Indian Agritech: Boom or Bust for the Smallholder Farmer

Abstract

Amidst growing concerns over an agricultural crisis, efforts to financially include the rural poor, and a nationwide “Digital India” campaign to embrace digital modernity, a new class of financial technology firms has emerged in Indian agriculture. Indian agritech companies seek to make agriculture more “efficient, inclusive, and resilient” by digitally disrupting agricultural supply chains and providing informational and financial services for agricultural livelihoods. Despite international media coverage and venture funding for these initiatives, few studies have explored the element of ‘world-building’ by agritech companies that aim to reconfigure networks of informal actors in the Global South. Using an autoethnographic approach, I draw from my experience searching for agritech initiatives in the Green Revolution state of Haryana, interning with one high-ranking agritech company in its Gurugram corporate office, and speaking with its affiliated farmers and shopkeepers in the nearby state of Uttar Pradesh. I present findings related to the broader visions and values underlying agritech initiatives, how these interact with the realities of the affiliated smallholder farmers and shopkeepers, and the influence of historical and geographical factors on the agritech industry in India. I show that company services embed the neoliberal development principles of global risk management and financial and digital inclusion, and argue that they incorporate both small farmers and shopkeepers into a sociotechnical system that enables their exploitation, while simultaneously transforming the social landscapes surrounding agriculture in favor of their operations.