Indian agriculture is a highly fragmented sector – with large, multi-generational large landowners. On the other hand, most Indian farmers – upto 78% – are smallholder farmers with limited access to resources. While over 50% of people derive their primary income from agriculture activities, over 80% of the farmers in India are small and marginal farmers (less than 2 hectares of land) according to Indian Economic Survey 2019-20. To even the lay of the land means democratisation, if not redistribution, of these resources.

After all, increasing the capacities of most of the farming community can only mean uplifting the viability of India’s agricultural economy. While the first step in this process is building empowered farmer collectives, leveraging technology can unravel so much more.

Agri-Start-ups are making the most of technology and converting them into easy and sustainable practices, which would make farming a lot simpler and profitable. Aspired to lead agricultural transformation with new age agriculture start-ups, Samunnati MANAGE Startup Awards were flagged off early last year. The key to this lies in unearthing and recognising the enormous potential agri & agritech startups have.

Set up in partnership with MANAGE, the Agri Startup Awards managed to scour some of the best agri and agritech startups that demonstrated scalability, impact, customer delight and indispensable market value. Recognised as the best agri and agritech startups, here’s how they are disrupting agri entrepreneurship and transforming economies today –

SNRAS Systems – Plotting the Aquaculture Evolution

Leading the revolution in aquaculture, SNRAS partners with clusters and micro-entrepreneurs to develop small and medium recirculatory aquaculture systems. A pioneer of the nano aquaculture system, they have successfully achieved increased aquaculture production by 30x and reduced mortality rate by 4x.

Udaya Agro Farm – Making Nutrition Scalable

Produced using intensive agricultural production techniques with crop varieties developed in-house, Udaya Agro Farm is dedicated to creating and distributing rice that is both palatable and nutritious. After building a variety that complies with GAP and GMP, they have developed a rice variety that is high in protein and fiber – 16% higher than the traditional polished white rice.

Globally unique, the rice variety developed by the Kumbakonam-based Udaya Agro uses genotyping tested seeds that have also been attributed to generating several health benefits.

Delmos Research Private Limited – Milking out Inadequacies

Led by a mission to build an adulteration-free nation with high-end innovation, research and development in milk testing, Delmos seeks to promote effective milk quality control. Building advanced, rapid and easy-to-use testing solutions, they seek to standardise milk quality across the supply chain and help Indian milk meet international standards.

Serving businesses across 22 states – including reputed brands, MNCs, co-operatives, and government organisations, Delmos has a base of 200+ clients that it enables readily available milk testing kits for. By elevating milk quality around the country, they hope to increase dairy exports and therefore generate higher income and better living standards for farmers.

Brightcrop Agro Private Limited – North East’s Largest Organic Agri Movement

Leading a sustainable farming movement in the agri value chains of northeastern India, Brightcrop Agro has successfully unlocked 30% more yield and 60% less expenses among the farmers in the region. Aspiring to promote healthier living and eating standards, they work directly with 1000+ margina and small farmers across Assam, Manipur, West Bengal and Maharashtra.

Besides improving their livelihood, Brightcrop has actively engaged to help their farms receive organic certification from bodies like National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), and National Organic Program (NOP) by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA. Courtesy Brightcrop, over 800 acres of farmlands are certified organic – but the biggest beneficiaries are the farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been transformed permanently through farm management, post-harvest management and effective market linkages.

KhetiGaadi – World’s 1st Ecommerce for Farming Tech

Driven by a goal to help farmers deploy farming technology that saves resources while optimising their yield, KhetiGaadi is the world’s first ecommerce platform for farm mechanization. From steam engine based to electric, farmers can buy, sell, rent, and hire tractors and other farm equipment.

While bridging the supply chain gap for the remotest farming communities, KhetiGaadi also focuses on farmer advisory, plant nutrition management, and encouraging farmers to explore additional income streams.

Fasal – Seeding the Next Era of Agriculture

Aspiring to remove guesswork from farming with actionable AI-powered data insights, Fasal is committed to helping farmers across the nation accrue lower cultivation costs and higher yields. Founded in 2018, Fasal has managed to help collectives and farmers achieve 40% higher yield and 60% deduction in pesticide costs. While promoting sustainable agriculture, Fasal’s platform offers actionable advisory across horticulture, farm-specific, crop-specific, crop stage-specific queries.

Driven by innovation to uplift and empower everyday decisions of smallholder farmers, Fasal delivers monitors and informs about micro and macro climatic conditions, soil conditions, water availability in soil, and disease assessment and prediction. While tracking the real-time progress of crops and agri activities, it helps farmers better manage sales and finances.

Biotrends India Pvt Ltd – Fielding for Healthier Soil

Founded in 2019, Biotrends India is committed to addressing the steady decline of soil fertility. In fact, it’s predicted that by 2050 2/3rd of agricultural land will not be arable. With the global population touted to hit 10 billion, how can the agri industry ensure food security? A biological based agri company, Biotrends addresses soil degradation by solutions that enable a ‘sustainable intensification’ of agriculture.

Focusing on enabling precision agriculture, nanotechnology, soil microbiome management through genomic & bioinformatic based solutions, Biotrends seeks to help farmers reduce their carbon footprint, reduce reliance on inorganic chemicals and discover sustainable high yields.

Green Biotech EcoSolutions – Nurturing Fertility Naturally

As the world moves towards recognising and adopting practices to mitigate the ongoing climate crisis, often smallholder farmers either have to fend for themselves or are ignorant to climate change’s repercussions. Based in Manipur, Green Biotech EcoSolutions has made massive strides in this segment.

The first bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticide manufacturing company in its region, their scope of bio-products serve a variety of value chains – from crops and soils to animal husbandry to aquaculture. With additional inputs to enable environment management, Green Biotech’s solutions raise the output without raising environmental concerns.

Conclusion

The agricultural ecosystem is ripe with possibilities – in fact, it is the third largest country in terms of attracting agritech funding (Source: Bain & Co). With food security and upliftment of smallholder farmers being key issues in the industry, agri and agritech startups are in a unique position to anchor the next revolution in Indian agriculture.

Today, the agricultural sector offers aspiring agri entrepreneurs a diversity of opportunities to harness growth – for the ecosystem and countless businesses within it. Even with the best intentions, it is possible to feel overwhelmed about starting your agri entrepreneurial journey in an ecosystem as complex and diverse as India’s. With Samaarambh, your venture will receive access to funding, mentorship and go-to-market strategies directly from agri industry experts.