Empowering women in agriculture : The Intersection of Trust, Traceability and Transparency

Three scores and fourteen years ago India resolved to construct a new identity, a new destiny as we awake to life and freedom. Two scores and fifteen years ago, we resolved to become self-reliant as food security became the new mantra, and #greenrevolution kicked off. About one score and three years ago, India resolved to become a global hub for the #IT revolution. Half a score ago, the buzz around #startups began, and today the culture of #entrepreneurship has become the core #value statement of the #young India.

In the pursuit of a #sustainable world, we need not only the #foodsecurity and #nutritionsecurity that are part of United Nations #SDG agenda 2, but also the #energysecurity under UN SDG Agenda no.7.

One score from now, to ensure the need for energy security, India envisages being the global powerhouse using #greenhydrogen and #greenammonia, thanks to billion-dollar investments being made by companies such as Avaada Group , NTPC Renewable Energy Limited , Adani Green Energy Ltd. , Reliance Industries Limited , etc.

After #greenrevolution, the growth in #agriculture has stagnated due to a multitude of reasons as explained in the causal loop diagram.

Incessant growth in #population resulted in land #fragmentation as well as mass exploitation of limited land resources. This resulted in #soilhealth deterioration, and exploitation of natural resources of minerals, water, and energy.

The net result has been lower #income for large size of #smallholderfarmers (SHFs). The net #roi has been deteriorating in the entire agri value chain, thus lower investment of capital for R&D. The #capital investment by large #corporates have also not been the fashion, except for policy advocacy and interventions made by #NGOs in the agri sector.

Will the agriculture sector remain #sustainable, if the #capitalinvestment in #technology development, #implementation, as well as #adoption at #grassroots level, is not supported by huge capital investment? Can investment in agriculture be made #lucrative not only for #farmers but also for the large #corporates and investor groups? Does the agriculture sector offer higher #roi vs the opportunity cost in other sectors for #investors?

Our firm belief is that there is enormous scope for a very high ROI in the agri sector, provided the value proposition of #trust and #transparency is developed in the system.

With this in mind, team Grus & Grade Private Limited started developing a 360-degree #agritech platform #upajguru that ensures #trust, #trace as well as #transparency in the entire agri value chain using #web3 infrastructure. The #data driven model is being continuously trained for a stable #price determination and #demand segmentation using #aiml tools.

Though the development of technology can always happen, we believed the key #differentiation for any #startup is mass #adoption and #implementation of these technologies by the key #stakeholders and #targetaudience.

'A technology for all and a technology that solves'; became the core philosophy of #upajguru platform developed by Grus & Grade Private Limited .

We started #capacitybuilding and #training the #farmers for mass #adoption of our business model cum technology platform #upajguru in #himachalpradesh during our first phase of market expansion. The mass adoption of technology by smallholder farmers is incomplete without a #participative and #inclusive engagement of #womenforce.

Since the time immortal, Indian value system has recognised the importance of women in agriculture as they have been referred to as goddess 'Earth' and 'Soma' in the book 10, hymn 86 and hymn 108 of 'Rigveda'

Rigveda, Book 10, Hymn 86:

?????? ?? ???? ???????? ????????? ??????

??????? ???????? ???????? ???? ??????????????

(Translation: "O goddess Prithvi, who is praised in the Yajurveda and in all the Brahmanas, you are the provider of rain and the nurturer of all plants. You are the mother of all crops, and we offer our praises to you.")

Rigveda, Book 10, Hymn 108:

???? ?? ???? ????? ?????????? ???

???????? ??? ???????????? ?????????????

(Translation: "May the god Soma bestow upon us abundance, and may the waters with their lotus blossoms nourish us. We worship the divine powers that oversee the growth of crops, and we pray for bountiful rains.")

The core #values of #strength, #fertility, #energy, #wealth, and #wisdom as enshrined in the Vedic texts, have become the driving force of the commitment of the entire #Grusandgrade team.

I was part of some of the training programs and scientific advisory camps organized by Grus & Grade Private Limited team in Himachal Pradesh. It was heartening to see the level of engagement and participation, message recall as well as a willingness to adopt new technology and best practices by #womenforce during these training programs.

What caught my attention was the ability of these women to recall the messages imparted during training sessions even hours after the program. Kiran Thakur for instance appeared to be #physically challenged, yet the #ability to #recall and enthusiasm to #adopt new #technology was amazingly high.

The women's forces are the key pillars and main drivers of Indian agriculture. All they need is trust from the system about their abilities to be the transformative pillars of the technology-enabled agricultural systems.

The agri value chain has suffered for centuries due to multiple layers of intermediation due to which, there is a complete lack of traceability and transparency in the transaction as well as information flow in the system. Grus & Grade Private Limited offers a #upajguru platform that is completely secured due to generative # in each node of the value chain. This creates #trust, while the #smartcontract enabled transactions to ensure complete #traceability and #transparency in the system.

Our core values are aligned with the #SDG2 to ensure a nutritionally healthy and hunger-free world, while we remain committed to being commercially viable in a sustainable way.

#upajguru #startup #sustainability #womenempowerment #partnering #agritech #agGRUSsiveinfarming #proGRUSsivefornation #companygrowth #india #team # Anuj Kumar Garg # ASPIRE BioNEST , # Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) , # Tiecon 2023 , # Niraj Saran , # Raj Kapoor , # Deepak Ghadge , # Alok Rai , # STPI - Software Technology Parks of India , # Apiary Centre of Entrepreneurship in Blockchain Technology , # G20 India ,# Arvind Sagar