ThinkAg News: Government Engagements, Hosting The First AgClinic and Building New Research for Rabo

This has been an action-packed month for ThinkAg across all focus areas. As mentioned before, AgLab, AgConnect And AgInvest are the three pillars of the ThinkAg platform. This month ThinkAg is part of a novel engagement with the government. Sustainable Development Goals have become the center of attention internationally and in India. Achieving the SDGs would benefit the farmers economically and would ensure food security in a sustainable manner. Considering the importance of this the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India has set up a committee to suggest policies and action plans for developing secure and sustainable agriculture in the country. This 14 member committee is headed by Dr Raj Paroda, former DG of ICAR and Chairman of Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences. One of our co-founders Ram Kaundinya is a member of this committee which consists of experts in science, economics, farmers issues, ecology, genetic resources and other related fields.

AgClinic is a curated, closed door workshop designed to engage partners to discuss and evolve solutions to pressing problems in the food and Agri value chains. ThinkAg is hosting its first AgClinic- Value Chain Finance, focused on innovative models in Agri Value Chain finance. An invite only event that will see participation from innovators(AgTech& FinTech), financial service providers, corporates, and foundations/multilateral agencies that actively participate in enabling access to value chain finance. This is in partnership with ThinkAg’s supporter NABARD and knowledge partner Samunnati. This workshop is expected to have focused discussions on challenges in agri finance and new models to combat those challenges. One of the main objectives is to build awareness and increase exposure of value chain financing across various stakeholders including agribusinesses, startups, financial intermediaries, foundations and agri corporates. Outcome of this event would be generating partnerships and pilots among financiers and those seeking finance through value chain financing. Although it is a closed-door invite-only event with a select group of stakeholders, ThinkAg will be producing a knowledge paper to bring out the discussions in a structured and easy to consume format. We expect to do many more of this subject-focused AgClinics throughout the year.

Lastly, ThinkAg has partnered with MicroSave Consulting to undertake a study with the support from Rabo Bank. The objectives of the study are to understand the agtech landscape in India, the new engagement models around technology, the financing ecosystem and the role of lenders adopting agtech solutions to finance the farmers. We envision the end output to lay a roadmap and provide recommendations on the lending eco-system to small holder farmers can be improved with the use of technology. We have begun interviews with innovators and financial institutions and if your organization would like to contribute to the report, do give us a shout out. Check out this space for more updates!