Digital disruption in agriculture

Agriculture in India contributes to about 17% of GDP but employs nearly 55% of the population. There are about 140 m Small Holder Farmers (SHF) in India practicing subsistence farming with limited participation in markets beyond the local level. About 80% of these farmers are smallholders with landholding of less than 2 ha and nearly 62% of agriculture land has no irrigation system in place (Canal, borewell etc). It is increasingly clear that Indian Agriculture isn’t structurally well positioned to double farmer income by 2022 as envisioned by PM Modi. Digital technologies today have the potential to deliver two big themes within the agriculture sector that could potentially enable small holder farmers reach their economic potential – disintermediation and uberization.

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