AgNext Technologies, a leading agritech company, in association with NAFED and Arunachal Pradesh Agriculture Marketing Board (APAMB) is using Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based rapid quality assessment of organic kiwi from the eastern Himalayan state. Through its quality monitoring platform ‘Qualix’, AgNext has also enabled deep-tech based comprehensive traceability. Using QR code mapping, the end-consumers can trace all the steps in the supply chain down to the origin. These organic kiwis were launched in New Delhi last week by APAMB along with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) as the marketing partner, under the ‘One District One Product’ scheme.
Speaking on this partnership, Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, CEO & Founder, AgNext said, “It is an honour to work with NAFED on India’s first AI-based initiative to bring complete quality and traceability management solutions for Arunachal’s renowned kiwi trade. To date, over 6000 kgs of kiwi have been assessed and moved through our ‘Qualix’ platform, with proven benefits for the farmers, NAFED and the end-consumers. The impact of facilitating quality-based and traceability-enabled trade for kiwis will not only improve domestic demand but also help in boosting export potential of the fruit.”
Explaining the various intersections where technological deployment helped bring in about the traceability solution to the end-consumer, Subrat Panda, Chief Technology Officer, AgNext said, “NAFED connected us with the FPOs (farmer producer organisations) in Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh and we deployed our quality assessment solution right at the procurement centre to measure the total soluble sugar (TSS), which is the key parameter to ascertain the ripeness of Kiwi. During the packaging process for retail distribution, each box of kiwis is labelled with a QR code through which one can access the complete inspection report along with key traceability and quality parameters. The entire process is automated and led by an integrated AI-based system which significantly reduces the TAT for quality testing, logistics and marketing of the fruit.”
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Pankaj Prasad, Additional Managing Director, NAFED, “NAFED has successfully partnered with FPOs in Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh to help them create better market linkages for their certified organic kiwis. Digitised quality assessment helps streamline the inspection process of the fruit, giving end-consumers a complete traceability report. This empowers both farmers and consumers, resulting in better price realisations, and also builds greater trust and transparency among all the stakeholders in the value chain. It is essential to increase adoption of technology to truly capitalise on the potential of Indian agriculture, boost farmers’ income and enable quality-based trade.”
Set up in 2016, AgNext Technologies is a leading agritech start-up that provides deep-tech enabled solutions for food quality assessment, monitoring, and management. The company has innovated full-stack solutions, based on a unique integration of adaptive hardware, integrated software, and data analytics, which aim to solve quality-related issues in the post-harvest agriculture value chain. By developing the world’s first technologies for standardising food quality using AI, AgNext is bringing trust, speed, and transparency to the agriculture value chain.
