Networking giant Cisco on Friday said it has partnered with nonprofit organisation The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation and the Indian government for an "agri challenge" with a prize purse of Rs 2 crore aimed at mobilising agri-tech startups to innovate solutions that have the potential to positively impact at least 10 million small farmers.
The "Cisco Agri Challenge" challenge will run in stages over twelve months. It will support participants in developing, testing, and scaling solutions that help alleviate the issues of low income and diminishing profitability farmers in India are facing.
"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 and doubling farmers' income," K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to Government of India, who is co-hosting the challenge, said in a statement.