Comprehensive Showcase of 400 Indian Innovations Across Global Sectors

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https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/comprehensive-showcase-of-400-indian-innovations-across-global-sectors/287375125

Innovations for Agribusiness- India

 

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How Andhra wants to convert to 100% natural farming by 2027

Development of the Farm Machinery Industry in Japan : A Case Study of the Walking Type Tractor

Indian Government is reported contemplating restriction on import of Chinese Power Tillers. India has been assembling power tillers for decades and most of them are based on Japanese technology.
This case explains how Japan developed Power Tiller/ Walking type tractor.

The evolution of the walking type tractor occurred in three phases. The first phase involved the actual transfer of technology from abroad. Garden tractors such as Bee Man, Utilitar and Simar were imported in the early 1920s and demonstration of cultivation was performed in some prefectures. The imported tractors turned out to be inappropriate for the natural, economic, and social conditions of Japanese agriculture. The import of garden tractors thus ended within a short period. The second phase saw the invention of a Japanese type tractor called the "power tiller." It incorporated some of the designs of imported garden tractors built before World War II. The power tiller was subject to several defects and was used only in limited areas. This led to the third phase in which walking type tractors were invented and widely diffused. These tractors signified the completion of an appropriate technology for Japanese agriculture. The defects of the power tillers were corrected and hand tractors and tailor type tractors were also developed with reference to imported garden tractors. The quality of these walking type tractors were good enough to replace draft animals completely. These walking type tractors were diffused at a high speed and reached their peak in 1974 when 3.4 million such tractors were in use in Japan. Export of the walking type tractors started increasing in the mid-1960s. In 1982 about 30 percent of the total production of walking type tractors was exported. 

The Role o the Public Sector in the Development f of the Walking Type Tractor
 Pre-War period:  an agricultural experiment station carried out a comparative examination of imported garden tractors in 1922. Although the results of the study suggested that imported garden tractors were not well suited to Japanese agriculture, the study made clear the importance of developing a cultivating machine which was adapted to local agricultural conditions. Secondly, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry promoted the diffusion of the power tiller by holding national machinery and implements fairs.
Post-war period:With the enactment of the Farm Mechanization Promotion Law in 1 9_ 53, the farm machinery testing scheme was legalized.Secondly, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry entrusted the Okayama Prefectural Experiment Station to conduct research on small-scale power tillers from 1947~48. In this way, the transmission clutch was improved and engines were made smaller and lighter. 
Down load the paper.

Agri-Startups India

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (FICCI)-PwC Knowledge Report on Agri-Start-ups: Innovations for boosting the Future of Agriculture in India, was launched by Suresh Prabhu, minister of commerce and industry, Government of India, at the International Conference and Awards for Innovations by Agri Start-ups organised by FICCI in New Delhi. High lights:

• India houses a total of 366 agri based start-ups, of which over 50 per cent came into existence in 2015 and 2016. The combined revenue of all agritech start-ups in India is estimated to be less than $100 million whereas global market is worth $350 billion. Geographically, Karnataka and Maharashtra together account for almost 50 per cent of the total number of agri start-ups opened in the last five years.
• Big data based agri start-ups:Development of farm-specific, data-driven diagnostics to determine soil and crop health has come up as a big opportunity area. Start-ups are leveraging drones or tractor-based solutions to get data (both on weather and agricultural) on field to determine risk. Growing smartphone penetration will enable precise decision making in farming activity, helping farmers to drive increased productivity and revenue while reducing unit costs.
• Start-ups developed around the market linkage model: Innovations must be included to help farmers with timely and accurate estimation of sowing and harvesting in sync with consumer demand patterns. Such linkages operate at the two critical ends of the supply chain: input and output models. These models aim to link producers to remunerative sourcing agencies for procurement and to profitable buyers for output sales.
• Start-ups developed around Farming as a Service (FAAS): Specific farm practices are being identified for provision of technological breakthrough services. Activities such as equipment renting and crop care practices are areas likely to see market traction. FAAS seeks to provide affordable technology solutions for efficient farming. It converts fixed costs into variable costs for farmers, thus making the techniques more affordable for a majority of small farmers. Its services are available on a subscription or payper-use basis in three broad categories, which are crucial across the agriculture value chain.
• IoT enabled technology based agri start-ups: Smart farming, including high-precision crop control, data collection, and automated farming techniques, will remove inefficiencies and bolster productivity. Information on crop yields, rainfall patterns, pest infestation and soil nutrition can be used to improve farming techniques over time. Low capex for predominantly software based solutions is the key feature for such solutions.

Download the report.

Ag Tech Investment Report

Where is the investment coming to other than Food commerce startups? From the report of Ag Founder.

Soil & Crop Technology is a broad category encompassing biological inputs and treatments, chemical inputs, geneticsbased tech, new crops, and seed technology.The subsector saw $161 million raised across 22 deals in H1-2016, a 290% increase on H1-2015 ($41m) and not far behind 2015’s total for the sector of $173m.The increase in investment and activity were largely be attributed to three trends: gene-editing technologies, microbiome research, and biological inputs.

Precision ag startups raised $333 million during the first half of 2016, slightly more than half of what was raised during all of 2015 ($661m). We define these companies as those helping farmers grow and manage both crops and livestock using digital tools and hardware. They come from the following subsectors: Drones & Robotics, Decision Support Tech, Irrigation & Water, and Smart Equipment & Hardware. Hardware and sensors startups also grabbed a larger size of the pie raising $27.4 million.

