The Initiative aims to tackle post-harvest losses in India using innovation and digitalisation
In the context of the project ‘Innovation platform and hybrid trade fair - Reducing post-harvest losses in India’, funded and commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), carried out by the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) on behalf of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, through its global project Agricultural Policy and Innovation Fund, the IGCC is delighted to announce the signing of a partnership MoU with 14 Indian Start-Ups by implementing the “Fasal Ki Raksha, Bhavishya Ki Suraksha” Initiative to tackle post-harvest losses in India.
Post-harvest losses affect everyone from farmers, wholesalers, retailers to consumers. Estimated 40% of crops are lost after harvest which greatly impact farmers in India. Poor post-harvest practices and infrastructure often force small farmers in India to sell their produce at low prices soon after the harvest. Annually, post-harvest losses are responsible for INR 90,000+ crore losses in income of farmers.
The objective of the Initiative is to solve the issue of post-harvest losses in India using innovation, digitalisation, and multi-stakeholder engagement. It is focussing on 4 crops - tomatoes, onions, potatoes, and apples.
In line with this objective, the IGCC signed MoU’s with Indian start-ups GreenPod Labs, New Leaf Dynamic, Godaam Innovations, AgriVijay, Agrograde, Tan90 Thermal Solutions, GFresh Agrotech, Agrowave, S4S Technologies, SMP Agro, Inficold, Promethean, Borlaug Web Services, and Rukart. The start-ups offer innovative products and solutions to tackle post-harvest losses in India and through their innovative ideas and offerings across India will lead the way for greater use of innovative approaches and technologies made in India to support farmers and the wider Indian Agricultural sector.
The Initiative follows the strategy that links farmers with the market faster and provides innovative solutions to farmers on how to increase the shelf life of their products in an affordable and sustainable way. This will help reduce the vulnerability of crops to become food waste due to damage and spoilage, increase crop quality leading to better prices for farmers and prevent distress selling by farmers.
The Initiative includes the creation of AgriIndia.Net – the first community-run digital platform dedicated to solving post-harvest loss. The platform will perform a single point of source for sharing resources, Indian experiences, and best practices, especially those emerging from this joint Indo-German collaboration Initiative.
The IGCC, as the lead partner in India, guides the Initiative on main intervention areas with the support of the Green Innovation Centre and through its steering component consisting of the start-ups to help guide the implementation.
Stay tuned for more exciting news in the initiative by following our social media pages:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agri-india/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086041494298
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AgriIndia_Net
To know more:
PHL Initiative - Meet the innovators
