Agriculture startups in India account for less than 4% of the 33,688 recognized startups, based on the data analyzed from the Startup India website, as on September 30, 2020.
Information Technology services account for the most (13%) of the recognized startups, followed by ‘Healthcare & Lifesciences’ (8.5%) and Education (7%). However, agriculture is one of the top segments thriving among startups, ahead of sectors such as financial technology, artificial intelligence, retail, automotive, textile and apparel, fashion, and others.
“The new farm bills are going to be great for the farmer,” Milan Sharma, chief executive officer, Intello Labs, an agri-tech startup, said. “With an open market, there will be fair and transparent trade, farmer income should certainly increase. As a digital company focused on bringing transparency in the food industry, we are quite excited about it,” he added.
“These reforms were long due and now doing away with APMCs, private players will have opportunities to enter the ecosystem in a big way,” said Sateesh Nukala, chief executive officer and co-founder of Big Haat, a one-stop online market platform for farmers that provides both solutions and inputs.
The 2020 farm legislations raise hopes for the farming community by opening up new and wider avenues for farmers as well as agriculture startups. According to experts, the new laws offer great scope for budding agri-startups and will encourage tech-interventions that could prove to be a “game-changer”.