SAIF Bootcamp facilitates deals between agtech start-ups and farmers collectives at KISAN Agri Show in Pune

Mumbai

The SMART AgTech Integration Facility (SAIF), a collaboration between the Government of Maharashtra and the World Bank Group, held a Bootcamp at the KISAN Agri Show in Pune December 14-18.

The event featured over 35 Disruptive Agriculture Technology (DAT) companies and was attended by more than 200 farmer collectives (Community-Based Organizations or CBOs). As a result of the Bootcamp, over 400 agreements were made to introduce digital and technical solutions to the CBOs throughout Maharashtra.

SAIF 2022, powered by Intellecap, is a project led by the Balasaheb Thackeray Agribusiness and Rural Transformation (SMART) initiative in rural Maharashtra. The project, which is supported by the World Bank Group and the Korea-World Bank Partnership Fund (KWPF), is focused on supporting the development of inclusive and competitive agriculture value chains and helping smallholder farmers, collectives and agri-entrepreneurs in Maharashtra.

The Complimentary Innovation Investments (CII) sub-component of the SMART project is formulated to promote the adoption of agricultural technology solutions among selected farmer organizations in the state.

The event was organized under the leadership of Kaustubh Diwegaokar, Project Director of the SMART project; Dyaneshwar Bote, APD; Vijay Kolekar, Capacity Building Expert; and Dr Preeti Sawairam, Technical Officer - Complimentary Innovation Investments (CII) from the SMART project.

During the event, Diwegaokar emphasized that “the SMART project is committed to establishing the SMART AgTech Integration Facility to help farmers and their collectives in Maharashtra access innovative technologies. The Bootcamp is an important step in building partnerships between DAT solution providers and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) to enable farmers to access more lucrative markets and achieve greater economic returns.”

Rahul Agrawal, Director, Intellecap, commented on the SMART Agtech Integration Facility, stating that “Intellecap is facilitating the SMART project in the operationalization of the facility and has analysed more than 100 AgTech enterprises for participation in the initiative. This facility is expected to benefit more than 40,000 farmers in Maharashtra.”

The KISAN Agri Show is India’s largest agriculture expo, running for more than 29 years, which brings together agri-professionals, policymakers, government officials, media, and like-minded individuals from across India to discuss the future of the Indian agriculture sector and is attended by over 100,000 farmers.

Dr Dinesh Chauhan, VP, new initiatives at DeHaat, one of the 35 DAT enterprises featured at the Bootcamp, shared that “DeHaat is eagerly looking forward to work(ing) with the CBOs under SMART program and the response we received from various CBOs during the recently concluded bootcamp at KISAN 2022 in Pune is very encouraging.”

Saurabh Sharma, Lead Institutional Business at FASAL, added that “through the SMART initiative, FASAL was able to reach a large number of farmers and CBOs. We plan to help these CBOs and (their) members increase their productivity, quality, and reduce their input costs and losses from various infestations. "