Indian Agritech: Boom or Bust for the Smallholder Farmer

Keywords: agriculture, farmer, agritech, fintech, agrarian distress, caste, India
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Nearly 60% of India’s population makes its livelihood in the agriculture sector. Despite their critical role in feeding the nation, Indian farmers face acute distress. Between 1995 and 2018, farmers committed the equivalent of 48 suicides per day. While conventional discourse on agrarian distress frames it as the unmediated result of economic hardship, this rhetoric fails to capture the effect of changing macroeconomic tides on sociocultural dynamics in rural India. Interventions must consider the latter or risk exacerbating conditions that cause distress.

In particular, increased smartphone adoption in rural settings has led to the proliferation of agritech firms that specialize in fintech and other tech services for agriculturalists. Given their nascency, little research has explored the nature of interactions between Indian agritech organizations and farmers. In the summer of 2022, I conducted a study of one highly-ranked agritech organization, and the farmers it works with, exploring organizational values and assumptions embedded in its operations. My research considers the implications of the firm’s sociotechnical architectures for Indian smallholder farmers.