Dwindling Farmer Income & Crop Yield in India Necessitating Technological Intervention and Emergence of Agritech Startups: Ken Research

May 2021  

Rising Number of Agritech Startups:  The number of agritech startups in India has increased from ~350+ in 2017 to over 600 startups by the end of 2020. Most startups were incepted during 2015-2016 & later. 2015 alone saw the emergence of ~117 agritech companies. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Delhi-NCR are home to maximum number of agritech startups in India.

Low Productivity of Indian Farms: Crop yield in India lags behind other major agri producing countries, including USA, China and Brazil, in various crops such as maize, rice, cotton, tomatoes, etc. In 2019, India’s crop yield in rice and wheat, which are the two largely cultivated crops across the country, trailed behind US and China by 51.5% and 37.2% respectively. Farm mechanization rate in India is also significantly lower (less than 40%) than its developed counterparts in   major activities such as seeding & planting, plant protection, irrigation, harvesting, threshing, etc.

Growing Rural Internet Penetration: The number of broadband internet subscribers in rural India reached 33.99 per 100 populations as of September 30, 2020 while the Rural tele-density of wireless subscribers stood at 58.7%. Farmers are also becoming social media savvy and using various platforms such as Facebook, Sharechat, Moj, etc. Agritech players are also leveraging these platforms to reach out to the farmers by partnering with rural influencers and entrepreneurs.

Impact of COVID-19 on Agritech Industry: The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in the country in the beginning of 2020 impacted the agricultural industry in India with supply chain disruptions. This gave an opportunity to agritech startups to step in and serve the farmers as well as buyers in need. Many startups shifted to digital acquisition & on-boarding of farmers in the absence of field team during national lockdown. Supply chain startup, Ninjacart, launched ‘Harvest the Farms’ initiative and partnered with hyper local delivery players such as Zomato, Swiggy & Dunzo to enable farmers to sell their produce to consumers directly during the lockdown. Other agritech startups such as Agrostar, Dehaat & Gramophone also witnessed a 2x to 4x increase in demand and revenue during the period.

Analysts at Ken Research in their latest publication India Agritech Market Outlook to FY’2025-By Nature of Services (Input Market Linkage & Farming as a Service, Supply Chain, Post Harvest Management & Output Market Linkage, Precision Farming, Advisory & Analytics and Agri Fintechobserved that there has been a surge in the number of agritech startups in India in the last decade with factors such as growing smartphone & internet penetration in the rural areas positively impacting the industry’s growth. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, geo tagging, satellite imagery, remote sensors, etc are being increasingly used to develop efficient solutions to solve the pain points of farmers. There has also been growing interest from venture capitals as well as international investors in the sector. The Agritech Industry in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~32% on the basis of revenue over the forecast period FY’2020-FY’2025.

India Agritech Market (Basis Revenue):-

India Agritech Market Segmentations

By Nature of Services, FY’2019-FY’2020 (On the basis of Revenue)

Input Market Linkage & Farming as a Service (FaaS)

Supply Chain, Post Harvest Management & Output Market Linkage

Precision Farming, Advisory & Analytics

Agri Fintech

By Region (On the basis of No. of Agritech Startups)

Karnataka

Maharashtra

Delhi NCR

Haryana

Tamil Nadu

Telangana

Gujarat

Others

Agritech Startups Covered:-

Input Market Linkage & Farming as a Service (FaaS)

Agrostar

Dehaat

Gramophone

EM3 Agriservices

Gold Farm

Bighaat

Thanos Technologies

Supply Chain, Post Harvest Management & Output Market Linkage

Samunnati Agro

Ninjacart

Waycool

Arya Collateral

Dehaat

Farmlink

Crofarm

Agrowave

Precision Farming, Advisory & Analytics

Cropin

Satsure Analytics

Intello Labs

FarmERP

AgNext

BharatAgri

Yuktix Technologies

Fasal

Agricx

Agri Fintech

Samunnati Financial Intermediation & Services

Origo Finance

Ergos

Gramcover

Aryadhan Financial Solutions

Farmart

Jai Kisan

Poultry & Dairy Tech

Milk Mantra

Country Delight

Stellapps

Happy Cow Dairy

Eggoz

Mr. Milkman

Mooofarm

Key Target Audience:-

Agritech Companies

Input Manufacturing Companies

Venture Capital Firms

Independent Investors

Industry Associations

Rural Banks & NBFCs

Government and Regulatory Bodies

Time Period Captured in the Report:-

Historical Period: FY’2019-FY’2020

Forecast Period:  FY’2021-FY’2025

For More Information on the research report, refer to below link:-

India Agritech Market

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