JULY 20228IMMENSE POTENTIAL FOR AGRITECH STARTUPS IN INDIA: FICCI-PWC REPORTThe Indian agritech sector holds potential to receive investments higher than $10 billion in the next 10 years, says an FICCI-PwC report. Launched at the "FICCI Summit & Awards for Innovations by Agri Startups", the report highlighted the potential that the Indian agri startups hold. It stated that while India has more than 600 agri startups attempting to solve challenges in the agri value chain, it only accounts for about one per-cent of the potential market oppor-tunity of $24 billion. In spite of the pandemic affecting deal activity and investments throughout 2020, the agritech segment managed to double the investment and received more than $500 million in investments, as compared to $248 million in 2019. The report also stated that the Indian Government has been showcasing its commitment to bring policy reforms in agriculture and allied sector and bolster the agri startup ecosystem. The third edition of the two day event was initiated on 9th February. The summit was aimed at pro-viding a platform to agri startups to showcase their projects implemented on a range of issues impacting Indian agriculture and the allied sector. At the inaugural session of the summit, TR Kesavan, Chair, FICCI National Agriculture Committee, said that agri startups come-up with brilliant ideas, but face issues in expansion. They re-quire a proper system to expand in India. He said that it is time to unleash the potential of startups in this space as they are going to put the money back in farmers' hands. Hemendra Mathur, Chair of FICCI Task Force, remarked that the next decade will agri startups' time to shine, with huge transformation in the food economy. He also added that a lot of collabora-tion is needed between startups and small and medium businesses in the segment. The report also suggested a five point agenda aimed at attracting in-vestments and building a robust agri startup ecosystem:Pacing Development of an Ag-riStack: A nationwide single and uni-fied digital agri database infrastruc-ture could act as a one-stop solution and enabler for data requirements in the startup ecosystem. This, coupled with better data infrastructure, mo-bile literacy, and high-speed internet in rural India, will alleviate the infra-structure bottlenecks. Ushering in Entrepreneurship & Incubation: Ecosystem-level sup-ports in the form of agri business in-cubation centres, right mentorship. A mix of technological and managerial assistance would help agritech start-ups leapfrog in their business. Co-creating through Collabo-rations: There is a need to foster a win-win collaborative partnership between startups, farmer producer organizations, and micro, small, and medium enterprises to optimize profitability across value chains and ensure improved price realization for small and marginal farmers. Product Innovation: Agri startups need to collaborate and engage ac-tively with banking and insurance companies and introduce crop and region-based credit and insurance products (agri-finTech solutions) in such a manner that small and mar-ginal farmers get encouraged to read-ily adopt climate-resilient solutions. Agri startups can also innovate and customize tech solutions for quality assaying, traceability, and food safety. Product innovation strategies can be executed successfully through con-tinuous engagement between start-ups and the government, and other facilitators in the ecosystem. Institutional Support: To ensure requisite institutional support for agri startups, there is also a need for creating a dedicated agri startup cell at decentralized level to meet the requisite regulatory and ease of doing business requirements for startups. EDITORIAL EXCLUSIVEA nationwide single and unified digital agri database infrastructure could act as a one-stop solution and enabler for data requirements in the startup ecosystem
< Page 7 | Page 9 >