Businesses Increasing Agricultural Productivity for UNSDG 2: Zero Hunger

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UNSDG) 2, "Zero Hunger" is a call to ensure the end of hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030. For agricultural productivity, as one of the key elements involved in the sustainable development agenda, the achievement of this goal will ensure adequate food for a growing population without compromise but, rather, enhancement of the natural resource base. Sustainable practices that improve crop yields, resilience to climate change, and efficient use of resources like water and soil are essential to this effort.​ (UN Sustainable Development Goals)​​ (The Global Goals)​​ (UNDP)​.

The pressure on food systems is already overwhelming, considering that the world's population can reach as high as 9.8 billion by 2050. Sustainable agricultural productivity would be necessary not just for the fulfillment of food demand but also to maintain the ecological balance. The current article discusses some of such organizations, making valuable contributions in increasing agricultural productivity through innovative practices and sustainable solutions, and offering important resources to start-ups in the overall field of sustainable agriculture.

1. Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD)

Founder: Michael Kremer

Founded in: 2016

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

PAD uses digital technologies to provide smallholder farmers in developing countries with actionable information to improve their agricultural practice. Through SMS and voice messages, PAD provides personalized advice on crop management, pest control, and fertilizer application, directly impacting the productivity and income of farmers.

Actions and Impact

The approach by PAD is evidence-based. The organization carries out a rigorous evaluation of the intervention with regard to the needs of the farmers and the effectiveness of their intervention. PAD provides information on time and relevance, which helps farmers make informed choices towards crop yield improvement as well as reducing losses. For example, services by PAD in Kenya have increased maize yields by 22% among the farmers targeted by the programs.

PAD works with local partners, government agencies, and NGOs to scale its services. This cooperative model helps ensure that its solutions are attuned to local conditions and reach the widest possible. PAD, therefore, is at the frontier of precision agriculture due to innovative use of technology and commitment to research-driven practice.

2. AgroStar

Founder: Shardul Sheth and Sitanshu Sheth

Founded in: 2013

Location: Pune, India

AgroStar is a pioneering startup in agritech in India: an innovation designed to empower farmers with a single solution for all their needs. The company provides the many needs of the farmers, from the supply of good-quality seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and expert agronomic advice, all done within its mobile app.

Actions and Impact

AgroStar's platform connects farmers with agricultural experts who provide guidance on best practices for crop cultivation. This support helps farmers optimize their use of inputs, leading to increased productivity and reduced costs. There is also an in-app marketplace where farmers can purchase good quality agricultural materials that will ensure that they also have access to the best resources for their farms.

Key Innovations:

• Agro Advisory Services: AgroStar provides real-time advice regarding weather, pests, and crop nutrition through its app, customizable based on the region and crops. This helps in risk mitigation and decision-making for farmers.
• Soil Testing: AgroStar provides farmers with soil testing services to know what the nutrient profile of their farm is. The farmers are then guided further based on the test results on what kind of fertilizers should be applied so that optimal growth of the crop is maintained, and the fertility of the soil is not compromised.

Impactful Projects:

1. Digital Farmer Network: AgroStar's digital platform has brought about a network of more than a million farmers, creating a farmer community to share their experience and give advice to each other. It facilitates further enhanced access to knowledge and joint problem-solving.
2. Sustainable Practices: Agrostar promotes sustainable farming practices such as integrated pest management and precision farming, bringing them to the notice of farmers. The practice, therefore, powers AgroStar to increase the yield of farmers without environmental degradation.

3. DeHaat

Founder: Shashank Kumar and Amrendra Singh

Founded in: 2012

Location: Patna, India

DeHaat is an agritech startup that provides comprehensive services to smallholder farmers in India. Their offerings include access to agricultural inputs, personalized farm advisory, financial services, and market linkages, all delivered through their tech-enabled platform.

