Agri-startup growth roadmap for Assam

The startup ecosystem is gradually picking up in Assam, generating employment avenues and attracting investments. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry recognising the state as “a capacity-building pioneer” in ranking the states on their overall efforts in building the startup ecosystem is an encouraging development. With the state economy being agrarian, there is huge scope for unlocking the potential for growth of agri-startups in the state and finding innovative solutions to challenges faced in making traditional farming remunerative and sustainable. Currently, the state has 49 agri-startups, which have infused the agriculture and allied sectors with new and innovative technological solutions for farm mechanisation, organic farming, agriculture marketing, quality agricultural inputs, logistics, etc. While organic and innovative ideas give birth to the startup business, addressing the challenges encountered in scaling up the business is not easy. The gap between food demand in urban areas and farm production in rural areas is widening fast. Due to the rise in disposable income, demand for food from agriculture and allied sectors has grown. Food aggregators have leveraged technology to tap this growing agri-food market in cities and towns. The majority of farmers in the state, being small and marginal, are unable to boost production due to a dearth of capital, rising input costs, and poor access to modern inputs and mechanised farming. Failure to produce enough marketable surplus has compelled the majority of farmers to remain dependent on subsistence farming. As traditional and rainfed farming in the state has become non-remunerative, employment in the sector is not attractive for the majority of young and marginal farmers. This partly explains why 11 lakh candidates have applied and are set to appear in the recruitment test against 13,000 vacancies in Grade 3 and 4 posts notified by the Assam government. It also speaks volumes about the education system not motivating the students to think organically for the application of their knowledge to look for new avenues of employment, find innovative solutions to improve agricultural practice to make it remunerative, and make employment in agri- and allied sectors attractive and rewarding. There are various government schemes and programmes aimed at improving the agriculture system to boost production and augment the income of farm useholds. There is a disconnect between education, particularly between professional and technical education and agriculture and allied sectors. As a result, these schemes and programmes have remained limited only to targeted beneficiaries, and the majority of youth are unable to see the potential of maximising the benefits of such government intervention through entrepreneurial ntures. When they can see a connection, they learn to take a new look at the same traditional farm field, production, and marketing processes and come up with innovative entrepreneurial ideas and innovative solutions to bring about a radical change. Informing them about initiatives and support extended by the central and state governments for financial assistance and incubation support for agri-startups even when they are pursuing education can be expected to inspire youth to focus on finding solutions to problems faced by farmers instead of harping only on the low employability of the farm sector. One such scheme that the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare has been implementing since 2018–19 is the “Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development” programme under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). The objective of the scheme is to promote innovation and agri-entrepreneurship by providing financial and technical support for nurturing the startup ecosystem. Financial support up to Rs. 5 lakh is provided at the idea stage and up to Rs. 25 lakh at the growth stage to entrepreneurs and startups in the field of agriculture and allied sectors to launch their products, services, business platforms, etc. into the market and facilitate them to scale up their products and operations under the programme. The establishment of the Agri Accelerator Fund of Rs. 300 crore by the central government for three years till 2026–27 to nurture the agriculture start-up ecosystem has brought tremendous opportunities to scale up the business of agri-startups in the state. Painting a rosy picture about Agri-Startup by showcasing government schemes and assistance could be counterproductive. The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi, in one of their policy papers titled “Agri-startups in India: Opportunities, Challenges, and Way Forward” laid emphasis on “creating the right mindsets and cultures in the agricultural research and educational institutes and universities to promote agri-startups” and “the dynamic course curriculum of agricultural universities to give exposure to startups at an early stage and give adequate support to the interested students and faculty,” among others, to make the startup ecosystem robust. While the initiatives by the state government to promote agri-startups are laudable, the challenge is to ensure that they can scale their businesses. These startups growing and sustaining their success stories is crucial to bringing about a transformative change in Assam’s agriculture sector.