ERIA | Harvesting Insights on Agriculture Technology and Innovation Across ASEAN and India

Agriculture plays a crucial role in the growth of some of the largest economies across the globe – including India and ASEAN. With a continuously growing population and rising demand for agricultural output, there is a growing need for agriculture technology (“agtech”) and innovative solutions to increase productivity in the agricultural sector. The pandemic has further acted as a catalyst in pushing the agtech sector to innovate and come up with quick solutions to ride through the uncertainties caused by the disruption in agriculture and food supply chains. The need to enhance agriculture digitalisation is also becoming critical as countries aim to achieve a sustainable economy in the post-pandemic recovery. Along with the governments, entrepreneurs and the private sector are increasingly paying close attention to agtech innovative business models to offer market-based solutions to areas such as digital market and financial access for smallholder farmers, production and supply chains services, and agri-food technology and innovation.

Whilst there are many emerging digital innovations and opportunities to boost the region’s agtech ecosystem, there are also major gaps and challenges that need to be addressed both by India and ASEAN. Among those are uneven technology adoption, fragmented production, and supply chains, as well as different levels of economic and regulatory systems that call for a more integrated solution and policy framework.

Five speakers from ASEAN and India, together with Mr Hemendra Mathur, Venture Partner of Bharat Innovation Fund and moderator of the event, shared their knowledge and perspective on innovation and digitalisation in Agtech:

· Dr Venkatachalam Anbumozhi, Director of Research Strategy and Innovation, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)

· Mr Ritchie Goenawan, Chief Marketing Officer and Director of People & Culture, TaniHub Group, Indonesia

· Mr Luke Tay, Independent Food Futurist, Singapore

· Ms Sai Gole, Co-founder, BharatAgri, India

· Mr Emmanuel Murray, Senior Advisor, Caspian Impact Investment, India The webinar was jointly organised by CIIE.CO, a leading innovation centre and incubator at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, and ERIA, under the Strategy and Partnership Programme, funded by Australia.