Dr. V. K. Jayaraghavendra Rao, Principal Scientist, ICAR-IIHR, Bangalore, Karnataka, talks about startups in horticulture and agriculture.
With bumper production in agriculture and horticulture produce in India, startups have become essential to ease out the market, help the farmers get more income, and other details. For example, nano urea that comes as a 250 ml bottle is now being introduced in the place of a 150 or 200 kg urea bag. The government is taking all steps to reduce the transportation cost, increase the production, and other factors. The startups have the power, growth, ideation, incubation, acceleration, and decline. The startups have to work with these ideas, give solutions to consumers, stakeholders, and so on. With IoT application in agriculture, in IIHR, we have centre of protected cultivation which works with IoT principles, control the humidity, temperature, soilless cultivation, vertical farming etc. We do not need any land to produce horticulture crops using the technology. We cannot wait for certain seasons to get some specific products. We have the option of production, freezing, deep freezing, etc which can be made use of throughout the year at a less cost. We have to ensure that sowing occurs in the right time to avoid any glut and price reduction or rise. The farmers seeing the price rise in one season tend to go for the same crop again, and they face loss as there will be price drop if there is a glut in the market. The consumers want uniform price and availability throughout the year. So the producers have limitation on one side, and the demand on the other side.
There are two factors to agriculture and horticulture that startups can do. one is input factorisation where FPOs should get all the inputs at very reasonable price without any middlemen, and the output should not face glut or overpricing, but benefit the farmers. The startups should ensure these two factors. They should plan, develop action, analyse, and give the solutions. There are many agriculture value chain startups where the future is self-explanatory, to ease farming process, produce more crop by using technology such as drone for spraying pesticide and capture the data. Anyone can download the Krishi Dev Gyan app with authentication from IFFCO to know about the entire cultivation, production, and marketing process can be known. We have technology driven experiments, innovative products, and services to farmers and consumers. We aim at reducing postharvest loss, and we expect startups to come up to bridge the end to end supply chain so that people are benefited.
Startups can use the technology to provide high quality products to retailers, it can be input front, internet, or ICT service, or it can be crop-centric monitoring with precision Agri drone technology, cloud seeding, and so on. The startup can have a single promoter, but the innovative ideas have to be done with a team of members. It can be microfinance sector where a microfinancier comes into picture and make the finances available with easy formalities. Startups in Indian sector should build efficiency in the Agri produce trade, trade protocol, and cost of production to rule out competition. So the market intelligence should be used to provide the data to the farmers, consumer. They should measure business models under higher unit economics, profit orientation not by increasing price but by increasing volume of sales, getting good number of customers, reduce cost, and build business model that is stimulating than displacing conventional value chain. When we use reverse value chain, it benefits farmers. All startups should work for everyone. The Green Revolution is said to have worked for big farmers only, and the technologies were not on an economical scale. But now with mobile IoT, farmers get the data driven realistic time approach, measurable, smart and real time decision making.
To name a few startups that are working successfully across the globe, SOSBio develops sustainable agro chemicals like our nano urea. Today many of the soil application things have become foliar application, and micronutrients are delivered through foliar applications. IRRIOT is another irrigation based IoT based startup, and Jain Irrigation System in India works on the same line. In IIHR we do cultivation in off season also. Foris is another startup which works on precision agriculture and is highly data driven. They have automatic weather station, prediction of humidity, and when fungal diseases will start. Recently we conducted an experiment in Koppal where 500 farmers used their biofortified bajra HR 1000 from harvest place where we got 100 ppm of iron which is usually 40 ppm in other bajra. This helps pregnant and lactating mothers who are extremely anaemic. Babilonia is another startup working on urban farming. IIHR now has vertical farming, soilless cultivation with wick system. We have Dahlia Robotics trying to use robotics in agriculture and sensor based applications. This can tell the farmers about moisture, field capacity, water level, and the precautionary measures they should take. I have written a book Farmers Empowerment and Entrepreneurial Development Through FPOs and Startups where all the details are available.
