Who we are: Guiding Principles
The Agri Collaboratory [TAC] is a ‘Not-for-Profit’, Food and Agriculture Social Enterprise functioning like a ‘Think and Do Tank’. We are a networked, borderless, ‘non-organization’, accelerating the usage of Open Source innovation across several Agri use cases.
We facilitate the building of open, global alliances between the Government and Private Sector, Academia and Ag Tech Start Ups and harnessing the power of Collaborative ecosystems, bound together by Values, Principles and Norms. Along with our stakeholders and partners, across interest groups, we are working on several Agri use cases.
The National imperative…
We believe in a holistic approach:
- Strengthening Private – Public – Academia Axis. Igniting a national movement.
- Building “Digital Rails” for Farmers: Open Source, Collaboratively, & without competitive intent.
- Creating affordable, “go-to-market”, commercialisation models to leverage Research & Innovation
- Mission mode Execution. Facilitate Agri Data Interoperability [Standardisation, Calibration, Verification]
- Upgrading (farmer) Skills & Digital Literacy; (university) Education; and (private & public) Research.
… to ensure profitable, resilient, sustainable agriculture, for the Small & Marginal Farmer.
Collaborative, Community (Eco-System) led
Open National Alliance of “innovators, financiers, enablers, doers”:
An approach driven bottoms up, powered by the community – (individuals and organizations including for-profit & non-for-profits, Ag Tech start-ups, NGOs etc., beneficiaries implementors, donors, financiers) – in partnership with Government and public institutions has many unique advantages in driving systemic and sustainable transformation.
Most notable is that it allows us to leverage a richer and more diverse talent universe, recognizing that “cumulative knowledge and experience held by the external eco-system is much broader and deeper than that any organisation can hold within”.
Such a border-less, networked “non-organisation” can provide a Start-up type energy needed for controlled disruption in partnership with Govt and Agriculturists providing pragmatic counsel for sustainable solutions. Besides this effort is relatively capital efficient and becomes self-regulating, protecting it from developing and sometimes getting mired in narrow vested interests that distract from the longer term mission.
The Collaboratory Approach
The Agri Collaboratory fuses the essence of two key elements, “collaboration” and “laboratory” creating a networked, borderless organization where:
- action learning and action research join forces.
- participating stakeholders work together in flexible groups,
- there is an agreement on values, principles and norms,
- stakeholders explore collaborative, innovative solutions to complex agricultural problems in an open, inclusive format.
Our Long Term engagement
Working on national scale challenges requires taking the long view (15 – 30 years), with well-calibrated milestones. Rejuvenation of India’s food & agricultural sector – balancing volumetric achievements with farmer profitability, nutritional impact and sustainability – requires a simultaneous focus on several areas.
Of these, we have chosen five, led by subsets of alliance members; in each area, we facilitate the creation of Collaborative, Open Source ecosystems.
Our Workstreams
Project AgCx: Agriculture Farm Credit Assessment
Automating Farm Credit Assessment for 60 – 100 Million Small & Marginal Farmers
Crop Price Forecasting System
The Agri Platform and leveraging DATA Flows from disparate sources will allow us to forecast harvest time crop prices well in advance.
Agri Data Interoperability
Democratising Access: Credit, Markets, Supply Chain through Open Scalable Platform and Data Standardisation
Core Team
Nipun Mehrotra
CEO & Co-Founder
Nipun Mehrotra was the Chief Digital Officer at IBM India/Asia Pacific and is now a catalyst for change in the Agriculture sector. He believes complex societal issues need an alternate holistic ecosystem-led collaborative framework. In 2021, he co-founded “The Agri Collaboratory” with co-founders from diverse disciplines to solve some of India’s nagging developmental challenges.
Srinivasan R
R Srinivasan is an award winning journalist and columnist. A former editor of The Hindu Business Line,
he takes a keen interest in policy issues, particularly those relating to agriculture and rural development.
Sanjiv Rangrass
40 years experience in ITC post IIT Kanpur. Covers factory operations, General Management and Human
Resources in FMCG. A decade experience from 2009 onwards as Chief Executive Agri Businesses covering 20+ states and 20+ crops in India. Passion for Leadership Pipeline Development and mentoring Champions for tomorrow.
Ajit Rangnekar
Director General at Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad, Hyderabad City Cluster, that focuses on solving complex local and national challenges in the Agriculture, Lifesciences, and Sustainability sectors, by forming collaborative networks of diverse stakeholders.
Ashutosh Vaidya
Ashutosh Vaidya’s 36 years experience in the IT industry focused on implementing technology solutions to address business challenges with top brands viz. Wipro, Microsoft, HP, Dell, etc. and enjoyed multiple opportunities to build new revenue streams or turn around business units from very difficult situations. His acumen for identifying key business levers, in-depth understanding of IT and a collaborative mindset help him make a difference and deliver favorable results to his customers
Anil Kumar SG
Anil is the Founder & CEO of Samunnati, India’s largest agri enterprise aiming to unlock the Trillion Dollar potential of Indian agriculture, with smallholder farmers as the focus. His passion is to build Samunnati as an open agri network that seamlessly connects diverse stakeholders across the value chain, powered by innovative tech-enabled interventions.
The Agri Collaboratory 