Agricultural technology needs public private partnerships

  • India’s plan to deliver agricultural technology services to farmers through public private partnerships is likely to boost the country’s farming sector and address the challenges of sustainability, efficiency and inclusivity.
  • The country expects to unlock an economic value of $50-65 billion through digital agriculture by 2025, according to a report.
  • Leveraging technology will be critical to mitigating the impacts of climate change and ensuring farmers are financially resilient.
  • Public and private bodies should work together to pool resources and funds to leverage agricultural technology.

The Indian Government’s proposal to deliver hi-tech services to farmers through public private partnerships (PPPs), recently presented in its annual budget, is likely to offer critical support for the agricultural sector at a time when it is greatly needed.

The COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine has massively disrupted the global food system, putting huge pressure on agriculture-focussed countries like India to provide more sustainable options.

This is where agricultural technology could prove key. India has potential economic value of $50-65 billion through digital agriculture by 2025 translating to 23% addition to the current value of agricultural produce, according to a report by the country’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and McKinsey & Company.

Such investment can also have a significant impact beyond the economy. With 60% of India’s agricultural land being rain-fed, climate change poses a critical threat to food and agricultural systems.

So using agricultural technology and precision tools will be more important than ever to prevent hunger and eliminate food waste, and making these technologies more available to India’s 130 million smallholder farmers can ensure greater financial resilience for them.

As new technologies present a major opportunity to transform agricultural systems, every stakeholder must play a role in realizing this potential. This is where public private partnerships (PPPs) will be vital.

Public private partnerships key to leveraging agricultural technologies

Public private partnerships involve collaborations between a government agency and private sector body to finance, build and deliver a public asset or service. They combine the strength of the government’s mandate and ability to deliver public services, with the private sector responsible for investments, technology, products and distribution systems.

Under a PPP model for agriculture, a start-up ecosystem can drive emerging tech innovations and agile business models, while universities and research institutions can bring in domain level agricultural expertise and help validate the solutions for scaled deployments. In addition, the role of farmer producer organizations (FPOs) and non-governmental organizations are critical for building capacity and extending digital products and services to farmers.

Fundamentally, there are four pillars needed for successful public private partnerships in agriculture and how they are already being applied in India:

  • Open up the data ecosystem.
    Why it’s important: Through an extended discussion with 35-plus leading agricultural technology start-ups and some of the largest industry players, opening up critical datasets are the most important factor for unlocking the $65 billion digital agriculture economy. Farm level digital advisory services can enhance productivity by 15%, but they need datasets of soil
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Tech private equity investor Orlando Bravo states the mantra of ‘growth at all costs’ is above

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Software has been one of the worst-executing sectors this yr amid a growing rate natural environment and geopolitical tensions overseas. 

This comes as no shock to Orlando Bravo who helms tech-focused personal fairness business Thoma Bravo. He suggests the mantra of ‘growth at all costs’ is about and that investors are gradually shifting their emphasis from momentum to fundamentals and profitability.  

Bravo sat down with the Providing Alpha e-newsletter to explore what he thinks are structural challenges in the computer software field, the revaluation in tech, and the increasing cybersecurity threat emanating from Europe. 

 (The underneath has been edited for size and clarity. See previously mentioned for total online video.)

Leslie Picker: There has been a massive shift in 2022, you can find just this macro alter afoot. How does that impression what you do and what do you make of the recent revaluation in the [tech] sector?

Orlando Bravo: It was just a lengthy time coming. I mean, we have been on a 10 years of tailwinds not only in the software package marketplace, but in multiples. And what took place recently is that multiples of these development stocks went from 20x to 10x. They obtained slash in half. Now why is that? Our topic and our thesis on it in speaking to the large buyers, sovereign wealth money, massive condition pension strategies, the unique resources of capital, is that folks are obtaining worn out of becoming revenue-dropping functions. They’re ultimately digging into the organization designs, wanting at when profitability is going to arrive and discounting assets that have significant progress, but no around-time period potential clients for profitability. So that correction is listed here and it truly is took place and it truly is in influence right now. Now how does that have an impact on our business enterprise? That is phenomenal on the purchase side for our company simply because we are targeted on buying the whole organization, not in buying items of paper where you happen to be dependent on what many others consider. So it gives us an opportunity to do the one point that we do genuinely well and emphasis on which is to acquire these large-progress, innovative firms and set alongside one another an running framework that enables them to be successful as well and generate worthwhile advancement engines.

Picker: Would you say at this place in time that the promote-off is definitely priced in or do you imagine that valuations even now have more to go ahead of they are at their intrinsic price, in your estimation?

Bravo: As a organization proprietor, and as a participant in the personal equity industry, it truly is seeking really attractive for groups like us, mainly because once again, you can associate with providers and improve their operational make-up by inspiring leadership. And these assets can deliver huge money stream, not 20 EBIT/EBITDA margins, but 50% at expansion and scale. So if you can price in

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