Wednesday, 23rd December 2020 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon | Virtual

On National Farmer’s Day, 23rd December 2020, Samunnati launched Agri Elevate, India’s first ecosystem platform to digitally connect FPOs and Agri Enterprises. In line with the company’s vision to make markets work for smallholder farmers by enabling value chains to operate at a higher equilibrium, this platform is aimed at helping FPOs and Agri-Enterprises fulfil all their service needs and in turn actively spearheading digital transformation in the agriculture industry.

The online listing platform will enable FPOs and Agri-Enterprises fulfil their agri-service needs across the connected value chain. The launch was graced by the presence of eminent personalities of the Agri ecosystem.

The platform was launched by honourable Mr. Ramanan Ramanathan, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog. Speaking at the formal launch webinar Mr. Ramanan said, “It goes without saying that the Indian Agricultural sector forms the backbone of our economy, providing livelihood to millions of farmers across the nation. As part of Atal Innovation Mission’s efforts to create an ecosystem conducive to entrepreneurship, we have launched over 1600 startups of which over 150 are agritech startups. We believe that technology should be used to create instruments/platforms that can accelerate development in rural and agrarian parts of India. There is immense opportunity for agritech startups to digitize the agri value chain and help the farming community. In line with this, we commend the Samunnati team for launching Agri Elevate, a much-needed digital platform that can not only address the challenges that small farmers face, but bring together stakeholders across the ecosystem. We look forward to working with the Samunnati team and bringing the benefits of this platform to the farmers of our nation.”

The launch was followed by a roundtable panel discussion on need and relevance of a software platform acting as self-functioning agri eco-system in current times moderated by Mr. N. Srinivasan, Independent Director, Samunnati. Eminent speakers from the industry in the panel were Mr. Hemendra Mathur, Co-Founder, ThinkAg and Venture Partner, Bharat Innovation Fund; Mr. Baskar Reddy, Executive Director, Syngenta Foundation India; Mr. Pravesh Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO, Kamatan Farm Tech Private Limited; Mr. Anjani Bansal, Deputy Director, at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; M/s. Deepthi Reddy, CEO, Samunnati Foundation.

The Special Address was provided by Mr. SuryaKumar PVS, Deputy Managing Director NABARD. He shared his experience with nurturing FPOs and the importance of efficiency of the ecosystem to provide adequate solutions to nurture FPOs. He also mentioned how Samunnati’s Agri Elevate could be a powerful tool in nurturing the agri sector.

The Keynote Address was provided by Mr. Arindom Datta, Executive Director, Rural & Development Banking/Advisory, Rabobank. He focused on the importance to have a digital platform which can cut through the information asymmetry and get information to the stakeholders of agri ecosystem.

Check out the YouTube link to access the virtual launch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms_lzmbnMD8&t=2s

Check out Agri Elevate:
https://www.agrielevate.org/