Top 9 emerging innovation opportunities
1. Demand-driven and tech-enabled aggregation and distribution of farm produce from point of collection to consumption (examples: Ninjacart, Jumbotail, Bigbasket, Kamatan, Desai Fruits Venture, Farmlink, Waycool, Merakisan, Vegrow, Kamatan, Dehaat, Shopkirana, Superzop, Crofarm, Agribolo, Kisan Network, Milklane, Fresh to home, Licious, Captain Fresh, Numer8, Aquaconnect, Mango Dairies, Krishikan, Chlorohemp, Reshamandi, Fraazo, Country Delight). The majority of models are B2B targeted at institutional buyers, modern trade, Horeca, though direct to consumer models (D2C) are also picking up especially during the pandemic.
2. Quality assaying of agricultural commodities through image processing and digitisation of transactional data, price discovery and traceability (examples: Intellolabs, Agricxlab, qzense, Raav Tech, Infyulabs, Farmtrace from Innoterra, Occipetal, Amvicube, Nanopix, Tracex, Source Trace, Atsuya Technologies, Borlaug Webservices, Go4life). Many of these models are pivoting to become a marketplace.
3. Building near-farm storage, warehouse and processing units with access to post harvest finance and market linkage through digital and physical modes (examples: Our Foods, S4S Technologies, Agri Bazaar, Star Agri, Arya Collateral, Ecozen, Origo, Ergos, Sohan Lal Commodites, Promethean, Inficold, Whrrl). Micro-warehousing and farm-level processing is likely to gain momentum with increasing demand for value-added foods.
4. Optimise the use of agricultural inputs and enable delivery to farmers based on farm and crop diagnostics (examples: Agrostar, Bighaat, Behtar Zindagi, Unnati, Gramophone, Freshokartz, Plantix, Helicrofter, Hesa, EF Polymer, Frontier Markets, Bharat Rohan, Bharat Agri). The last-mile delivery and the need for multiple compliances to store and sell agri inputs are some of the bottlenecks to scale.
5. Reduce labour cost through mechanisation through the pay-per-use model and innovative mechanical tools (examples: Sickle innovations, Distinct Horizon, Kamal Kisan, Mera Tractor, Cellestial Tractors, X-machines, Tractor Junction, Khetibadi, Agrirain, Flybird, Toolsvilla). There is a huge opportunity in building smart affordable multipurpose mechanical tools at one end and on the other end to build high end robotics and computer vision models to bring efficiency in doing multiple farm operations.
6. Farmer advisory and data-driven crop monitoring/precision farming: Farm advisory using data collected from the farm on soil, crop and weather using AI / ML tools is becoming mainstream, though monetisation models are still evolving (examples: Cropin, Satsure, RMSI, Mantle Labs, Stellapps, Krishi Tantra, Poultrymon, Agrisk, Skymet.)
7. Agrifintech: Data and digitisation is the precursor to innovative farmer and value chain financing models which typically enables farmer KYC, onboarding, and digital tools for risk assessment. Many of these models continue to be phygital. (Examples: Samunnati, Greensat, Agrotech, Farmart, Jai-kisan, Payagri, Bijak, Graymatter Technologies)
8. Controlled environment agriculture using techniques such as vertical farming, hydroponics, aquaponics (examples: Futurefarms, Urban Kisaan, Absolute Foods, Kaze Living) 9. Bioproducts including bio fertilisers, stimulants to improve soil nutrition, plant immunity and growth (examples: Bioprime, Kan Biosys, Barrix, Converte, Easykrishi)
The innovation themes are at various stages of evolution. The market linkage, agri-input e-commerce and data-centric themes have picked momentum and scale whereas others are showing green shoots.