Actions and Impact

DeHaat offers an online model that amalgamates and joins technology with on-ground support. Their platform utilizes AI and data analytics which provides specific and tailored recommendations to farmers to improve their productivity and profitability. Its end-to-end solutions cater to multiple problems a farmer faces, starting from crop planning to post-harvest management.

Key Services:

• Input Provision: DeHaat provides high quality seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides directly from the manufacturers to the farmers in order to give them access to proper inputs.
• Farm Advisory: DeHaat offers real-time tips on crop management, pest control, nutrient management through their app to fit the needs of the farmers.
• Market Linkages: DeHaat, by removing the middleman by directly selling farmers' crops to potential buyers, ensures better prices for the farmer's cultivated crop and hence provides the farmers with fair returns on their agricultural products.

Impactful Projects:

1. Financial Inclusion: The company collaborates with financial institutions to provide credit and insurance facilities to farmers. This helps farmers in making investments and mitigates for them the risks of farming.
2. Women Empowerment: DeHaat is engaging women in its programs because they identify the very important role that women play in agriculture. It empowers women farmers by training and supporting them, which in turn raises their productivity and contributes to household incomes.

The holistic package from DeHaat has benefited over 650,000 farmers in India that have transformed their lives for the better and got them initiated in the practice of sustainable farming​.

4. Ninjacart

Founder: Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Sharath Loganathan, and Ashutosh Vikram

Founded in: 2015

Location: Bengaluru, India

Ninjacart empowers farmers in India to directly connect with the retailers and business owners. This unique platform eliminates the middlemen and guarantees profitable prices to farmers on one side, while on the other side, it assures the customers fresh and good quality of the product.

Actions and Impact

Ninjacart leverages technology to streamline the supply chain to reduce food wastage and improve efficiency in the process. In their logistics network, they support the move of fresh produce from farms to markets with the least time adopted, therefore presented fresh to markets without compromising quality.

Key Innovations

• Real-time Data: Ninjacart uses Data Analytics in predicting demand and optimizing their supply chain operations. This helps in reducing wastage and knowing that crops grown by a farmer are of high demand.
• Efficient Logistics:By developing a full-fledged logistics mechanism involving collection centers, warehouses, and delivery systems, Ninjacart ensures product management is done in a considerate manner and delivery made within the stipulated time.

Impactful Projects

1. Farmer Training: Ninjacart imparts best production practices to the farmers and education over the way of handling the produce they harvest, which includes how to maintain the quality of their product during the post-harvest period.
2. Sustainable Practices: Ninjacart has ensured sustainable flow from farmer to final consumer through organic farming and usage of minimum water by farmers producing organizations. They not only maximize the output but also the goodness of nature.

Such interventions of Ninjacart have considered to rejuvenate the chocking agricultural space forever. More than 100,000 farmers have been benefited and millions of customers have got access to fresh and affordable vegetables and fruits harvested on the same day from the farms.

5. CropIn

Founder: Krishna Kumar

Founded in: 2010

Location: Bengaluru, India

CropIn is an industry leader in the world of agritech, providing farm management solutions with the intent of increasing agricultural productivity. The platform utilizes artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics to give real-time insights to farmers for optimizing their respective agricultural practices.

Actions and Impact

CropIn delivers Smart Farming Technologies across the value chain – from monitoring the crop health for farmers to predictive yield, from the producer's network to the management of resources. The company ensures that technology is integrated with agriculture in a manner that ensures increased productivity and sustainability for the farmer and takes the guesswork out of agriculture.

Key Technologies:

• SmartFarm: A complete farm management platform that helps farmers follow and manage farm operations digitally. It brings predictive information to growers regarding crop health, weather, pest outbreaks, among other insights, for them to take pre-emptive actions.
• SmartRisk: A farm-level risk management tool for identification and mitigation of risks related to weather, pests, and markets. Being more resilient ensures crops don't fail.

