Microsoft announces program to accelerate growth of agritech startups in India

Microsoft on Wednesday announced the launch of a programme for agritech startups in India that are committed to driving transformation in agriculture.

It is designed to help startups build industry-specific solutions, scale and grow with access to deep technology, business and marketing resources.

Microsoft said agritech startups in India are transforming agriculture by developing innovative digital solutions to maximise productivity, improve market linkages, increase supply chain efficiency and provide greater access to inputs for agri-businesses.

The programe offers tech and business enablement resources to help agritech startups innovate and scale fast. Startups can also get access to Azure FarmBeats, which can help them focus on core value-adds instead of the undifferentiated heavy lifting of data engineering.

Available on the Azure Marketplace, Azure FarmBeats enables aggregation of agricultural data-sets across providers and generation of actionable insights by building AI/ML models based on fused datasets.

"Sustainable agricultural technology can transform the global food landscape. Agritech startup innovations are addressing some of our key challenges connected to agriculture and food production," said Sangeeta Bavi, Director for Startup Ecosystem at Microsoft India.

"The programme is among the early steps in our journey towards empowering these startups in India and transforming global agricultural practices," she said in a statement.

Bringing together startups, corporates, industry bodies, governments and venture capital firms, the programme aims to create a shared platform for learning and innovation.