The second edition of India’s biggest BioAgri conference, “BioAgri-2022” concluded at Hotel Park Hyatt on 20th October.
Highlight of the concluding day of the two-day conference was the session on the theme “India: Global Gateway for BioAg solutions” which was moderated by Dr. Venkatesh Devanur, Secretary of the BIPA-BioAgri Inputs Producers Association.
The panellists of this session were A. Kulandaivel from Rallis India, who spoke on the huge domestic market potential in India and the level playing field. He gave an overview of the market value of Bio Agri input market in India which comprises Biostimulants market at Rs 1810 crore; Biofertilisers at Rs 1095 crore; bio-pesticides Rs at 845 crore and Organic fertilisers at Rs 1980 crore.
Ram Koundinya, Founder of Think Ag addressed Funding Opportunities through the Make in India initiative. He outlined funding opportunities. The Bio Industry in general has not attracted much funding, he said.
Pointing out that the Bio industry has not attracted much funding, Ran Koundinya said: “there are some incubators for BioAgri like CCMB AIC, C-Camp (BLR), IKP, Ag Hub, aIDEA, but the funding of bio-enterprises has not been very high so far, he observed.”
Naming lack of cutting-edge research work as one of the many reasons for less funding, he added, “While a lot of investments are flowing across all categories, biotech has just attracted 1% of investments.” He suggested that an ecosystem needs to be built and investor education is required to promote funding bio-Agri inputs.
Moderator of the session Dr Venkatesh Devanur spoke about how India has emerged as a destination and sourcing hub for Bio Ag Solutions. He gave his reasons why India is the global gateway for Bio Ag Solutions.
“Koppers made in India, sold in India and other countries are almost 100% locally made or sourced,” he said.
Similarly, Dr Venkatesh gave examples of how other companies such as Valagri, TradeCrop, Yara, Acadian, CHN Hansen, Sumitomo, and Novozymes are importing and selling. MNCs can bring technology/IPs to India. Come to India, invest in India, produce in India, sell in India and export from India, he concluded.
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