Impactful Projects:

1. Remote Sensing: The large-scale farming operations are monitored and tracked using CropIn technologies like satellite imaging and remote sensing systems. These systems are used to provide critical information on crop health.
2. Blockchain for Agriculture: CropIn employs blockchain technology to enforce transparency and traceability in the food supply chain, making it trustworthy both for the farmers and consumers.

Designed on cutting edge technologies and creative solutions, CropIn has reached 5 million farmers over 52 countries for sustainable agricultural practice and productivity​ enhancement.

6. ITC e-Choupal

Founder: ITC Limited

Founded in: 2000

Location: India

ITC's e-Choupal is a rural-based improvement initiative in the supply chain of agriculture of India. The model of e-Choupal facilitates Internet-based access to ITC and other related information on farm trends and services that guarantees an increase in the efficiency and total revenues of the farmers.

Actions and Impact

The e-Choupal network is a network of internet kiosks established in villages and run by the farmers of a village, also called "sanchalaks." At these kiosks, farmers can find real-time information on things like weather, market prices, and best farming practices, which can help farmers make the right decisions to maximize their crop yields.

Key Features:

• Market Linkages: e-Choupal makes direct linkages of the farmers to the market since it does not involve middlemen; it gives the farmers the best price for their produce.
• Access to Information: It provides farmers with best practices in agriculture, weather updates, and market information, which helps them in planning their activities most appropriately.
• Input Supply Chain: e-Choupal provides easy access to high-quality agricultural inputs, such as seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, which are needed for improvement in productivity.

Impactful Projects:

1. Direct Sourcing: ITC sourcing the raw material directly from the farmers through the e-Choupal network has eliminated the role of agents/traders in procurement, making it more rewarding for farmers and reducing procurement costs.
2. Community Development: e-Choupal is also involved in community development by providing educational tools and health facilities, thus improving the quality of life in rural areas.

In the past decade, over 4 million farmers have been served in over 35,000 villages of the country and the age-old disadvantaged communities of rural agrarian India are being rejuvenated with better productivity as well as increasing income​.

7. TartanSense

Founder: Arvind Satyam

Founded in: 2018

Location: Bengaluru, India

TartanSense creates small inexpensive robots for farmers' precision farming—mainly in the area of weed control. Their flagship product, BrijBot, machines weeds from crops, thereby boosting yields and slashing costs for the farmer.

Actions and Impact

TartanSense is a tech company working on solutions to the most common problems of smallholder farmers. In a nutshell— BrijBot is the device that will enable a farmer to efficiently and sustainably manage his crop through its weeding abilities.

Key Innovations:

• Precision Weeding: BrijBot has the capability to differentiate between crops and weeds by use of computer vision and artificial intelligence so that applications can be targeted, thus reducing herbicide usage.
• Cost-Effective Solutions: The goal is to make the robots accessible and inexpensive to all small-holder farmers globally, providing a high-tech solution at a low price.
• Scalability: TartanSense wishes to develop a technology solution capable of scaling and being deployed across most crops and farming scenarios.

Impactful Projects

1. Pilot Programs: The robots of TartanSense have had several successful pilot programs across several Indian states. They have shown remarkable improvements in crop yields, while also decreasing labor costs.
2. Farmer Training: The company offers farmer training. It trains farmers on how to use its robots to ensure that they not only have access to the technology but also enjoy its benefits.

TartanSense is putting its intelligence in the field of precision agriculture to really make a change in farming practices from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, taking high technology solutions to even the smallest of farmers.

8. Stellapps Technologies

Founder: Ranjith Mukundan, Vasudevan Swaminathan, and others

Founded in: 2011

Location: Bengaluru, India

Stellapps Technologies is an end-to-end dairy technology solutions enterprise focusing on increasing productivity, quality, and profitability in dairy firms. Its solutions in this sector are comprehensive, covering the entire value chain of the dairy segment, right from farm to customer.

Actions and Impact

The main aim of Stellapps is to help farmers in the dairy farming business. Stellapps integrates the Internet of Things, big data, cloud, mobility, and data analytics. The platform provides real-time monitoring and analytics to help farmers better manage their herd.