We have many innovative products like jackfruit seed powder, mushroom powder, etc which ensure nutritional security too. The startups can take license and work on these. When I say FPO or startup, we have to build a market. We have many in the production front but few who can take it forward through supply chains and distribute in the market. A cluster of Farmers Interest Group or Women’s Interest Group can become startups, take the products to the local market and urban market and finally global market. The startup will work only on building the market, give low cost solution to the farmers. For example the fruit fly detection system which finds out the fruit fly eggs in the fruits which become not marketable. So these fruits can be separated from the others. The startups will work on an inclusive value chain which is technology enabled, partnership, and market oriented development. By delivering good quality mango to the people, using ICT for extension, having e-contracts, and demand forecasting on the technology ecosystem as we have to do processing and branding. There are courses which the farmers can use to improve their awareness and not be ignorant. When we bring the innovation and intervention, we can reach the desired situation. Now we have products neatly packed and graded with price tags or RFIG tag where date of packing is noted. People can find out the details. By using a QR code or RFIG tag, we can find out where the spoilt products are delivered from. Startups can work on Agri insurance also.
A startup basically comes with an innovation to use technology keeping the intellectual properties rights, regulatory rights, and formed by Companies’ Act, market linkage and other support are taken care of. The startup will work on low cost solution, high sales value to achieve breakeven and achieve fixed cost. This is how the startup ventures are started as people are slowly losing interest in jobs with salaries. The startup mantra will be to reach larger audience and get success stories. They have to convert opportunities into profit. The startups can visit villages who have been preserving seeds and make a National Participatory Seed Grid. The plant varieties should be not just nutrient sensitive but also climate sensitive. Farmers can get seeds from the seed grid. Startups can use trees on farms to generate food and cash and make it sustainable livelihood for rural areas. They can also encourage pollination process.
Startups can enter input, harvesting, growing stage, packing, transformation stage, trade, and consumption. They can enter at the micro and macro level based on the business volume and investment to convert a small opportunity into good one. Fund is not a limitation now in India. A Startup can intervene when an FPO is unable to get remunerative prices and has intermediary problems with less knowledge. They can help in employment, funding, and help to take advantage of the ecosystem. They can also help in certification of organic products. Now, we need lot of startups to work on value chain. Why do startups fail? It is because they are established where there is no market need, too much of investment, lack of backup, more competition, and lack of novelty. Pricing is another issue, poor quality product, and lack of business model on how to integrate a market for the products. States like Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, UP, Tamil Nadu are doing good job while many other states are not getting good promotion and unrest. The startups’ success lies in innovative products and lack of planning. They should know where to get the capital, invest it, and get ideas.
We can work on hydroponic retail store farming, garlic farming for medicinal purposes, lavender farming, mushroom, bamboo, willow farming, paper from jute waste, and creating wealth from Agri waste. They can work on fortified rice analogues from broken rice and dal, protein isolation from de-oiled cakes of soya beans and groundnut, soilless planting media with sugarcane residue, producing fertiliser using coir pith and dried cow dung, recycling food waste to prepare compost, etc. For many products, commercialisation has started from ICAR, licence given, and start the business. Detailed project plan, business plan, and marketing plan are needed for FPOs and startups. Credit linkages using ABPU can be used to get funds up to Rs. 5 crores at 3% interest. Paying GST, GAP certification are also needed.
How can startups ensure fair and ethical labour practices when dealing with labour intensive farming activities? What are the typical funding sources and investment opportunities available to horticulture and agriculture startups, and what are the criteria investors look for?
Most of the startups are technology oriented and do not employ labours unless it is a skilled work. There are many manpower contractors, and the startups need not employ labours directory to pay pension and gratuity landing in labour problems. Government of India has AIIF where minimum Rs. 5 crores is given at 3% interest. There are angel investors, bootstrappers, and not much of fund is required, it is the innovative idea that is needed. The startups should check the demand for the product in the area, vertical farming, silage cultivation, nutrient mixing, and wick system. They should be technology intensive, and horticulture technologies are not money oriented. We can upscale them by investing more money after sometime. Initially it needs sound knowledge of horticulture and science.
