Mumbai, Dec 23 (UNI) Samunnati, an agri value chain enabler on Wednesday announced the launch of Agri Elevate, a first-of-its-kind ecosystem platform offering services across the agri value chain to Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Agri-Enterprises.
In line with the company’s vision to make markets work for smallholder farmers by enabling value chains to operate at a higher equilibrium, this platform is aimed at helping FPOs and Agri-Enterprises fulfill all their service needs and in turn actively spearheading digital transformation in the agriculture industry.
The key challenges faced by FPOs, as well as the ecosystem players trying to address their issues include information asymmetry, lack of access to network channels and financial intermediation. Through Agri Elevate, an online platform acting as a self-functioning ecosystem, all the agri ecosystem players, including but not limited to incubators, lenders, new age start-ups, agri ecosystem solution providers can interact with each other to serve their needs.
Further, Farmers & their collectives as FPOs will be at the core for all initiatives of this platform and will be the primary beneficiaries of this initiative. Serving as a neutral platform with linkage to Samunnati’s products and services maintained separately, Agri Elevate is a not-for-profit initiative, with the sole aim to facilitate connections in the agri-eco-system.
Speaking at the formal launch webinar held today, Ramanan Ramanathan, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog said, “It goes without saying that the Indian Agricultural sector forms the backbone of our economy, providing livelihood to millions of farmers across the nation. As part of Atal Innovation Mission’s efforts to create an ecosystem conducive to entrepreneurship, we have launched over 1600 startups of which over 150 are agritech startups.
'We believe that technology should be used to create instruments/platforms that can accelerate development in rural and agrarian parts of India. There is immense opportunity for agritech startups to digitize the agri value chain and help the farming community. In line with this, we commend the Samunnati team for launching Agri Elevate, a much needed digital platform that can not only address the challenges that small farmers face, but bring together stakeholders across the ecosystem. We look forward to working with the Samunnati team and bringing the benefits of this platform to the farmers of our nation.”
Commenting on the launch, Anilkumar S G, CEO and Founder at Samunnati said, 'Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for a large number of households. In recent years, we have seen the Government and larger industry, launch several initiatives to drive better coordination between the players in the Agri Value Chains in a symbiotic manner. A unified platform that brings together all the stakeholders in the agriculture ecosystem, especially the FPOs and agri-enterprises can provide an opportunity to bring in this collaboration for mutual benefit.
'With Agri Elevate, our vision is to enable an ecosystem of self-sufficiency and free access to services & markets, empowering Farmers / FPO’s to discover the right partners and form associations that can serve their needs. We look forward to working with the eco-system players in Agriculture including Ag-tech & Start-ups in Agriculture, to deliver the benefits of this platform to the Agri Value Chain players.'
UNI JS SB 1418