Key Technologies

• SmartMoo Platform: This is a platform that gathers data from the several IoT devices installed in farms, analyzes the same to come up with actionable insights on animal health, milk quality, and farm productivity.
• Milking Automation: Stellapps supports automation in the milking process to enhance output and milk quality, all while reducing labor costs.
• Cold Chain Management: The cold chain is maintained from the producer to the consumer in order to ensure that the milk is at the appropriate temperature to confer quality and an extended shelf life for the value end product.

Impactful Projects

1. Farm Optimization: Stellapps supports farm optimization through data-driven advice on optimization of feed, breeding, and prevention of diseases.
2. Supply Chain Transparency: By tracing milk from farm to consumer, Stellapps ensures transparency and traceability in the dairy supply chain, thereby instilling confidence in the consumers.

Stellapps works with multiple large dairy co-operatives, and it has impacted more than 2 million dairy farmers in India, who have therefore significantly increased their productivity and income​.

9. EM3 AgriServices

Founder: Rohtash Mal and Adwitiya Mal

Founded in: 2014

Location: Noida, India

EM3 AgriServices uses technology to provide the most advanced pieces of farm machinery on a pay-as-you-use basis. It is for this reason that this model has been referred to as the "Uber for tractors” model. It brings high-investment machinery at the disposal of small and marginal farmers without their having to invest the same to own one.

Actions and Impact

EM3 provides services of land preparation, seeding, weeding, and harvesting. By providing equipment renting services, EM3 can lease its modern technology to the farmers of all levels.

Key Services

• Farm Mechanization: With EM3, the farmers get access to a variety of machinery for different types of work related to farming activities right from seeding to harvesting, with each achieving better efficiency and productivity.
• On-Demand Services: Now the farmers can book services in a very convenient and easy way of just a few touchsteps from their mobile app.
• Training and Support: EM3 gives training and support to the farmers to apply machinery so they could use them to avail benefits to the maximum out of the mechanization process.

Impactful Projects

1. CHC: CHC stands for Custom Hiring Centers, which have been set up by EM3. The farmers can hire machinery from the centers. It will also provide repair and maintenance services.
2. Data Analytics: The company utilizes data analytics to optimize the operations of the machinery as well as to facilitate improved service delivery to ensure the farmers are getting the best value for their rentals.

EM3 AgriServices have been successful in reaching out to thousands of farmers across India in their efforts to ensure the farmers improve their farming practices and, at the end of it all, be able to productively afford access to modern machinery​.

10. BhoomiKa

Founder: Hemant Agarwal

Founded in: 2017

Location: Jaipur, India

BhoomiKa is a social enterprise that is dedicated solely to the promotion of sustainable agriculture through natural farming practices. It operates with smallholder farmers and offers training, appropriate resources, and market links to be able to take on organic farming.

Actions and Impact

It aims to develop a sustainable agricultural ecosystem that significantly reduces the dependency on chemical inputs and fosters natural farming.

Key Practices

• Organic Farming Training: BhoomiKa undertakes training programs in organic farming modules like composting, crop rotation, and natural pest management.
• Organic Inputs: The farmers are as much provided with organic input material like bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides to make sure that they got the access to resources which the field may want.
• Market Linkages: BhoomiKa provides a market for these organic farmers to sell their produce and access better pay from consumers who like organic farming.

Impactful Projects

1. Farmer Cooperatives: BhoomiKa has implemented farmer cooperatives to encourage collective practices of farming and better bargaining.
2. Community Outreach: This organization engages in conducting many community reach-out programs that aware the ones about the organizational benefits of organic farming and sustainable agriculture.

Bhoomika has empowered more than 20,000 farmers in Rajasthan towards organic farming with better yields and income for a sustainable environment.