Startups in the Biomaterials & Biochemicals subsector produce or farm biological organisms and compounds for use across the food, pharmaceutical, textile and other industrial industries.

Massive Open Online Courses for Agricultural Professionals

The ‘National Virtual Academy for Indian Agriculture to promote Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for Agricultural Professionals’ was launched on 4 September at the ICRISAT global headquarters.
The MOOCs will be offered through the National Virtual Academy for Indian Agriculture, an online platform built on an open source software “Open edX,”.

Development and Transfer of Technology from Queensland University of Technology, Australia to India for Bio-fortification and Disease Resistance in Banana

Queensland University of Technology, Australia has developed bio-fortified banana under the Grand Challenges in Global Health Program to alleviate vitamin A and iron deficiency in Uganda. They have also developed technologies related to Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) and Fusarium Wilt resistance in banana. QUT is willing to share these technologies with India.  An agreement was signed between BIRAC on the behalf of Government of India and QUT, Australia for “Development and Transfer of Technology from Queensland University of Technology, Australia to India for Bio fortification and Disease Resistance in Banana” on 24th August, 2012.
For details:BIRAC

Corpus Fund for Crop Advisory

Dr DSK rao is  forming a 'All India Crop Advisory Group' comprising of members drawn from across fields as follows:

Soil Scientists and Farm Preparation Experts from Public & Private Sector : 10
Water & Irrigation Experts from Public & Private : 10
Fertilizer Experts (Chemical) from Research & Industry : 10
Pesticides & Herbicides (Chemical) : 10
Organic Fertilizers & Farming : 10
Bio Pesticides & Herbicides : 10
Seed Industry including Seed Treatment : 20
Farm Management & GAP : 10
Harvesting & Farm Mechanization Experts : 10 
Post Harvest Processing : 10
Labelling , Packaging & Certification Experts including FSSAI : 10 
Retail Food Industry including Logistics, warehousing : 20 
Fisheries : 5
Poultry & Livestock : 5
Export & Import experts : 5
Agri Financing : 5
Agronomists : 5
Dairy Farming : 10
Apiculture, Sericulture .. : 5
Food Processing Technology Experts including Solar Drying/ Processing : 10
Agriculture, Horticulture & Plantation Experts : 5
Total 200

Industry Captains/ Research Organizations in Agriculture/ Rich Farmers and any others who would be keen on 'Donating' for this much needed group for supporting Agriculture in this country may contact:


DSK Rao
dskrao65@gmail.com

Innovations and Research by private agribusiness in India: Carl E Pray and Latha Nagarrajan

There has been lot of discussion on need for second green revolution and very little on who will drive it and deliver the results. This paper can lead to informed discussion on this subject. Abstract from the report:

  Agricultural innovations in India have rapidly increased since the 1980s. Government data and surveys of seed firms show that from about 1990 to 2010 the number of new seed cultivars available to farmers in maize, wheat, and rice roughly doubled, while the number of cotton cultivars at least tripled. Biotechnology innovations went from zero in the 1990s to 5 genetically modified (GM) traits in hundreds of GM cotton cultivars by 2008. Pesticide registrations went from 104 in the period 1980–1989 to 228 during the period 2000–2010. Similar growth in innovations also occurred in the agricultural machinery, veterinary medicine, and agricultural processing industries.
These innovations have come from foreign technology transferred into India as well as from in-country public and—increasingly—private research. Based on interviews with firms and data from annual reports, we find that private investment in agricultural research grew from US$54 million in 1994/95 to US$250 million in 2008/09 (in 2005 dollars). Growth in private research and development (R&D) expenditure was particularly rapid in the seed and plant biotechnology industry, which grew by more than 10 times between the mid-1990s and 2009.
Private innovations have contributed to agricultural productivity and incomes. Research and innovation by private industry led to the boom in cotton exports and to rapid increases in exports of generic pesticides and agricultural machinery. Private hybrids of cotton, rice, maize, pearl millet, and sorghum increased yields over public hybrids, varieties, and landraces. Small farmers in some of the poorest regions of India—the semiarid tropics of central India and the rainfed rice regions of eastern India—get higher productivity with private hybrids.


One of  the suggestion for policy reform:
Invest in public research and higher education, and make scientists available to private research. The number of state agricultural universities (SAUs) and the students they produce have increased; however, the number of scientists at SAUs has declined, along with research funding per scientist (Jha and Kumar 2006; Ramaswamy and Selvaraj 2007). Drastic reforms and more resources are needed in graduate education and research at SAUs to train the young scientists that private firms are asking for. These reforms could include expanding government support for graduate education and research beyond Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes and SAUs to nonagricultural institutes that have strong basic science programs. ICARs and SAUs should also re-examine research priorities to avoid duplicating research now conducted in the private sector and to concentrate on research for public goods. Where applied private research is strong, public research centers should shift their research focus to basic research that supports private applied research. At the same time, the private sector should contribute more financial and political support to public strategic research.


Any comments?

Skyquest looking for technologies for incubation in India

Skyquest is scouting late stage technologies in the Agriculture and Allied Sectors including Horticulture, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Sericulture. The technology can be a Patented or Non-patented; a Product or a Process having low investment bracket.

The technologies shortlisted would be then presented to Agritech Entrepreneurs. 

Contact person: 

Ms. Kathak Mehta | Technology Deal Starter,  kathak.mehta@skyquestventures.com