Mumbai 23^rd Dec– 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 from December 14-18, 2022. The event featured over 35 Disruptive Agriculture Technology (DAT) companies and was attended by more than 200 farmer collectives (CBOs). As a result of the Bootcamp, over 400 agreements were made to introduce digital and technical solutions to the CBOs throughout Maharashtra.

Over 35 Disruptive Agricultural Technologies (DAT) solution providers across India showcased their products to more than 200 farmer collectives (CBOs) at this initiative by Government of Maharashtra and World Bank.

The SMART Agtech Integration Facility 2022, powered by Intellecap, is a project led by the Hon. 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 Hon. Kaustubh Diwegaokar, Project Director of the SMART project, Shri. Dyaneshwar Bote, APD, Shri. Vijay Kolekar, Capacity Building Expert, and Dr. Preeti Sawairam, Technical Officer – Complimentary Innovation Investments (CII) from the SMART project.

During the event, Hon. Kaustubh Diwegaokar, Project Director, SMART emphasized that “the SMART project is committed to establish 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 analyzed more than 100 AgTech enterprises for participation in the initiative. This facility is expected to benefit more than 40,000 farmers in Maharashtra.  The project aims to assist farmers and their collectives in digitizing the farming operations, improving farming systems through precision farming, leveraging urban markets through improved logistics and linkages, and increasing access to finance. SMART plans to expand the usage of DAT solutions by CBOs across the state and the deals made here will serve as a model for developing a supportive ecosystem” 

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 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. We will be extending our digital solutions to CBOs through our various digital applications like Farmer App, Extension App, Business App and will be offering localized crop solutions along with critical agri inputs to these CBOs along with financial products. We will be looking forward from the program to support these CBOs to avail these digital solutions and enable them to become self-sustainable. We will also be connecting these CBOS through our platform to market as well, which will eventually lead to better realization of farm produce.”

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 its members increase their productivity, quality, and reduce their input costs and losses from various infestations. We are excited to see the interest of the CBOs in our enterprise and the opportunity to meet so many farmers and their collectives under one roof was very advantageous.“