11. AgNext

Founder: Taranjeet Singh Bhamra

Founded in: 2016

Location: Chandigarh, India

AgNext is an agritech startup that employs artificial intelligence and machine learning in an attempt to maximize the quality and efficiency of agro production. Their solutions are more focused on influencing the farm-to-market value chain using advanced data analytics.

Actions and Impact

AgNext's technology is playing a pivotal role in providing real-time data and insights to the farmer for making better decisions in productivity enhancement.

Key Technologies

• Quality Assessment: AgNext's AI-based solutions help farmers in real-time quality assessment of their produce, thus enabling the farmers to match the market standards and fetch better prices for their produce.
• Supply Chain Optimization: Data analytics of the company caters to optimizing the agricultural supply chain and hence reduces wastages and improves on efficiency.
• Market Intelligence: The market intelligence reports by AgNext empower farmers to understand the market trends and make informed decisions on what to grow and when to sell.

Impactful Projects

1. Digital Marketplaces: has continued to build digital platforms to connect to the farmers directly with the buyers to ensure that there is transparency and the right pricing.
2. Precision Agriculture: AgNext offers the producer with precision agriculture tools that help the farmer achieve the best use of inputs, leading to high yields with reduced costs.

AgNext, with its innovative solutions, has helped more than thousands of farmers in India improve their productivity and profitability with their technology and data-driven insights.

12. Ecozen Solutions

Founder: Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal, and Vivek Pandey

Founded in: 2010

Location: Pune, India

Ecozen Solutions offers sustainable solutions to the agricultural sector through renewable energy and increased technology. Their products include a line of solar-powered cold storage units and solar-powered water pumping systems, improving agricultural productivity and reducing post-harvest losses.

Actions and Impact

The ecozen technologies address important issues that most farmers face—non-dependable power supply and expeditious post-harvest management. Ecozen enables the farmers to reduce their working costs and increase their productivity by using alternative energy.

Key Technologies

• Ecofrost: This is a solar-powered cold store technology for small scale farmers to store perishable crops. This technology curbs post-harvest losses as it enables the storage of fruits and vegetables in proper storage conditions.
• Ecotron: Solar-powered irrigation to ensure maximum utilization of water. Also, it even allows the farmers to sustain their crop in the off-seasons like the one where there's a limited dependency because of the fluctuating power supply.

Impactful Projects

1. Cold Chain Infrastructure: Ecozen has deployed many Ecofrost Systems all over India. This allows the farmers to reduce the % of post-harvest loss and help in increasing their income by letting them store their produce for more time and then selling it afterwards when the prices are relatively higher.
2. Water Efficiency: The Ecotron system has encouraged the enhancement of efficient water in agricultural practices. It helps the farmers in arid regions sustain crop yields in circumstances when water becomes low.

Ecozen Solutions impacted over 60,000 farmers enhancing sustainable agriculture and increased productivity with innovative renewable energy solutions.

Conclusion

Improving the productivity of agriculture is a must for achieving UNSDG 2: Zero Hunger. And the organizations mentioned above in the article prove how innovation and technology coupled with agriculture transformation can be achieved with those tools, knowledge, and support given. These organizations help the farmers reach the realization of a more food-secure and sustainable world.

Together, both are paving the way for a more resilient and productive agricultural sector. Startups with aspirations to make a difference in sustainable agriculture should learn by example from these leaders regarding the successful strategies for new adoption and adaptation for better agricultural productivity and sustainable practices throughout the world.

References

1. Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD) - PAD Official Website
2. AgroStar - AgroStar Official Website
3. DeHaat - DeHaat Official Website
4. Ninjacart - Ninjacart Official Website
5. CropIn - CropIn Official Website
6. ITC e-Choupal - ITC e-Choupal Official Website
7. TartanSense - TartanSense Official Website
8. Stellapps Technologies - Stellapps Official Website
9. EM3 AgriServices - EM3 AgriServices Official Website
10. BhoomiKa - BhoomiKa Official Website
11. AgNext - AgNext Official Website
12. Ecozen Solutions - Ecozen Solutions Official Website