Why Start-Ups Yield Harvest

Context: Agritech start-ups have great potential in India. It can steer the shift from government-controlled agricultural markets towards more demand-driven digital markets.

Scope of Agri-tech Start-ups in India 

• Re-defining agri-food marketplace: Eg. Ninjacart, Dehaat, and Crofarm (Otipy).
  • Eg. Dehaat is present in Bihar, WB, Odisha, and UP, working with 6,50,000 farmers. 
  • Novelty of start-up-led value chain transformation, empowering farmers, groceries and small agri-food businesses as an integral part of agri-food ecosystem. 
• Building linkages: Start-up network able to leverage bigger front-end players who demand bulk quality produce and have challenges in directly linking with farmers. 
• Multiple models of engagement by various start-ups to address challenges in agri-food ecosystem, like- 
  • Ninjacart started as a farmer-to-consumer (F2C) venture but soon moved onto farmer-to-business (F2B) to address the challenges in ag ri-food ecosystem and achieve greater scale effects. 
  • Dehaati Beej Se Baazar Tak: Full-stack agri-service start-up that engages through B2F (business-to-farmer) and F2B models.
• Attracting investments to agri-tech sector: Recently, Dehaat has raised one of the biggest funding in agri-tech space in 2021.
• Gender sensitive: Eg. Ninjacart produces fresh from farms and supplies to all and Otipy is currently works with 10,000-plus resellers and` about 70% of resellers are women.
• Plugging wastages: Eg. Ninjacart reduced wastage to 4% compared to 25% in traditional chains through demand-driven harvest schedule. 
• Logistics optimisation enabled delivery in less than 12 hours at 1/3rd the cost in traditional chains. 
• Farmers’ net incomes increased by 20% post dealing with agri-start-ups. 
  • Dehaat has enabled to 50% increase in farmers’ income as a result of savings in input costs, increased farm productivity, and better price discovery. 

• Market driven: Agritech start-ups-led e-commerce platforms have the potential to steer the shift from government-controlled agricultural markets towards more demand-driven digital markets. 

Way Forward

• Incentivising the FPOs under the central government’s programme to add 10,000 new FPOs by 2024. 
• Towards integrated agri-food ecosystem: Network of agri-tech start-ups, incubators, accelerators and investors need to work closely with policymakers, academia, think tanks, and government to develop a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of the agri-food sector. 
• Policies, institutions and partnerships shall harness the current momentum, so that the start-up ecosystem can be the next-generation technology revolution in the agri-food sector.

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