India - Govt of M’rashtra, World Bank launch SMART AgTech Integration Facility 2022

The Government of Maharashtra and World Bank, in a joint endeavour, have launched the ‘SMART Agtech Integration Facility 2022’ to transform rural Maharashtra through Disruptive Agricultural Technologies (DATs). This facility is presently seeking applications from DAT solution providers, with a presence in India, to bring in digital and technical innovations in the agriculture sector. The facility will enable selected DAT solution providers to work directly with the Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) in Maharashtra to implement transformative solutions.

The project aims to enable collectives of smallholder farmers to participate in competitive agriculture value chains, facilitate agri-business investments, increase market access and productivity, and build the resilience of crops to recurrent floods or droughts in the state. A key sub-component of the project is to facilitate the adoption of DATs among CBOs in the state. The SMART Agtech Integration Facility 2022 will identify relevant DAT solution providers and facilitate interactions between the technology providers and CBOs to enable customisation and adoption of appropriate solutions.

The SMART Agtech Integration Facility 2022 is supported by a grant from the Korea World Bank Partnership Facility (KWPF), a collaboration between Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) and the World Bank. The grant marks the first KWPF initiative in India. Intellecap, a pioneer in enabling ecosystems and channelling capital to nurture a sustainable and equitable society, is supporting the execution of the grant.

The SMART AgTech Integration Facility is seeking support from DAT solution providers specifically for (1) implementing digitisation solutions for farmer collectives, (2) building value chain actor aggregation platforms, (3) enabling precision agriculture and automation services, (4) working with urban food systems and logistics solutions, (5) developing market linkage and traceability solutions, and (6) facilitating access to financial services.