India: Agricultural Innovation Driven by Start-Ups

Although the agricultural economy of the Indian Subcontinent has seen a considerable increase in mechanization intensity (from 0.36 kW/ha to 2.48 kW/ha in the forty-year period between 1975 and 2017), several imbalances persist. Currently, only 47% of agricultural operations in India are mechanized, while the fragmentation of land ownership — 86% of farms cover on average no more than 2 hectares — acts as a brake on investments in agricultural machinery by preventing scale economies. Additional gaps are found at the territorial level in the distribution of mechanical power, with some regions boasting a good level of mechanization — such as Punjab with 6 kW per hectare — and others, especially those in the northeast (0.5 kW per hectare), still lagging significantly behind.

These issues were discussed during the conference titled “Farm mechanization startups: driving innovation and accessibility in Indian agriculture”, held on the second day of EIMA Agrimach, the international exhibition of agricultural technologies for India and Southeast Asia, taking place in New Delhi through 29 November. Speakers included K. P. Singh, Additional Deputy Director General at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR); Hemendra Mathur, Chairman of the FICCI Task Force on Agri-Startups and Venture Partner at the Bharat Innovation Fund; Nitin Gupta, CEO of Sickle Innovations; Rohit Bajaj, Co-founder and CEO of Balwaan Krishi; Praveen Rajpal, Founder and CEO of Behtar Zindagi; and Fabio Ricci, Deputy Director General of FederUnacoma.

According to the speakers, difficulties in accessing credit and after-sales services that do not always meet farmers’ needs are additional factors hindering investments in agricultural machinery, particularly those in technologically advanced equipment. Yet this very type of machinery is what the Indian primary sector needs in order to increase efficiency and sustainability. A response to these challenges — it was noted during the proceedings — is emerging from a new generation of start-ups founded in recent years to facilitate small farms’ access to the agri-mechanical market. From machinery sharing and equipment rental to solutions based on artificial intelligence and digital platforms, these start-ups offer a range of services designed to modernize the production systems of farms that have remained on the margins of agricultural mechanization.

Of particular interest in this regard was the contribution of FederUnacoma Deputy Director General Fabio Ricci, who highlighted the experience gained in Italy, where technological innovation has been directed at reducing the environmental impact of field operations, increasing productivity, and protecting natural resources.

Technologies such as assisted or automated guidance, IoT- and AI-based solutions, sensors, and decision support systems (DSS), Ricci explained, can also be successfully adopted in India, especially in high-value crop sectors. Examples include precision sprayers capable of identifying vegetation density and applying crop protection products in a targeted manner, or irrigation systems that can assess crop water needs in real time and manage water delivery according to the plants’ actual requirements, thereby reducing production costs and improving the sustainability of farming operations.