RSHB: biotechnology, IoT and smart farming have become the most popular technologies in the agricultural sector in 2023
Over the past 2 years, the number of agritech startups in Russia has increased by 30%, with most of them engaged in precision agriculture, the Internet of things and biotechnology. Experts from the AgroInvest Club of Rosselkhozbank spoke about this at the International specialized B2B exhibition of producers and participants in the fruit and vegetable market “Global Fresh Market: Vegetables & Fruits”.
Agricultural technologies are a promising niche for solving current challenges in Russian agriculture, such as climate change and meeting the high demand for food. Today, the average level of digitalization of agricultural enterprises in the country is 23%, and only 10% of farms use technology in their work on an ongoing basis. All this indicates a high potential for the development and implementation of innovative solutions.
In Russia, the agritech segment is an important point of attraction for investments and was able to attract more than $30 million in 2022, which led to an increase in the number of agritech startups by 30% over the past 2 years. In 2023, investments in agritech continued to grow at a steady but moderate pace, driven by different categories of agricultural innovations. Most of them are concentrated in the forestry (27%) and livestock (24%) segments. Slightly less popular are technologies for the cultivation and extraction of aquatic biological resources (22%) and crop production (21%). At the same time, the most popular solutions on the basis of which services for various sectors of agriculture will be developed in 2023 are biotechnology, sensors and IoT (“Internet of Things”) and precision agriculture. They account for more than 50% of all startups in the Russian agro-industrial complex.
Since financial investments are a key factor for the development of innovation, in 2022 Rosselkhozbank took the initiative to create the AgroInvest Club - a community of investors who see new business opportunities in agricultural technologies and are ready to actively support the growth of the most promising startups. The most complete database of more than 230 agritech startups is already available on the platform for investors and agricultural holdings, and the Open Innovation Window has been launched, a service aimed at increasing the efficiency of interaction between the agro-industrial complex and startups. Here companies can submit a request to introduce innovations, and startups can offer their developments as a solution.