How can horticulture and agriculture startups collaborate with traditional farming to create synergies and foster growth?
I know of a person who has only 2 to 3 acres of land for himself, but he uses the farmers in his area to produce very high value vegetables, takes care of inputs credit, harvesting, and marketing. He gives incentives for packing grading, and branding. Thus he is able to aggregate small and marginal farmers, link them up, and put them in a startup value chain and supply chain. If I am in Doddaballapur area, I will not bring labours from Kerala or Andhra. I will be using local resources, engage in participatory breeding, contacting local agriculture universities and KVKs. I will use the local people, but I will be adding some knowledge skill and attitude for them and help them to become mini entrepreneurs to become startups later.
What are the challenges in horticulture and agriculture startups, and how they can be overcome? What are the key considerations for scaling the startups from small operation to larger and impactful one?
The main challenge is the Agri produce are perishable, then variation in prices, and labour force is not an organised one in agriculture sector. So we have to solve these problems to convert the products into high value ones and earn profit. Usually the customers are in cities, and they should be the targets. We should produce in villages and market in cities using marketing channels and network. We should make use of cold chain to transport the products. So we should take are of the supply chain, network, cold chain, take a warehouse pay the rent, and start the business. This is how it should be done.
Can you share some success stories of horticulture and agriculture startups that have made significant impact in the industry?
Waycool is a good startup who does the procurement from a cluster of villages, give them input credit, get the production done, and do the entire marketing through warehouses and minimum markets. So even Amazon foods does the same thing. They outsource the products from many villages and do the marketing, packing, etc. Bigbasket is another example. These are aggregate startups who invest on ICT part and marketing part, products come from the village, and of course this is a Herculean task.
Dr. V K Jayaraghavendra Rao
Principal Scientist ICAR-IIHR(Indian Institute of Horticultural Research)
Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Email: v.rao241@gmail.com
Phone: 9440034845
With bumper production in agriculture and horticulture produce in India, startups have become essential to ease out the market, help the farmers get more income, and other details. For example, nano urea that comes as a 250 ml bottle is now being introduced in the place of a 150 or 200 kg urea bag. The government is taking all steps to reduce the transportation cost, increase the production, and other factors. The startups have the power, growth, ideation, incubation, acceleration, and decline. The startups have to work with these ideas, give solutions to consumers, stakeholders, and so on. With IoT application in agriculture, in IIHR, we have centre of protected cultivation which works with IoT principles, control the humidity, temperature, soilless cultivation, vertical farming etc. We do not need any land to produce horticulture crops using the technology. We cannot wait for certain seasons to get some specific products. We have the option of production, freezing, deep freezing, etc which can be made use of throughout the year at a less cost. We have to ensure that sowing occurs in the right time to avoid any glut and price reduction or rise. The farmers seeing the price rise in one season tend to go for the same crop again, and they face loss as there will be price drop if there is a glut in the market. The consumers want uniform price and availability throughout the year. So the producers have limitation on one side, and the demand on the other side.
There are two factors to agriculture and horticulture that startups can do. one is input factorisation where FPOs should get all the inputs at very reasonable price without any middlemen, and the output should not face glut or overpricing, but benefit the farmers. The startups should ensure these two factors. They should plan, develop action, analyse, and give the solutions. There are many agriculture value chain startups where the future is self-explanatory, to ease farming process, produce more crop by using technology such as drone for spraying pesticide and capture the data. Anyone can download the Krishi Dev Gyan app with authentication from IFFCO to know about the entire cultivation, production, and marketing process can be known. We have technology driven experiments, innovative products, and services to farmers and consumers. We aim at reducing postharvest loss, and we expect startups to come up to bridge the end to end supply chain so that people are benefited.
