Key Highlights:
• Agri-business has experienced tremendous growth in recent decades under an open market environment.
• The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) method of paying farmers for their product is a significant step forward in agri-financial management.
• Scientific quality assessment of crops is now being handled effectively by utilizing technology such as Artificial Intelligence.
Agriculture, a crucial component of the Indian economy, has evolved from a simple agricultural activity to a thriving market-driven enterprise. Agri-business, which has emerged as a highly promising area with great potential to promote much-needed connections between the farm and the market, has experienced tremendous growth in recent decades under an open market environment. It has a broad scope that includes food-related industries such as farming, farm machinery, seed supplies, fertilizers, agri-chemicals, irrigation equipment, distribution, processing, marketing, trading, wholesaling, and retailing.
Historically an agricultural country, India must instill professionalism in the agri-business sector to expedite the flow of recent developments and capitalize on its natural competitive edge. It may be accomplished more effectively by putting creative ideas into action and utilizing information and communication technology.
Agri-Tech
Agri-Tech is a broad phrase, but in a nutshell, it is an ecosystem of firms that use modern-day information technology to deliver products or services to farmers, therefore dramatically increasing both overall performance and profitability for farmers across the agricultural value chain.
Agri-tech firms may also build farm-specific, data-driven diagnostics to determine soil and crop health, as well as collect real-time data on pests and diseases in field crops using image recognition technology. Because contemporary farm equipment is out of reach for the typical farmer, Agri equipment rental is a high-potential sector for lowering input costs.
Farming service companies have a lot of room to organize farmer groups and make sure that varied materials are available to needed farmers on time. So far, the majority of the money has flowed in cash in agriculture.
The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) method of paying farmers for their product is a significant step forward in agri-financial management. This change will open up chances for fin-tech firms to digitize payments from and to farmers via different gateways linked to their accounts, as well as build a credit profile system for funders and loans, thereby replacing any exploitative lending structure.
Increasing Productivity Levels
Agri-tech firms, in addition to numerous market-linking models, may play a critical role in adopting IoT for farmers, boosting smart, high-tech, precision farming, and automated farming technologies, therefore increasing efficiency and productivity levels.
Farmers who were early adopters of tech-based agri-services attest to the clever suggestions they have learned for increasing output, quality, durability, and diversity. Some formerly thought-impossible activities or difficulties, such as scientific quality assessment of crops, are now being handled effectively by utilizing technology such as Artificial Intelligence.
Agri-techs are progressively altering the face of the agro sector by making resources available, demonstrating how to use resources sensibly, widely disseminating collective knowledge, and bringing the world closer to farmers through technology.
