AIM, NITI Aayog and UNCDF announce first AgriTech cohort under South-South Innovation platform
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) have rolled out their first AgriTech Challenge cohort for its ambitious innovative Agri-tech program that aims to help smallholder farmers across Asia and Africa to address their challenges in the aftermath of the pandemic.
AIM, NITI Aayog in partnership with UNCDF, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rabo Foundation launched a South-South innovation platform to enable cross-border exchange of innovations, insights and investments in July this year 2021. Through this platform, cross-border collaborations among emerging markets across India, Indonesia, Malawi, Malaysia, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia would be enabled.
NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar said: “In India, more than 50 per cent of the population is dependent on agriculture and it contributes to about 15-18 per cent of the GDP. As agriculture is a sector that emotionally appeals to the masses, Indian agencies are prompted to undertake policy measures to stimulate industry landscape. We at NITI Aayog are leaving no stone unturned to improve the agriculture sectoral landscape and we will continue till the milestones are achieved and beyond.”
Director, Inclusive Finance Practice Area, UNCDF, Henri Dommel while sharing his views, said “UNCDF has been working towards leaving no one behind in the digital era, particularly in the least developed countries. Our engagement in Asia and Africa is anchored on collaborative initiatives to improve lives of the vulnerable and help achieve SDGs. The synergies and learning opportunity between the two regions is immense, underscored by a thriving innovation ecosystem that is working to address many shared challenges."
Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Dr Chintan Vaishnav said that India’s innovation ecosystem has matured rapidly over the last decade and the creativity and vigor of Indian entrepreneurs and researchers can play a critical role in solving some of the toughest societal challenges. The Agritech Challenge focuses on improving the financial health of smallholder farmers and will work towards helping the participants build and test their solution in the new market, as part of UNCDF’s work under the Global Centre for Financial Health, with subsequent support on scaling the solution as well.” /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