Startups can use the technology to provide high quality products to retailers, it can be input front, internet, or ICT service, or it can be crop-centric monitoring with precision Agri drone technology, cloud seeding, and so on. The startup can have a single promoter, but the innovative ideas have to be done with a team of members. It can be microfinance sector where a microfinancier comes into picture and make the finances available with easy formalities. Startups in Indian sector should build efficiency in the Agri produce trade, trade protocol, and cost of production to rule out competition. So the market intelligence should be used to provide the data to the farmers, consumer. They should measure business models under higher unit economics, profit orientation not by increasing price but by increasing volume of sales, getting good number of customers, reduce cost, and build business model that is stimulating than displacing conventional value chain. When we use reverse value chain, it benefits farmers. All startups should work for everyone. The Green Revolution is said to have worked for big farmers only, and the technologies were not on an economical scale. But now with mobile IoT, farmers get the data driven realistic time approach, measurable, smart and real time decision making.
To name a few startups that are working successfully across the globe, SOSBio develops sustainable agro chemicals like our nano urea. Today many of the soil application things have become foliar application, and micronutrients are delivered through foliar applications. IRRIOT is another irrigation based IoT based startup, and Jain Irrigation System in India works on the same line. In IIHR we do cultivation in off season also. Foris is another startup which works on precision agriculture and is highly data driven. They have automatic weather station, prediction of humidity, and when fungal diseases will start. Recently we conducted an experiment in Koppal where 500 farmers used their biofortified bajra HR 1000 from harvest place where we got 100 ppm of iron which is usually 40 ppm in other bajra. This helps pregnant and lactating mothers who are extremely anaemic. Babilonia is another startup working on urban farming. IIHR now has vertical farming, soilless cultivation with wick system. We have Dahlia Robotics trying to use robotics in agriculture and sensor based applications. This can tell the farmers about moisture, field capacity, water level, and the precautionary measures they should take. I have written a book Farmers Empowerment and Entrepreneurial Development Through FPOs and Startups where all the details are available.
We have many innovative products like jackfruit seed powder, mushroom powder, etc which ensure nutritional security too. The startups can take license and work on these. When I say FPO or startup, we have to build a market. We have many in the production front but few who can take it forward through supply chains and distribute in the market. A cluster of Farmers Interest Group or Women’s Interest Group can become startups, take the products to the local market and urban market and finally global market. The startup will work only on building the market, give low cost solution to the farmers. For example the fruit fly detection system which finds out the fruit fly eggs in the fruits which become not marketable. So these fruits can be separated from the others. The startups will work on an inclusive value chain which is technology enabled, partnership, and market oriented development. By delivering good quality mango to the people, using ICT for extension, having e-contracts, and demand forecasting on the technology ecosystem as we have to do processing and branding. There are courses which the farmers can use to improve their awareness and not be ignorant. When we bring the innovation and intervention, we can reach the desired situation. Now we have products neatly packed and graded with price tags or RFIG tag where date of packing is noted. People can find out the details. By using a QR code or RFIG tag, we can find out where the spoilt products are delivered from. Startups can work on Agri insurance also.
A startup basically comes with an innovation to use technology keeping the intellectual properties rights, regulatory rights, and formed by Companies’ Act, market linkage and other support are taken care of. The startup will work on low cost solution, high sales value to achieve breakeven and achieve fixed cost. This is how the startup ventures are started as people are slowly losing interest in jobs with salaries. The startup mantra will be to reach larger audience and get success stories. They have to convert opportunities into profit. The startups can visit villages who have been preserving seeds and make a National Participatory Seed Grid. The plant varieties should be not just nutrient sensitive but also climate sensitive. Farmers can get seeds from the seed grid. Startups can use trees on farms to generate food and cash and make it sustainable livelihood for rural areas. They can also encourage pollination process.
