Agri-tech: experiential learning from the Agri-tech growth leaders

ABSTRACT

This research study analyses the critical issues in Agri-tech start-up growth in India and explores ways to improve the process. Research methods are triangulated to understand Agri-tech entrepreneurs’ opinions and experiences. After the articles and reports were reviewed, a statistical analysis of a user opinion survey of two hundred and two Agri-tech users was conducted. Post survey, three rounds of semi-structured interviews among the twenty-two Agri-tech entrepreneurs and experts helped in fine-tuning the findings. The key issues highlighted in the findings are the availability of low-interest and creative financing models; Infrastructure availability and incubation support; Cross-domain quality solutions with multiple levels of features; Supportive mindset of business customers and partners; and Skill-building and Training of farmers. This research is one of the few academic studies on Agri-tech entrepreneurship and includes the COVID-19 pandemic effect. The findings help the researchers build the knowledge base of agriculture 4.0 entrepreneurship. Suggestions may help the practitioner boost the growth of Agri-tech solutions. In addition, the study highlights innovative suggestions like setting up an open national database of core parameters, cloud computing-based agriculture 4.0 digital stack, digitalising farmer producer organisations, and monitoring plus organisational evaluation setup.

KEYWORDS:

• Agriculture
• Agri-Tech
• digitalisation
• start-up

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Twenty-two alphabets ‘A’, ‘B’ … . ‘V’, are used to refer to the twenty-two hidden names of the start-ups, Institutes, and Universities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sanjay Chaudhary

Sanjay Chaudhary is an Associate Professor of MIS and Operations Management. He is also a Research Scholar at Delhi Technological University. Before seven years in Academics, he has seventeen years of international work experience in the corporate sector. An IIT (India), SUNY (USA), and AIT (Thailand) alumnus have expertise in ICT, Corporate, education, and Training. He is awarded a fellowship by the IETE and a Chartered Engineer designation by the Institution of Engineers, India. He is a member of the All-India Management Association (AIMA). He has published several academic journal articles and a book.

P. K. Suri

P. K. Suri serves as a Professor at the Delhi School of Management (DSM), Delhi Technological University. His areas of interest for teaching, research and consultancy include E-Governance, IT Strategy and Management, Project Management and Business Analytics. He has served as Head (DSM) during 2013–2016. He is originally from the 1986 batch of the Indian Statistical Service. He has also served in consulting roles for the UN bodies, viz. WTO and FAO. He is a member of the Governing Council of the Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management (GIFT). He has published numerous journal articles.