the payouts to happen and then there are their own nuances of wrong data you know influence data which was was interfering with the payouts happening to those Growers and taking a lot of time but with the implementation of Technology you know you are bringing
• 14:30 - 15:00 down the cost by more than 40 to 50 in the phase one and then also accelerating the pace of making this payment faster to the grower when the crop fails right so these are some of the value you can extract from technology and the scale and and the you know the fast pace uh solution you can bring to the table well it is also a7d but Shashank then you had to reinvent a sector like agriculture especially as large as the one that we have it's asked because there's so many stakeholders so it's not just a matter
• 15:00 - 15:30 of tech there's also a matter of influencing Behavior change how that happened over the last few years slightly early as a green shoot but I think that is something which is definitely a point of inflection the I think in last two three years different stakeholders have realized their respective expertise so it's not like they don't know that any single organization or institution whether it's government or private fair and within private player whether a large conglomerate or a startup can solve the entire problem Standalone so I think
• 15:30 - 16:00 last few years people have realized their core expertise and now people are making up their mind to focus on their expertise and at the same time being collaborative with other complementary skill sets so and that's where I think most of the agritech startups working which is more towards the last mile which is more towards the behavioral change of various stakeholders whether it's Farmers or middlemen or the or the smes and that's where I think the agritech has a has a has a lot to you know contribute and and a very important
• 16:00 - 16:30 role to play all right we have lots more to talk about but we have to take a short break so follow your thoughts there because we're going to return with what works what doesn't work the years and the means and of course as always the bigger question will agritech transform India into a farming Powerhouse more than that after a short break foreign
• 16:30 - 17:00 the thing that we talk about very often on mad about markets the big transformative impact that covid-19 has
• 17:00 - 17:30 driven in the industry yeah and aggregate has been no exception but you know when we talk about agriculture in India at the end anybody it is still a very fragmented market and a large number of intermediaries countless stakeholders which meets the process itself quite complex the common platform that binds everyone whether they're fragmented or not is the internet Rising internet and smartphone penetration in India brings everyone together well but for that internet penetration even though it is increasing cleaning the farmers attention and stuff requires some level of
• 17:30 - 18:00 I completely agree with you I mean offline presence is important and what is also important is rising consumer awareness which is actually happening and people are willing to pay for good quality products people are willing to pay for good quality products because they're stealing is a decline in the share of educated and digital selling young Farmers because they don't want to be in farming anymore they want to you know progress and move out to Urban centers and City Guess Who Wants to be in farming it's the private Capital they want to invest in agritech and the opportunities that ID provides you know
• 18:00 - 18:30 but for all of this put together at the end of the day we're sort of a non-green gods and natural variability right so that will always be a huge factor for the agriculture sector as where the rain gods can't help the government God can help there has been a multi-pronged government push to actually go ahead and double farm income agritech will be one of those drivers start right the productivity is no farmer income well also affordability that is one of the challenges to tackle before we really see a spurt in this sector let's take it there right to our guests itself Krishna I mean we've spoken about the opportunities and challenges what
• 18:30 - 19:00 according to you are the key challenges on Tech delivery cost fragmentation of land Holdings too many stakeholders I think there are multi-fold challenges and I'll start with the digital literacy of this whole segment itself and also the cost of delivery right so I you know right now I think in the country like India there should be a public private partnership because there is a hand holding required for the penetration of this technology and the government is doing a lot on that as uh
• 19:00 - 19:30 that front also and also the people who are interacting with the grow worlds like agronomists or government departments or you know agriculture departments their people also need to need to adopt this technology and take it to this last night right and that I see that happening today with all the infrastructure which we have in the country to support the agriculture that digital has been the you know the first pillar and they are making an effort to not only the Growers but also every stakeholder who engage in the
