Agri Startups Till
the Fields for IoT
A new breed of entrepreneurs is building startups that use
next-generation technologies including Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud
computing models to help farmers and others working in the agriculture sector.
On Wednesday, ET invited founders of three agri-tech startups -Farmily,
KisanRaja and CropIn Technology -to understand what it takes to build a
successful venture in this space. Phanindra Sama, who sold his bus ticketing
startup redBus to Ibibo Group in 2013 and is now an adviser to CropIn, was part
of the panel.
“There is a Flipkart-like opportunity (for agri-tech startups)
that would require the same kind of funding,“ said Sama. A confluence of the
pervasive use of mobile phones, falling cost of hardware and greater internet
connectivity has brought the agri-tech industry to an inflection point.
“Smartphone penetration and increasing dependence on social media
are large factors in the efforts towards digitising agriculture,“ said Kunal
Prasad, chief operating officer of CropIn, whose mobile app helps farmers track
produce and consignment status.
The IoT phenomenon has more use-cases in agriculture than one can
imagine, said Vijay Bhaskar Reddy of Vinifinet Technologies, makers of a device
called KisanRaja.The device, when connected to water motors, calls farmer on
their mobile phones and releases water as and when directed. Despite the
opportunities, the sector is not without its gaps. For one, the innovators do
not live in the villages. “We are capable of building solutions, it's just that
we are not exposed to it,“ said Sama, also highlighting the lack of a tissue
culture industry in India.
“There are hundred kinds of potatoes but McDonald's wants one
kind. And none of this innovation happens in India because of the patent scene
in India -there is no value for doing all this discovery,“ he said. “There has
to be a reward for people to work (on tissue culture).“
The good news is, more institutional money is coming in for
agri-tech entrepreneurs to continue with innovative ideas as business models
become more viable. “Fantastic analytics can be put in place to predict which
crop should be grown, where, etc,“ Sama said. This, and opportunities in
forward and reverse logistics, can be profitable businesses, he said. “The only
industry that is not digitally scanned is the farming industry. If you are
developing a product now in agri-tech space, the next 12-18 months should be a
good time to raise money,“ said Karthik Natarajan of Farmily, which connects
farmers with consumers of agricultural goods.
ET19JUN15
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