Agricultural start-ups - New Horizon for Youth

What are start-ups ?

A Startup is a young company that is just beginning to develop. Startups are usually small and initially financed and operated by a handful of founders or one individual. These companies offer a product or service that is not currently being offered elsewhere in the market, or that the founders believe offered in an inferior manner.

According to Government Of India, Startup is an business organisation which is not started prior to five years and it should have less than 25 crores of annual trading. Startups are focused and working towards innovation, commercialisation and development. And the entity should not be the separate entity from the other existing company.

Picture source: dqindia.com

How startups are different from other business models ?

Startups are different from traditional businesses primarily because they are grow fast.  They will face unique challenges like financing and marketing.  Startups tend to rely on capital that comes from angel investors and venture capital firms. So due to its inherent weakness,  They need good policy ecosystem from government and Startup India scheme intends to do that.

Government  initiatives supporting Agri startup's:

• ASPIRE
• Start up India scheme
• Support from SIDBI
• Loans through MUDRA banks
• Tax exemption for first 3 three years.
• Creation of Fund of Funds, which means that government will not directly invest into, but  shall participate in SEBI (Securities Exchange Board of India) registered venture funds.

Picture credits : narendramodi.in

Why in Agriculture ?

Agricultural sector in India employs 54.6 percent of Indian population. It shares 17.4% of our GDP. As per the census of 2011 number of cultivators are 118.7 million. But the application of technology is much lower in Indian agriculture.  Leading to  poor profitability of agricultural products.

In a country where more than half of the population survives on agriculture, still fruits and vegetables worth 2 billion rupees are wasted because a lack of supply chain management and cold storage. Which necessitates the way for more startups in India.

Status of Agricultural startups in India:

Startups which focus in the agricultural sectors such as farm technologies, farming methods, seed production, pesticides, marketing, value added products are classified under Agricultural startups.
            
Funding for agricultural startups are declined to $56 million in 2015 from $123 million the year before, according to a data from Tracxn, a startup activity tracking platform. In total amount of $ 6 billion invested in all tech startups less than 1% had attracted by Agri startups.

Some of the agricultural startups in India,
   * Farms n Farmers
   * Stellapps
   * MITRA
   * FlyBird Farm innovation      
   * Agro Star        
   * VillFarm   
   * SV Agri

Farms n Farmers:

It is founded by alumnus of IIT and commonly known as FnF.  Their goal is to revive the present agricultural system by latest technologies and improving Research and Development.  FnF targets to improve land use profitability thereby increases the revenue of landowners, farmers and farm labourers.  They have also stepped outside India, by starting their operations in Nepal.

Stellapps:

Stellapps is an end-to-end dairy technology solutions company – the first of its kind in India. It is an IIT-Madras incubated company founded by a group of IITians and technologists. They produce and procure comprehensive farm optimization and monitoring support, which helps dairy farmers and cooperatives maximise profits.

FlyBird Farm Innovation:

It is an social Impact agriculture enterprise and has been incorporated with a vision to solve key problems of agricultural sector through production of farm technologies.

Tea Box:

Tea Box is a tea brand that sells tea and tea products online.  This startup is known for its packaging methods and faster delivery of quality products.  This tea has greater demand in Russia and most of the European countries.

Startup India is a flagship initiative scheme of Government of India, intended to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country. This will drive sustainable economic growth, generate large scale employment opportunities and the farm income.  Agriculture graduates and unemployed rural graduates should make use of this supportive ecosystem and become a “job creators” rather than “job seekers”.

(Pavithran is a graduate in Agriculture. He is interested and passionate towards Politics.  sripaviips5@gmail.com)