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SMART Agtech Integration Facility 2022
The Hon. Balasaheb Thackeray Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (SMART) is a livelihood project for rural Maharashtra that is formulated and implemented with an aim to transform Rural Maharashtra through ‘SMART’ interventions in Agriculture and Livelihood sectors, assisted by World Bank.
The key objective of the project is to support the development of inclusive and competitive agriculture value chains, focusing on small holder farmers and agri-entrepreneurs in Maharashtra. The core approach of the project is to support farmer collectives through facilitation of reliable market-linkages, creation of a favorable policy and regulatory environment, ensuring availability of high-quality business development services, increased access to relevant financial products and establishment of risk-mitigating mechanisms. One of the sub-components under the SMART Project is to facilitate the adoption of agriculture technology solutions among selected farmer organizations in the state. This will be implemented through a dedicated facility called the SMART Agtech Integration Facility.
The SMART Agtech Integration Facility (AIF) is a unique collaborative concept to connect Disruptive Agricultural Technology (DAT) solution providers with Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in the state of Maharashtra to provide them with the most relevant solutions to address their critical technological needs. If selected, the Facility will assist DAT solution providers in contextualizing their solutions to best meet the needs of CBOs in Maharashtra.
The Facility has the following key objectives
Improve food systems through technology integration
Identifying DAT solution providers that are providing technologies to address the issues that are faced by CBOs in their current processes
Develop
collaborative
solutions
Providing mentorship and context-setting for selected DAT solution providers to help them best meet the needs of CBOs in Maharashtra
Deploy and test solutions in
Maharashtra
Supporting selected DAT solution providers to further work with CBOs that are empaneled with the SMART project to integrate their technologies via a grant disbursed to the CBOs
Organizing Partners
The State of Maharashtra Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (SMART) is a collaboration between The World Bank and the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) to support the development of inclusive and competitive agriculture value chains, focusing on small holder farmers and agri-entrepreneurs in the state. The core approach of the project is to support farmer collectives through facilitation of reliable market-linkages, creation of a favorable policy and regulatory environment, ensuring availability of high-quality business development services, increased access to relevant financial products and establishment of risk-mitigating mechanisms.
The World Bank Group (WBG) comprises five global institutions working with a single strategy of achieving the twin goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity:
IBRD | The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the original World Bank institution, providing loans and other assistance primarily to middle-income countries
IDA | The International Development Association is the part of the World Bank that helps the world’s poorest countries, providing concessional loans, grants, and guarantees for programs that boost economic growth, reduce inequality, and improve people’s living conditions
Together, IBRD and IDA make up the World Bank.
IFC | International Finance Corporation is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector, helping developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, mobilizing capital in international financial markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and governments.
MIGA | The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency promotes foreign direct investment into developing countries. offering political risk insurance (guarantees) to investors and lenders.
ICSID | The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes provides international facilities for conciliation and arbitration of investment disputes.
The Korea- World Bank Partnership Facility (KWPF) is an initiative to strengthen ties between Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) and the World Bank. The Facility was established in May 2013, with an overall objective to assist developing member countries of the World bank in achieving inclusive and sustainable economic growth and to foster broader dialogue on economic development issues. The World Bank has approved a two-year grant of USD 1.86 million through the KWPF to facilitate increased knowledge and advisory services for enabling adoption of disruptive agriculture technologies in Maharashtra through market assessment, advisory services, and knowledge exchanges and is directly executed by World Bank.
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Challenge we are Addressing
Smallholder farmers in Maharashtra face a myriad of challenges across the value chain, owing to the size of their land and a lack of access to information and markets to enable them to get good returns on their produce. These include low productivity and yields, climate-change-related vulnerabilities, lack of access to quality inputs, credit, information, as well as weak market linkages. Maharashtra has among the highest number of registered CBOs in the country.
Community-based Organizations (CBOs) play a significant role in helping farmers get access to resources such as financing, inputs, farm technologies, and agricultural markets. Maharashtra has among the highest number of registered CBOs in the country, and the number of CBOs has seen a sharp increase over the past few years along with a rise in membership.
However, CBOs face several issues across the agricultural supply chain which restricts their ability to adequately support farmers. These include:
- digitization and maintaining records of their farmer members.
- lack of quality inputs,
- inadequate or inaccurate information about weather events, pests, and diseases.
- low access to markets beyond their local mandis, national as well as international
- difficulty in accessing information about buyer requirements and product certifications
- inadequate access to financing
Over the past few years, there has been an emergence of agriculture technologies that have shown the potential to address some of these challenges, and India has witnessed a steep rise in the number of agriculture technology solution providers over the past decade . These technologies, termed as ‘Disruptive Agricultural Technologies ’ (DATs) by the World Bank, are digital and technical innovations, which enable farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs to leapfrog to increase their productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness, facilitate access to markets, improve nutritional outcomes and enhance resilience to climate change.