Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Agritech startup Vegrow raises $13 mn co-led by Lightspeed, Elevation Capitaledit
Mint – Online
Vegrow, a business-to-business (B2B) agritech platform for fruits and vegetables, on Tuesday said it has raised $13 million in a series A investment round co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Elevation Capital. The round also saw participation from existing investors Matrix Partners India, Ankur Capital, Better Capital and Titan Capital.
Founded in 2020 by IIT alumni Praneeth Kumar, Shobhit Jain, Mrudhukar Batchu and Kiran Naik, Vegrow has a presence in over 30 cities. The startup’s technology platform powers farm discovery, produce quality profiling, market intelligence to smart matchmaking between farm-level inventory and customer requirements.
How Agritech Startups Are Revamping Agriculture In India?edit
BW Disrupt – Online
Agriculture in India has not seen any major evolution since the green revolution back in the 1960’s. India is at an inflection point with an impending Agri-tech revolution closely following the footsteps of ed-tech & fin-tech.
Currently, India holds the record of being the second-largest agricultural land globally. Around 60% rural households in India make their living from agriculture, creating a great scope for Agri-Tech start-ups in the country. Research shows that the total Agri-Tech market will be approx. $24 Billion by 2025 while the current market is placed at $204 million which is ~1% of the overall potential.
Technology in Agriculture
Smart tech is giving farm sector a boostedit
The Hindu Business Line – Online
The pandemic has accelerated the digitisation of India’s farm sector. Digital agricultural applications will allow the industry to increase operational productivity and yield quality, at the same time reduce expenses and waste.
Smart farming is much more efficient than traditional methods. The IoT-based system can monitor agricultural land — soil moisture, humidity and temperature — with the help of sensors and mechanised irrigation practices. For instance, a farmer can monitor his field from anywhere and get an alert as and when the soil moisture level goes down, prompting him to initiate irrigation.
Govt. Policies
Centre Extends ‘Stand Up India Scheme’ To 2025; Activities Allied To Agriculture Includededit
Republic World – Online
The Government of India has extended the duration of ‘Stand Up India Scheme’ up to the year 2025, MoS for Social Justice and Empowerment Sushri Pratima Bhoumik said in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Tuesday. This scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 5, 2016. The objective of the ‘Stand Up India Scheme’ is to facilitate loans from Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) of value between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore to atleast one SC or ST borrower and one woman borrower per bank branch for setting up green field enterprise in manufacturing, service or trading sector.
India’s New Agriculture Policy: Here’s Why You Need to Share Your Ideas With The Govtedit
The Better India – Online
India’s agriculture sector accounts for about 15.9 per cent of the country’s $ 2.7 trillion economy and 49 per cent of employment (2018-19). Given the heavy statistics, the government aims to simplify, unify and collate a system to achieve their 2022 goal of doubling a farmer’s income.
The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmer Welfare drafted a consultation paper on India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA) to create agriculture-specific technology that can be deployed from the smallest unit at the farmer to the large corporations who are the end purchasers.
Monsoon + Indian Agriculture
Explained: Why monsoon got held up and what that means for agriculture and economyedit
First Post – Online
The start-stop monsoons this year have already resulted in a decline in the sown area as compared to last year, a worrisome sign amid a jump in inflation. The government’s weather officials have said that rain clouds have now covered the entire country after a pause, but vast areas of the country are still staring at deficient rainfall, which may spell trouble for agriculture.
How Far Has Monsoon Advanced?
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had said that the southwest monsoon had travelled up the country till about the middle of last month following its slightly delayed onset over Kerala on 3 June as it was borne on by a “favourable atmospheric circulation and a low ...
Patchy monsoon rain raises growth and inflation worries for Indiaedit
Business Standard – Online
Poor monsoon showers are threatening India’s nascent economic recovery and could make food even more expensive in a country where more than half of the population depends on rain for farming.
The weather pattern, which usually begins its four-month journey from the southern state of Kerala on June 1, stalled for three weeks after bringing higher-than-average rains in the first half of last month. The monsoon has now revived, but the delay and poor precipitation will hurt the sowing of crops such as rice, cotton and soybeans.