• 19:30 - 20:00 agriculture to adopt digital right and that is also happening uh with his own pace and with this whole you know uh penetration of Technology internet smartphones uh you know easy solutions which you know which is actionable in terms of in hand when it goes to the in Hand of farmers are also increasing right so I think it has to be a collaborative approach right from the tech companies who are Building Solutions the implementation Partners who are on the ground working closely with the Growers and then helping them to adopt this kind of a technology all
• 20:00 - 20:30 right so let's see of course on the cost of delivery but Shashank let me bring you in as well uh you know what do you think are the challenges in digitizing this entire agriculture ecosystem and the cost of mechanizing this has that been a barrier I would say too many stakeholders for sure however let's say if I break into two parts which is I mean which is uh the major factor towards the adoption side so let's say if you go from agree business uh or maybe from one end of
• 20:30 - 21:00 food chain to another which is mostly from the consumer side to Farmer side I would say where the overall agritech fraternity is uh as on date Till the Last Mile you will not find problem of digitization and adoption for example again in the context of the heart where we have been running our physical they have centers it's a franchise Network which is run by someone from the local community and acts as a point of transaction for the farmers in a catchment area of three to five kilometer so probably I think as far as digitization or adoption is
• 21:00 - 21:30 concerned I think we have soared up to that point considering all our 11 000 more than 11 000 they have centers are digitized they those micro entrepreneurs or the they have Center owners they have been using our they have business application entire or Warehouse in fact that's digitized you will you can see each and every single SKU of inventory whether it's input or output it's live so I think up to the last mile the adoption and the digitization I think it has it has been solved by the agritech players but when it comes about the
• 21:30 - 22:00 farmer side or the farm side I think that's where still I think the overall development or overall the work at the early stage but as I said earlier I think it will take its own time let's go to the bigger most important question of the discussion that we're having right now and that is will agree Tech transform India into a farming Powerhouse Krishna Shashank your thoughts so I you know the technology is going to play a key role in uplifting the yield of the quality from the nation point of
• 22:00 - 22:30 view if you look if you compare the productivity per hectare uh in India for for the crops versus uh developed countries you will find a lot of difference right they you know almost like uh half of uh Global Production index now if you look at the architect you know companies who are bringing a lot of solutions and actually trying to tackle those problems either modeling the risk I either modeling the risk at the farm
• 22:30 - 23:00 unit level uh attacking the climate change helping the farmer to change their behavior from the package of practices point of view which will uh again give you a much better yield and much better quality from the same farm and you can compete globally as well with those numbers and I think that's the direction India is also moving and uh with the reconfiguration of supply chain you know consumer behavior is also changing in terms of the food consumption these are all driving factors towards it and uh I think uh from the technology point of
• 23:00 - 23:30 view from solution point of view in agriculture we are in the right direction I'll break into two parts you wait for two three years and you will see the size of the overall every Tech players uh I think three years ago I think people have been asking about that whether agritech can go to a certain stage certain scale certain growth or not in fact and as on date you'll find many agritech startups doing maybe more than annual business of in a thousand crore already so you wait for two three years in fact you will get the answer towards the scale growth along with the
• 23:30 - 24:00 profitability but the second part of the question stand alone no I think Standalone forget about aggregate Standalone nobody can solve uh the India or the global issues but I think the construct of agritech uh is is to be a strong you know Catalyst towards the new or towards the next Green Revolution of India so idea of the intent of the agritech is basically you know to create the prototypes to create the model whether it's Last Mile whether it's Farmers financing whether it's export whether it's Bio Innovations and
• 24:00 - 24:30 basically you know encouraging everyone encouraging everyone literally whether the institution and or the policy makers to use and to refer those prototypes basically to inculcate in their own respective region and to basically scale it up you know for a common cause always good to have a healthy debate I'm glad to hear that opposing point of view from both of you yes there is a long way to go but on that note uh Krishna and Shashank thank you very much for sharing your thoughts here and with that we've come to an end of this special episode thanks for watching we'll see you next
• 24:30 - 25:00 week keep coming [Music]