Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Thursday jointly launched a whitepaper aimed at making India a global leader in agritech innovation and expanding these innovations to the least developed countries in Asia and Africa.
The whitepaper, meticulously prepared by experts from AIM, NITI Aayog, and UNCDF, offers actionable steps to overcome challenges faced by agritech startups and facilitate their growth at national and international levels.
The whitepaper outlines the significant observations and recommendations required to tackle challenges in the agriculture sector and promote sustainable practices that support smallholder farmers across developing economies. Agritech innovations will help address food security, supply chain inefficiencies, and climate change concerns.
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Speaking at the occasion, Samuel Praveen Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said, “Agritech startups in India have emerged as a game-changer in the agriculture sector, offering innovative solutions to the emerging challenges in agriculture like climate change and improving productivity. The AIM-UNCDF Agritech challenge has uncovered the immense promise and potential of this market, and we are excited to see what the future holds.”
Speaking during the launch, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, Dr. Chintan Vaishnav said, “The agriculture sector is critical to food security, supply chain efficiency, and climate change mitigation, and the agritech startups in India have provided significant solutions to these challenges. Through this partnership with UNCDF, we aim to facilitate cross-border engagement, knowledge exchange, and investments to support high-impact agritech innovations and make agriculture practices efficient, resilient, and sustainable for smallholder farmers across developing economies. We look forward to working with our partners to realise this vision.”
At the launch, Jaspreet Singh, Global Lead, Financial Health and Innovation, UNCDF, said, “The learnings from the agritech challenge have been immense and revealed that the market is enormous and has immense potential for global south-south collaboration. Moving forward, we are working towards creating a community platform for smallholder farmers which can be helpful for agriculture and agritech startups to exchange ideas, explore collaboration, and share knowledge.”
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With over 70 per cent of the agricultural workforce in India comprising smallholder farmers, agritech startups have emerged as the solution to the challenges faced by farmers. AIM, in partnership with UNCDF, aims to create a south-south collaboration environment where startups from Asia and Africa can exchange ideas and generate opportunities in their respective countries.
AIM, an anchor partner of the south-south collaboration initiatives, collaborates with partner countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia. The collaboration focuses on addressing three key challenges in the agriculture sector, namely low productivity, poor risk resilience, and inefficient supply chain management. Out of 25 potential agritech startups that aim to solve critical challenges around production, supply chain, risk, and climate change, the partners have shown interest in and are at various stages of cross-border engagement.
The agritech startups in emerging economies have successfully provided digital solutions to several agricultural challenges that the sector has faced in the past. AIM, in partnership with UNCDF, is committed to supporting high-impact agritech innovations, creating an enabling environment that facilitates startup growth and sharing of knowledge across borders. The Indian startup sector has the potential to play the role of a knowledge hub and support market development in less-developed startup economies across the globe.
The launch of the whitepaper marks a significant milestone in the journey towards making India a global leader in agritech innovation and expanding these innovations to the least developed countries in Asia and Africa. AIM, NITI Aayog, and UNCDF are committed to working together towards this goal and achieving sustainable and inclusive growth in the agriculture sector.