Startups can enter input, harvesting, growing stage, packing, transformation stage, trade, and consumption. They can enter at the micro and macro level based on the business volume and investment to convert a small opportunity into good one. Fund is not a limitation now in India. A Startup can intervene when an FPO is unable to get remunerative prices and has intermediary problems with less knowledge. They can help in employment, funding, and help to take advantage of the ecosystem. They can also help in certification of organic products. Now, we need lot of startups to work on value chain. Why do startups fail? It is because they are established where there is no market need, too much of investment, lack of backup, more competition, and lack of novelty. Pricing is another issue, poor quality product, and lack of business model on how to integrate a market for the products. States like Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, UP, Tamil Nadu are doing good job while many other states are not getting good promotion and unrest. The startups’ success lies in innovative products and lack of planning. They should know where to get the capital, invest it, and get ideas.
We can work on hydroponic retail store farming, garlic farming for medicinal purposes, lavender farming, mushroom, bamboo, willow farming, paper from jute waste, and creating wealth from Agri waste. They can work on fortified rice analogues from broken rice and dal, protein isolation from de-oiled cakes of soya beans and groundnut, soilless planting media with sugarcane residue, producing fertiliser using coir pith and dried cow dung, recycling food waste to prepare compost, etc. For many products, commercialisation has started from ICAR, licence given, and start the business. Detailed project plan, business plan, and marketing plan are needed for FPOs and startups. Credit linkages using ABPU can be used to get funds up to Rs. 5 crores at 3% interest. Paying GST, GAP certification are also needed.
How can startups ensure fair and ethical labour practices when dealing with labour intensive farming activities? What are the typical funding sources and investment opportunities available to horticulture and agriculture startups, and what are the criteria investors look for?
Most of the startups are technology oriented and do not employ labours unless it is a skilled work. There are many manpower contractors, and the startups need not employ labours directory to pay pension and gratuity landing in labour problems. Government of India has AIIF where minimum Rs. 5 crores is given at 3% interest. There are angel investors, bootstrappers, and not much of fund is required, it is the innovative idea that is needed. The startups should check the demand for the product in the area, vertical farming, silage cultivation, nutrient mixing, and wick system. They should be technology intensive, and horticulture technologies are not money oriented. We can upscale them by investing more money after sometime. Initially it needs sound knowledge of horticulture and science.
How can horticulture and agriculture startups collaborate with traditional farming to create synergies and foster growth?
I know of a person who has only 2 to 3 acres of land for himself, but he uses the farmers in his area to produce very high value vegetables, takes care of inputs credit, harvesting, and marketing. He gives incentives for packing grading, and branding. Thus he is able to aggregate small and marginal farmers, link them up, and put them in a startup value chain and supply chain. If I am in Doddaballapur area, I will not bring labours from Kerala or Andhra. I will be using local resources, engage in participatory breeding, contacting local agriculture universities and KVKs. I will use the local people, but I will be adding some knowledge skill and attitude for them and help them to become mini entrepreneurs to become startups later.
What are the challenges in horticulture and agriculture startups, and how they can be overcome? What are the key considerations for scaling the startups from small operation to larger and impactful one?
The main challenge is the Agri produce are perishable, then variation in prices, and labour force is not an organised one in agriculture sector. So we have to solve these problems to convert the products into high value ones and earn profit. Usually the customers are in cities, and they should be the targets. We should produce in villages and market in cities using marketing channels and network. We should make use of cold chain to transport the products. So we should take are of the supply chain, network, cold chain, take a warehouse pay the rent, and start the business. This is how it should be done.
Can you share some success stories of horticulture and agriculture startups that have made significant impact in the industry?
Waycool is a good startup who does the procurement from a cluster of villages, give them input credit, get the production done, and do the entire marketing through warehouses and minimum markets. So even Amazon foods does the same thing. They outsource the products from many villages and do the marketing, packing, etc. Bigbasket is another example. These are aggregate startups who invest on ICT part and marketing part, products come from the village, and of course this is a Herculean task.
Dr. V K Jayaraghavendra Rao
Principal Scientist ICAR-IIHR(Indian Institute of Horticultural Research)
Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Email: v.rao241@gmail.com
Phone: 9440034845
Last edited: