Cisco Agri Challenge calls for solutions that ‘Enhance profitability of small scale farmers’.
Solutions with 10Mn potential, that deliver positive economic, social and environmental value will compete for an INR 2 Cr Prize purse. Over the next year, an ecosystem of producers, experts, investors, enablers and supporters will come together to accelerate your learning, and to help you refine your solution. All high potential ideas will get stage-appropriate support to be implemented on ground and the most promising solution will win an INR 1 Cr grant.
From Nicolas Appert, who found a new way to preserve food in 1910 to Project Tier One by Burt Rutan, who launched a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks in 2004, innovators have leveraged Grand Challenges to not only solve some of the most difficult problems but also achieve what was once considered impossible. This made us ask “Why can’t we use a grand challenge to solve one of the most pressing problems faced by our country?”
The poverty rate in India in 2017-18 was at 23% – now made worse by the pandemic. With 30% of rural Indians falling below the poverty line and 65% population of India residing in rural areas, innovation in agriculture and near-farm industry is the key to alleviate poverty for a majority of Indian households. Since ~86% of farmers are small and marginal, increasing income of this segment will have an outsized positive impact on India’s economic development.
Can we increase profitability for the small farmer, while containing food inflation? And while we are at it, can we also improve social and environmental outcomes? That is the challenge. farmer-centric innovations with 10 Mn lives potential
There is something for everyone at Cisco Agri Challenge.
Cisco Agri Challenge is open to individuals, groups of individuals(upto 10) that have a solution that increases profitability for the small farmers of India.
You must have a registered organisation (for, or not-for profit) by May 2021 in order to receive a grant.
The Government of India strongly believes that public investment in both traditional science and frontier technology, will empower India to leapfrog in developing sustainable solutions for biodiversity preservation, environmental sciences, climate change, and regenerative agriculture. Such a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder collaboration will play a catalytic role in implementing scientific and technological interventions in agriculture, thereby improving farmers’ productivity & farmers’ income. It will give way to a new behavior of seamless collaboration amongst the Government, Academia, and Industry for addressing global societal problems. – Prof K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, Govt of India
We expect the challenge to be very competitive, with a lot of teams committing full-time, and rallying a base of supporters to accelerate their progress towards the goals of the challenge. However, there is no mandated number of hours/days which is expected to invest from your side.
There is no prescribed travel for the challenge other than what is needed to achieve the challenge goals. However, we may require you to travel for pitch days and grand events (contingent on COVID-19 travel and event restrictions).
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Awards:-
The Knowledge series from Jan – Mar ‘21 will be open to all contestants. This includes immersion opportunities and webinars on a wide range of topics.
Semifinalists will receive go-to-market support to get user feedback on their solution prototype. All semifinalists will be connected to a wide network of incubators and accelerator programs to raise grants outside the challenge.Finalists will receive milestone grants of INR 15 lacs each.
Winner and runner-up will receive grants of INR 1 Cr and INR 25 lacs respectively incubation support by NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore.
