Preparing the ground for precision farming
Sustainable agri-waste management can spur demand for cutting edge farm machinery and crop management solutions
Around the world, agriculture is shifting to more sustainable practices. The change is due to growing environmental concerns and preference for more sustainable foods. The regulations and the developments in Europe will affect India, given its position as a large and attractive market. The ‘Farm to Fork’ policy in the EU, even if not implemented intensively, would force all stakeholders — farmers, commodity processors and food producers — to redefine and reshape their value propositions. Recent reforms of the Common Agricultural policy have emphasized the integration of environmental and climate objectives into subsidy payments.
The global agrimachinery industry has evolved from precision farming before 2020 to smart farming now, which is the ability to generate and transmit data for efficiency, traceability and sustainability.
Abroad, there are several startups, apart from OEMs, which manage all farm operations, provide agronomic decision support as well as manage the profits and losses of the farmer.
In India, most of the innovations in the past few years have been around supply chain, and largely involving lastmile connectivity between farmers and customers. There are only few instances where precision farming solutions are being offered, and due to cost considerations these are yet to take off.
FUNDING AGRI START-UPS
The government’s recent announcement of a ₹750crore blended fund for agri startups and rural enterprises would hopefully change the scenario in the years to come.
Annually, India generates 500 million tonnes of agricultural residue, offering a substantial business opportunity of around ₹50,000 crore. Nearly 200 million tonnes of this resource remain unused, often resulting in its being burnt.
This underscores the untapped potential for converting agricultural residue into biofuels. The Finance Minister’s recent announcement of financial assistance for biomass aggregation machinery is a crucial
Must be scaled up in farming
initiative. Encouraging farmers to participate in the bioenergy supply chain not only promotes sustainable agricultural waste management but also opens new opportunities for income generation. This will catalyse the demand for cuttingedge farm machinery and crop management solutions.
At the ground level, India is far behind in the area of precision farming. Farm input manufacturers need to move from conventional products to sale of solutions that help farmers maximise output using lower chemicals per hectare. New precision agricultural tools that enable consistent planting of seeds at optimal depth, pneumatic sprayers and spreaders that can deploy fertilizer more precisely than conventional implements are already being used abroad.
There are today several players abroad who provide software solutions to manage the entire crop lifecycle.
Leading global food companies require traceability, agronomic monitoring, yield forecasting, and improvements in agricultural practices across the supply chain of the product. Lowcost sensors are required to monitor soil nutrients, soil moisture, pest and diseases. Indigenous manufacture of such sensors needs to be encouraged. Our net sown area has almost stagnated at around 140 million hectares and there is little scope to increase it. Intensive agriculture has led to soil and water degradation. There is an urgent need to move towards sustainable farming practices to ensure food security.