Agritech startups focusing on various aspects of agriculture are going to get a fillip, with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing a Nabard-funded programme to promote them.

While presenting the Union Budget for 2022-23, the Finance Minister said the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) will set up a blended fund to financially support the startups to enhance the agri produce value chain in rural areas.

“A fund with blended capital, raised under the co-investment model, will be facilitated through NABARD. This is to finance startups for agriculture and rural enterprise, relevant for farm produce value chain,” she said.

Support for startups working with FPOs

The support would also be given to the startups that work with FPOs (farmer producer organisations) and those that provide machinery for farmers on rental basis.

The apex bank has already started working with agricultural universities to promote agritech startups, particularly those working in drone technologies.

“There is a huge opportunity to solve a plethora of problems that the primary sector is facing. It has been the least penetrated domain in terms of tech and innovative supply chain for a long time,” Siddhant Bhomia, Co-Founder of Krishi Network, a tech-based agri supply chain platform, said.

“To co-invest in these startups that are solving the core problems is the right step,” he said.

Palat Vijayaraghavan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LEAF, which works with small and marginal farmers for aggregation of agri produce, said the country needed integrated full-stack solutions to digitise marketplaces, payments, workflows and farmer transaction histories. This would help create a commercially sustainable ecosystem comprising all relevant agriculture value chain players, he said.

Published on February 1, 2022