Farmers Edge, a Fairfax company that provides agricultural solutions to farmers in the US, Canada and Brazil, has entered the Indian market. Farmers Edge has set up an innovation lab in Mumbai with LTIMindtree to tailor its agri-tech solutions for Indian farmers. It plans to release them sometime in mid-2024 in collaboration with agricultural machinery manufacturers, banks and insurance companies. “Creative Innovation Lab is an important step forward in bringing global technology to India to support sustainable agricultural practices and improve farmers’ performance. In line with UN SDG 2, Farmers Edge and LTImindtree are poised to move the food chain towards sustainability at the centre, ” said Sanjay Tugnait, CEO, Fairfax Digital Services .
Mumbai-based Farmers Edge Innovation Lab (FEIL), which has been operational for the past year, now has a 30-member team developing and customizing software platforms. solutions for the Indian market, said Vibhore Arora, CEO of Farmers Edge. The company has two other such laboratories in Iowa and Winnipeg.
Advanced Features
Arora said Farmers Edge offers advanced features in remote sensing, soil testing and agronomic modeling to provide crop advice to farmers to help them manage crops better, reduce costs and maximize yields. Farmers Edge solutions are used on approximately 5 million hectares in countries such as the United States, Canada and Brazil. Arora said the company is targeting its solutions at Indian farmers who grow rice, wheat, corn and soybeans, among others. “We are aware of the price sensitive market in India and we are very aggressive in pricing our solutions. Tugnait said the company has invested millions to develop an agricultural solution for the Indian market. “We are working with banks, insurance companies and agricultural equipment manufacturers to bring our agritech platform to Indian farmers. We are in talks with a major bank,” Tugnait said, adding that the company will launch its solution after the elections. Farmers Edge enters the Indian market at a time when the adoption of agro-tech solutions has gained momentum in recent years due to factors such as increasing mechanization and mobile penetration..
