Empowering Smallholder Farmers: Innovations in Agriculture Technology and Partnerships

Farmers in India are grappling with increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather conditions, significantly impacting the agriculture sector. With the population in South Asia's developing countries growing at a rate of 1.18% per annum, the challenges of food insecurity loom large. As we look ahead, it is imperative that agricultural practices evolve to become less reliant on the whims of the climate and more innovative, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to ensure sustainable food production for the future.
Today, with digital technologies making inroads into our lives, people are realizing the importance of technology and how it can solve critical farming challenges like low productivity, soil degradation, climate resilience, and many more. Additionally, there has been growing interest in India towards the development of technology-based innovations. Such ongoing projects are highlighted in this article.
Innovations for Soil Management
Over the years, misselection and unbalanced application of chemical inputs has resulted in degraded soil health and increased dependency on chemical inputs. There is also the problem of accessibility of the right type and quantity of inputs for farmers. The correct way to use chemical inputs is to follow a crop advisory card prepared after soil testing at the farm. To support the right method and address the needs of 14 Crore farmers, the current infrastructure of 3,000 soil testing laboratories across the country is not sufficient. Due to this, soil testing is often neglected, and the unregulated use of fertilizers has become rampant. Therefore, innovators are working on building these solutions, which can enable the farmers to make informed decisions about selecting the correct input for their farms. Thus promoting regulated usage of chemical inputs and improving soil health as well as farm productivity.
Biotechnology supported innovations
With changes in climate leading to unpredictable conditions like longer dry spells, heavy rain, hail storms, and floods, farmers are not able to prepare their fields and save crops. Innovations in biotechnology or gene editing are helping us to prepare climate-resilient seeds. These improved varieties of seeds can withstand biotic stressors like diseases and abiotic stressors like environmental conditions. This intervention can help develop seeds that have traits to make crops climate-resilient or pest-resilient and have crops with higher productivity.
Innovations for Farm Management
The traditional knowledge and practices of agriculture have been passed on from generation to generation in the form of practices or quotes generally used by farmers; one such quote used in the Purvanchal region is, “सावन में पुरवैया, भादों में पछयाव। हरंवारे हर छांड़कें लरका जाय जिबाव॥"
During implementation, technology needs to be contextualized to the traditional knowledge and to create useful information. The use of innovative tools and technology like robotics to reduce farm drudgery, remote sensing, machine learning, and the Internet of things (IoT), as well as satellite imagery, is making agriculture more precise and resource-efficient is critical.
Farmers have also picked up usage of modern and efficient farm equipment, such as drones and low-cost smart sprayers, to reduce manual work and struggle at farms. Land imaging is used to detect soil analysis and crop monitoring to detect pest infestation and resolve it with actions like precision spraying of inputs, pesticides, and bio-fertilizers.Weather stations and moisture sensors are used to monitor weather and soil conditions, optimizing water usage with smart, precision irrigation devices.
All these technologies manage farm-level data to simplify decision-making and be better prepared towards uncertainty while making resources efficient, thereby reducing costs as well as enhancing yield.
These technologies also build reports on land productivity and land history and enable financial institutions to make data-backed decisions on agriculture lending to farmers easier with minimum credit history.
Further, this data, with an added data layer of extreme weather events like disease outbreaks or extreme climatic condition, helps insurance companies assess the loss of farmers and compensate them accordingly.
Post-harvest and Supply chain Management
Once produce is harvested, the most important step for any farmer is to realize the right cost of the produce while protecting it from post-harvest losses that occur during storage and transportation. Extreme weather events such as heatwaves, cyclones, or flooding, intensified by climate change, also contribute to post-harvest losses. Sometimes, the excess supply of perishable goods also leads to loss.
Innovators are leveraging technology to increase the shelf life of produce through on-farm processing, making the supply chain shorter and more efficient. Examples include farm-based solar-powered dehydrators that help farmers dehydrate graded produce, reducing food wastage. The dried produce is then purchased by aggregators. Additionally, low-cost cold chambers are being used to store perishables and grains, and last-mile quality assessment and grading of produce at the farm level determine the right price for the produce.
Innovators must consider the daily challenges faced by smallholder farmers when designing and scaling such innovations. Key considerations include contextualizing the technology to ensure user-friendliness, facilitating last-mile delivery and connectivity for after-sales service, and leveraging local partnerships at the panchayat or village level.
Another challenge that both investors and entrepreneurs should acknowledge is the role of technology in agribusiness. While technological breakthroughs hold potential, they should primarily be viewed as business enablers for the Agri and food business rather than standalone ventures within the sector. The key lies in leveraging technology to enhance agribusiness activities, whether by creating value, reducing operational costs, or streamlining processes.
There are ongoing collaborations that hold the promise and hope to the farmers who are looking towards technology to solve their challenges . Some traction and evidence have been built through Krishi Mangal, a flagship program of Cisco executed in partnership with Social Alpha. The program not only focuses on incubating Agri-tech start-ups but also brings together ecosystem partners comprising domain experts, investors, and government stakeholders to catalyze initiatives.
"In a country where over 70% of the population relies on agriculture, enhancing farm productivity is crucial. At Cisco, our purpose is to power an inclusive future for all, and through our Krishi Mangal program in partnership with Social Alpha, we aim to support small and marginal farmers by leveraging technology, making farming more profitable and sustainable. We are committed to aiding Agri-tech start-ups in developing products, localizing solutions, and scaling up. We truly believe that these technology-led innovations have the ability improve the lives of marginal farmers and boost productivity, driving inclusive growth and building a sustainable future for Indian agriculture” Harish Krishnan, Managing Director & Chief Policy Officer, Cisco India, mentioned.
To date, the program has positively impacted over 50,000 smallholder farmers and enabled the creation of more than 1,000 jobs. Krishi Mangal invests in technology-led innovations to build climate-resilient agricultural practices that will revolutionize the lives of marginal farmers, as well as solutions that are creating impact at multiple levels.