In association with the Indian Government, The/Nudge for Social Innovation and Cisco announced the ‘Cisco Agri Challenge’, which aims at mobilizing agri-tech startups for innovating solutions that have potential for creating positive impact for atleast 10 million small farmers. The challenge will run for a prize of INR 2 crores in stages over twelve months. It will be supporting participants in the development, testing, and scaling solutions for helping in alleviation of the issues of low income and diminishing profitability for Indian farmers.

The Principal Scientific Adviser to Govt. of India, Professor K. Vijay Raghavan, who is the co-host of the challenge, said, “The Government of India strongly believes that public investment in both traditional science and frontier technology, will empower India to leapfrog in developing sustainable solutions for biodiversity preservation, environmental sciences, climate change, and regenerative agriculture. Such a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder collaboration will play a catalytic role in implementing scientific and technological interventions in agriculture, thereby improving farmers’ productivity and doubling farmers’ income. It will give way to a new behavior of seamless collaboration amongst the Government, Academia, and Industry for addressing global societal problems.”

In highlights of the requisites for enhancement value realization for small and marginal farmers, for contributing to India’s economic welfare, Harish Krishnan, who is the Managing Director – Public Affairs and Strategic Engagements of Cisco India and SAARC, said, “Farmers are a critical part of India’s socio-economic fabric, but they continue to face the challenge of low profitability, exacerbated by the pandemic. Through the Cisco Agri Challenge platform, we aim to accelerate digital transformation in the agriculture sector. We are not only incubating agritech startups, but also bringing together a powerful ecosystem of investors, domain experts, and government stakeholders to galvanize action and bring to market scalable solutions that can help boost farmers’ incomes and improve their decision-making.”

A platform for drawing talent, technology, capital and attention for the most pressing land, crop, infrastructure, market fulfillment, and social protection issues of the small farmers, the Cisco Agri Challenge is spurred by the pandemic.

With an urgent requirement of bringing together the resources  and action for addressing the population scaling challenges in the agriculture sector, the backbone of the Indian overall growth, for which the CEO of The/Nudge Foundation, Atul Satija, said, “Our aim is to scale innovation for income growth of small farmers. This will axiomatically augment GVA and the rural economy. Small technological advantages can lead to an inordinate impact on agricultural livelihood. We’re leveraging public-private partnerships to achieve big shifts.”

The/Nudge for Social Innovation has undertaken the conceptualization and management of the Cisco-Agri challenge.

The participants include eminent circle of experts like Mark Kahn (Managing Partner, Omnivore), Anil Kumar SG (Founder & CEO, Samunnati), Samit Ghosh (Founder, Ujjivan) and Shamika Ravi (Non-resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution). Knowledge and Technology Partners include NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore, Purdue University and Sattva Consulting. The Investor Circle consists of Bharat Innovation Fund, Aavishkaar Capital, Menterra, etc. We will also have a Policy Circle, enabling access to administrative units and communities for pilots. Immersion Partners include The AgHub, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), and Nagaraja Prakasam.