Agritech Startups and the reshaping of agricultural ecosystem

Project description

The project aims to examine how new high-tech based entrepreneurial ventures in the agricultural domain, called as agritech startups, are transforming agricultural ecosystem with digital technologies. Agritech firms seem to touch upon all the components of the agricultural ecosystem – farmers and related human actors, farming practices, supply chain, marketing and sustainability. These firms are recent, small, scalable and driven by external funding for acceleration and growth. The extant research on these firms and how are they reshaping the agricultural ecosystem is inadequate. The proposed project attempts to fill the gap.

The agriculture sector is facing the cumulative challenges of rising debt, a need to make farming more economically viable, a changing climate, and growing demand for food production and sustainability (Bisht et al., 2020; OECD, 2019). To address these challenges, there has been a push to increase the use of digital technology in farming (OECD, 2019).
Studies and institutional reports on agriculture predict the potential of digital technologies to improve agricultural productivity by allowing farmers to make improvements in inputs, operations, and processes (WEF, 2019). Examples of the innovative application of digital technology exist: farmers are combining sensors and software for practical information on crops; they are using artificial intelligence to inform strategic decision making and mobile platforms to track farm assets; and Internet of Things and sensors are being used to guide farmers’ decisions on crops relating to weather (Leonard et al., 2017).

At the same time, the agriculture sector is characterised by technological unevenness and resistance to technological change (Jakku et al., 2018; Leonard et al., 2017) meaning the gap between agritech’s solutions and their use by farmers is wide. This is partly because the agriculture sector around the world is characterised by technological unevenness and resistance to technological change (Landmann et al., 2020; Slavova & Karanasios, 2018). These characteristics are inherent in structures, practices, values and identities or rural farming, and inhibit the full utilisation of digital technology.

This project will undertake a broad and deep qualitative study of the agritech startups and their impacts in India and Australia. The project is guided by the following interrelated research objectives:

RO1: What practices are being driven by agritech innovations and what are the challenges?
RO2: How do agritechs blend new technologies with traditional farming practices?
RO3: How do agritechs work with farmers to build new innovation ecosystems?

The setting for this research will be India an Australia. India is home to about 120 million smallholder farmers who contribute over 40% of the country’s grain production, and over half of its fruits, vegetables, oilseeds and other crops (Bisht et al., 2020; FAO, 2002). Likewise, the agriculture sector is of critical significance to the Australian economy contributing 3% of GDP, 304,200 direct jobs, and 85,681 farm businesses (Jackson et al., 2018; NFF, 2017).

This research will generate new knowledge that can inform agriculture practices and recommendations to policy makers on how to harness the potential of digital technology. This project has the potential to inform international understanding of the digital transformation of agriculture and to showcase India and Australia as leaders in this space.

Outcomes

The project will offer new insights that can inform policy making around how technology can future proof agriculture;
The project will inform technology-agriculture practices of farmers;
The project will forge new partnerships between the supervision team, which will lead to future collaboration and research projects;
In addition, the inter-disciplinary collaboration will help deliver new insights and theory on technology changes in the agriculture sector that will lead to high quality academic publications.

Essential capabilities

Experienced qualitative researcher; Outstanding English speaking and writing skills

Desireable capabilities

Fluent in at least one Indian language; Field research experience

Expected qualifications (Course/Degrees etc.)

Masters degree in Business or Social Sciences; Completed Masters level research methods courses

Candidate Discipline

Digital start-ups Agriculture Development Information systems management.