India’s Decade of Sustainable Agriculture

Agriculture: Part of the problem, part of the solution

‘Sustainable agriculture’ has gone from being a buzzword to a call to action. But what does it really mean? It’s more expansive than niche organic farming and does not assume compromised productivity to conserve resources. On the contrary, it seeks to improve farmer profitability and enhance the quality of life of rural communities, while promoting environmental stewardship. We are hurtling towards a future where our fragile agricultural ecosystem will have to feed 10 billion by 2050, while combating the grave ramifications of climate change. Decision Makers and innovators are striving to develop a feasible plan of action with the tenets of sustainability at its core. Solutions range from small changes in farming practices to full-stack sustainability ventures and the wholesale transformation of legacy businesses. From the perspective of agritech investments, there are three categories to watch – agrifood life sciences, precision agriculture, and agridata infrastructure.

Agrifood Life Sciences

By 2030, India will be home to a richer, more urbanized, and digitally savvy demographic who will spend an estimated additional USD 1.6 trillion on food and dining out. Demand for fresh produce and animal protein will increase, and so will the desire to eat nutritious, traceable, and ethical food. While not as controversial as BT brinjal, alternative protein is still a subject of many debates. One can strongly argue that India does not need any protein intervention. However, India’s natural resources will be stretched thin to feed 1.5 billion people. Thus, any alternative that reduces pressure on our land, water, and food systems needs to be explored. With USD 3.1 billion investment raised globally in 2020, various approaches to alternative protein (plant based, fermented, and cellular) might eventually become a significant component of our future food system.

Precision agriculture

We tend to associate mechanization with large farms. Yet, over 80% of farmers in India are small and marginal. As more and more farmers exit this sector, farm labor will be in short supply, and the skilled kind will be expensive. Though at a nascent stage, the adoption of next generation farm automation is steadily on the rise. Better penetration of 4G and smartphones has empowered young farmers with information and access to precision agriculture technologies. Robots, drones, and other automation technologies will bridge the labor gap and also take the drudgery out of farming. Machines that can dig, spray, prune, pluck, and more will gradually enter the mainstream market. We don’t have to look far for examples. TartanSense, an Indian agritech startup, builds AI-powered small agricultural robots which can move around farmlands and spray weeds with pesticides. Weeding is a labor-intensive task, and weeds account for approximately 32 percent of crop losses!

Alongside eliminating the toil, evolving precision agriculture technologies will help curb expenditure on inputs. Riding on 5G and eventually, 7G connectivity, IoT sensors and actuators will allow farmers to virtually manage their farms. Real-time information about biotic and abiotic factors will enable a more targeted use of inputs and eventually minimize carbon footprints. Case in point, Fasal offers an AI-powered IoT platform for horticulture farmers. Fasal sensors monitor critical on-farm parameters, generate microclimatic forecasts, predict diseases and pests, and send irrigation alerts, all delivered through a smartphone app. With this model, Fasal has helped save 3 billion liters of water, reduced pesticide usage by 60%, and increased yields by 40%.

These technologies will also serve allied sectors such as aquaculture, sericulture, and animal husbandry as they become more formalized. One of our early bets, Stellapps, offers full-stack dairy digitization. The startup’s mooON technology tracks cattle health, helps farmers detect illnesses early, and contributes to herd health and efficient farm management. The company is currently working on animal facial recognition technology which will be a significant step towards superior and humane cattle care.

To usher in an era of smart farms, data is key. In our decade-long experience in Indian agriculture, we have observed a huge gap in the availability of agricultural data. Fortunately, remote sensing solutions, accelerated by spacetech, are becoming more accessible to all. Satellite imagery and remote sensing data are invaluable tools to forecast agricultural output, regulate crop inputs, and even calculate how much carbon farmers are sequestering. Multispectral, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and hyperspectral satellites can create rich datasets that yield deep insights to make farming more profitable, resilient, and sustainable. Spacetech startup Pixxel is already working towards 5x5 meter hyperspectral data sets. It would be a significant improvement from the 30x30 RGB data and will deliver tremendous value to smallholder farmers and the agribusiness ecosystem.

Agridata infrastructure

While land fragmentation has been a hotly debated topic for years, we believe India is about to turn a corner. The culmination of increasing internet penetration, India’s foundational identity system, and the administrative push for building a digital land records database will dispel much of the fog around land ownership. With such reforms underway, India Agristack (just like IndiaStack) with multi-layered agridata will soon come into existence. It will provide a composite map of the Indian agri ecosystem incorporating farmer identity, asset and ownership details, geotagged land records, soil profile, and current cultivator identification. Improved transparency will enable farmers to build up their credit history, reduce their risk profile, and avail various financial services. With richer, hyperconnected agridata, farmer direct benefit transfer (DBT) programs will also be able to realize their full transformative potential.

Conclusion

The innovations surveyed here are not without challenges, but the status quo represents certain doom for the tens of millions who depend heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods. The path towards sustainable agriculture will not be a straight line forward, but a journey of twists and turns, facilitated by agrifood life sciences, precision agriculture, and agridata infrastructure. Here’s to the journey ahead, and to those entrepreneurs and scientists brave enough to lead the way!