While emphasizing the use of modern technology in the agricultural sector, Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday said agri-tech startups are critical to India's future economy.
Addressing the third edition of 'TechBharat' on the theme 'Transforming India's FoodTech, AgriTech, and Agronomic Landscape' at the CSIR-CFTRI campus, Singh said, "A new wave of agri-tech startups has come up in India in the last few years due to enabling policy environment provided by Modi government to address the problems of Indian agriculture such as supply chain management, use of outdated equipment, improper infrastructure, and the inability of farmers to access a wider range of markets with ease."
He said that many agri-tech startups in India are mainly in the marketplace segment where e-commerce companies provide fresh and organic fruits and vegetables procured directly from farmers, but recently many startups have come up providing innovative and sustainable solutions for farmers' problems.
He said that startups are now providing solutions such as biogas plants, solar-powered cold storage, fencing and water pumping, weather prediction, spraying machines, seed drills, and vertical farming, which is bound to increase farmers' income.
"The technology solutions for most issues in agriculture are present, but the challenge is for these solutions to reach every farmer on a larger scale and not just only one farmer. It is time now that we adopt technology in this very crucial sector of our economy and on a mass scale so that the agriculture and the farming community benefit and in turn the Indian economy also grows rapidly," the minister added.
Source: Firstpost