How COVID-19 unleashed agri-tech startup industry

Sameer Bhanushali, Founder & CEO, Tradebridge

The pandemic brought about major disruptions across industries. The agricultural sector was no exception and had to face the brunt of the global pandemic crisis, as well. However, the coronavirus stepped in as a silver lining for the agri-tech startups and significantly boosted the agricultural market’s growth. It was only during the COVID-19 times that sector started gaining popularity and has been flourishing ever since.

As per India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), more than 50 per cent of India’s population depends on agriculture and the sector contributes more than 20 per cent to the national GDP. However, agriculture in India does face a fair share of challenges as well. These range from inadequate financial assistance, organisation of the bodies to operational and supply-demand gaps. However, the introduction of innovations primarily in the form of agri-tech startups have rendered a helping hand in resolving these issues and upscaling the agriculture sector altogether.

With the pandemic coming into the picture, food supply chains froze and farmers had to struggle to purchase inputs ahead of the harvest season. Adding to it, the access to marketplaces and mandis was limited and agri-logistics and transport systems suffered major setbacks. While the post-harvest loss was humongous, the cost of unsold harvest burnt a hole in the pocket of the farmers to the extent that their major livelihood was under threat. The industry was at its worst at that time- inefficient and technologically backward!

Pandemic paves way for agri-tech

While on one hand, the GDP contributing sector was facing various roadblocks, the agritech sector witnessed an exponential growth. The entire market including farmer platforms, B2B Agri marketplaces, rural Fintech businesses, farm to consumer brands, and app-based Agri advisories all boomed during pandemic times. Agri-tech startups that were earlier co-existing with the traditional agricultural ecosystem soon emerged to be an essential element of the sector.

Realising that India was at the cusp of the digital revolution, the startups saw an opportunity in the agri-tech market. They took the leap to leverage this segment and hence offered assistance to the crumbling farmer community amidst the unstable times. The agricultural sector hence shifted from a traditional market to being a digitally advanced and tech-savvy space.

Agri-tech startups treaded on the path of innovation to come up with personalised solutions so as to tackle the challenges which the agricultural sector was facing. They are rendering a helping hand in educating farmers and bringing

awareness about state-of-the-art agricultural practices as well as equipment that are cost and time effective and help in yielding high-quality crops as well.

IBEF’S recent report highlights that presently there are 450 plus startups in the Indian agritech space and that Indian ventures are featured in the ratio of one in nine global companies.

They are harnessing the power of new-age technologies such as AI, IOT, Big Data analytics, and are driving innovations so as to upscale the agricultural sector. Via these tech solutions, the startup ventures are aiming to ensure transparency and reduce operational efficiencies in the market. The agri-tech ventures are putting in their best foot forward so as to transform India's agricultural landscape and are the pivot in making the segment tech-heavy and digitised!

A recent report by Bain & Company points out that the agri-tech ecosystem has received significant interest from the investor community over the period of time. It also shares that India is the third-largest country garnering attraction from investors and remarkable funding. The report also states that Indian agri-tech startups received funding of $1 billion from 2017 to 2020 and that the sector is poised for an exponential growth. It further enlists that the Indian agritech market is projected to be valued at $30-35 billion by the end of 2025. These statistics depict that the agricultural sector will be increasingly leveraging the power of technology to set up agri-tech platforms in the times ahead. They also exhibit that this unprecedented growth of the agri-tech space has been driving the acceptance and inculcation of state-of-the-art technologies in the agricultural industry.

Upscaling agri market

The Indian agriculture sector has indeed witnessed a remarkable growth over the years and technology has contributed significantly in transforming the overall landscape of the segment in the country. The tech-led startups in the sector have enabled the setting up of e-mandi applications on the mobile phones. Consequently, the farmers are able to reach the masses to sell their produce in the online space via these apps. While some of the applications offer a space for farmers to list and sell their products, others also provide transportation facilities so that their harvest can reach the consumers.

These tech enabled ventures have helped farmers improve productivity, get easy access to raw materials, avail new-age farming equipment, and have pushed streamlining of supply chain models as well. Some of these ventures also offer information about modern agricultural approaches and even train farmers about the emerging technologies, their benefits and application. Be it soil testing, localised weather information, estimation of soil moisture, irrigation advisory, crop growth analysis, and other related real-time offerings pertaining to crop and weather changes, farmers now have every bit of information with reference to farming and crops available at their disposal via the assistance of these agri-tech startups.

It is due to this technological adoption that farmers have been able to sell off their produce directly to their consumers, digitise agriculture and have access to real-time information. It has also enabled them in improving the supplydemand chain along with having access to newage tools to enhance the yields as well.

Blessing in disguise

Technology has emerged to be the backbone of the sector in India. Almost every sector is reliant on advanced tech solutions to continue their operations, sustain their survival and growth and upscale their businesses. We are presently in the fourth industrial revolution stage where various sectors will be benefitted from new-age tech solutions. The agricultural industry is indeed one of them.

While the pandemic has severely impacted the agricultural industry, it paved the way for the digital transformation of the sector and led to the emergence of agri-tech startups like Tradebridge. These ventures have been doing their bit by easing out the burden on the farmers, helping them to sell their products across India and earn profit, all thanks to these advanced technologies that the agricultural market is treading on the sustainable route and will undergo major disruptions in the times ahead. These techenabled startups have stepped in a blessing in disguise for the Indian agricultural market. They have helped farmers sustain their livelihood and have pushed the sector to grow and proliferate. With their present progressive landscape, it is highly likely that agri-tech startup market’s future will indeed be promising.