| |JUNE 20219harvesting, storage, grading, transportation, packaging, and distribution.Estimates indicate that India would require around a 35 percent increase in the production of vegetables over the next five years. This shortfall can be addressed by productivity augmentation driven by higher adoption of hybrid seeds in the cultivation of vegetable crops, innovation, and technolo-gy-based approaches.With innovation as its center, "Precision Agriculture" is fast taking center stage with the underlying theme of inte-gration of information to create management knowledge as a means to address site-specific production goals. Responsi-ble companies are supporting sustainable vegetable growing practices such as integrated pest management, cropping sequence methods to maximize productivity through improved agronomic practices such as drip irrigation, mulching, staking, net-house, phytosanitation, plant health, and alternative crops. Agritech, combined with geographical location devic-es and remote sensing advancements, promises to change the way crops will be managed. There is already signifi-cant work happening on the use of satellites in capturing images and crop information across farmlands, feeding it back for analysis, and providing actionable intelligence to the farmers. These developments lead to increasing busi-ness opportunities in Agritech, and there are already ear-ly signs of it. NASSCOM, in its report released in Novem-ber 2019, estimated investments in Indian Agritech at $ 248 million until July 2019. B2B platforms are emerging as an essential disruptive practice in the agriculture in-dustry, with a particular focus on supply chain efficiency. Scalable interventions are on the anvil from start-ups in creating models using real-time information on the farm, farmer, and crop to enable access to farmers. Even more significant issues such as non-availability of labor or an increase in labor costs are being addressed by tech-based mobile applications.Technology and innovation will be essential to ag-ricultural productivity and stability; however, the key will be to train the small holder farmers by sharing the knowledge and skills needed to improve their productiv-ity. This can be done by implementing practical training sessions and support field demonstrations highlighting profitable and sustainable production practices. By offering small holder farmers quality vegetable seeds combined with knowledge, training, and technol-ogy to grow and harvest them correctly, we can make more varieties of more nutritious food available to more people than ever before. This will contribute to better economic returns for the farmer, better food for the con-sumer, and put us on the path of ensuring food security for the future. Scalable interventions are on the anvil from start-ups in creating models using real-time information on the farm, farmer, and crop to enable access to farmers
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