Banks And Companies Line Up Digital Agri-tech Push

Indian banks are increasingly looking at expanding their agri-tech solutions even as the Prime Minister has stressed on using technology in agriculture and talked about doubling farmers’ income by 2022. Several banks have lined up agri-tech initiatives to provide information on crop patterns, sowing patterns, and prices of various farm produce.

Several banks have launched initiatives on this front including Bank of Baroda and ICICI Bank. State Bank of India is already providing a host of agri-related services to farmers. Banks are increasingly providing features and rolling out these additional services through the rural branch network and raising awareness of how to use many of these features through the smart phone.

For instance, ICICI Bank recently launched ‘Mera iMobile’ – a mobile app based service that provides as much as 135 services for rural customers. The list of services include financial products and agriculture related information like mandi prices for 230 crop varieties across 460 mandis. It also displays weather across various talukas that assist farmers to sow and reap different crops.

ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO acknowledged that the next leg of growth in internet usage will come from rural India due to growth in cheaper smart phone handsets, spread of wireless networks and evolving consumer behavior.

Smart phone based app and information providers are increasingly using the digital platforms to spread awareness and rural agri-tech solutions quickly across the country.

Banks are offering app-based solutions to farmers on their smart phones and these solutions assist farmers in various stages of the agriculture. Information on crop prices, sowing season, harvesting techniques are all forming part of the new information push on digital applications. Farmers are also able to get information about weather, and when and where to sell their produce.

Private companies are also increasingly providing such solutions, among them RML Agtech. Says Rajiv Tevitya, Managing Partner & CEO, RML AgTech: “Today in our country, there is a dramatic socio-economic change with more people connected digitally and data revolution taking place. With more than 50 per cent of the country’s population involved in farm-related activities today, tying up with banks paves the way to showcase AgTech to Indian farmers and shift them towards data-driven precision farming.”

For farmers, it’s all about taking the right decisions at the right time on crop patters and price. In India, major problem in farming is lack of timely information and this results in either crop failure or lower productivity. In both the cases, the profitability of farmers reduces and in many times they are not even able to recover their cost

Says Tevitya: “India needs another revolution in agriculture- a digital revolution. A farmer needs to be provided with the knowledge and Technology of what to sow, based on agro climatic study and looking at demand supply position for a particular crop, when to sow, when to harvest the crop, where to sell and at what prices. By doing this, productivity across crops and seasons will automatically adjust at optimal levels. Agri-Tech industry will be a key player in making this happen”.