DCM Shriram Foundation and The/Nudge Institute’s Centre for Social Innovation, with the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (GoI), have launch an INR 2.6 crore prize challenge, aim at fostering innovation at the intersection of agriculture and efficient use of water.
The challenge seeks to encourage leading AgTech & Social Impact Entrepreneurs to develop population scale solutions & innovations within India’s agri-water ecosystem, with massive impact on stagnant livelihood opportunities, especially for smallholder farmers.
80% of India’s groundwater is used for agriculture, but 60% of this is inefficient utilisation. Misaligned practices on application of nutrients and fertilisers has led to imbalance and soil degradation resulting in inefficiency in water utilisation, declining groundwater and affecting crop yields.
Hence, water scarcity, non-judicious use of freshwater resources, unsustainable agricultural practices, overdependence on erratic rainfall and climate change threaten the state of the agriculture sector in India, home to over 600 million farmers.
For the upcoming DCM Shriram AgWater Challenge, The/Nudge Prize encompasses a substantial prize purse of INR 2.6 Crore.
This includes a grand prize of INR 2 Crore for the winner, representing one of the most generous grant prizes for sustainable agricultural interventions.
Additionally, a total of 60 Lakh rupees will be distributed among three other finalists who successfully cross the milestone thresholds (INR 30/20/10 Lakh respectively).
To create unprecedented urgency & impact on this topic – The challenge is also enabling an AgWater and SHF expert ecosystem, consisting of leading market players, government departments, research Institutions & senior mentors/visionaries across India & beyond.
This ecosystem will be essential to promote high potential innovators and accelerate adoption of their solutions, along with the leadership of the PSA, tasked with providing pragmatic and objective advice to the Prime Minister and the cabinet in matters of Science and Technology.
While announcing the launch, Aman Pannu, President, DCM Shriram Foundation said :
Kanishka Chatterjee, Director, The/Nudge Prize Said :
This highly anticipated challenge will meticulously identify a cohort of 15-20 exceptional solutions from a vast pool of applicants, who are working on improving the agricultural water utilisation of smallholder farmers through technological interventions – specifically for water intensive crops like rice, wheat, sugarcane & cotton, for the first time.
The selected cohort will be chosen and supported for 12 months by a distinguished group of advisors comprising prominent Agri Investors, Policymakers, Academia, Thought Leaders from DCM Shriram, RICH Telangana, MANAGE, SocialAlpha, TISS, Acumen, ThinkAg, Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, etc., among many others.
Throughout the challenge, the selected cohort will engage in immersions, mentorship sessions, interventions, and pilots facilitated by an evolved and high-performing ecosystem that shares the common objective of addressing AgWater issues for smallholder farmers.
DCM Shriram Foundation is dedicated to disrupting the status quo of inefficient water usage in agriculture, by promoting practices, innovations, and optimisation for large-scale water conservation.
The/Nudge Prize focuses on population-scale solutions for livelihood challenges faced by the bottom 30% of India’s population, especially small and marginal farmers.
The DCM Shriram AgWater Challenge is the third Prize Challenge by The/Nudge Institute (Cisco Agri Challenge and Ashirvad Water Challenge were the previous two).
United in purpose, DCM Shriram Foundation and The/Nudge Prize are launching this challenge with a view towards unlocking prosperity and water security for 1 million Indian farmers.
DCM Shriram AgWater Challenge, invites leading AgTech innovators & Agri Social Entrepreneurs in crop productivity, irrigation tech & water utilisation efficiency from across the nation to develop & scale demonstrable smallholder farmer (SHF) specific solutions for India, that solve the following:
- improve cropping water efficiencies or reduce water consumption for fine cereals (rice and wheat etc) or cash crops ( sugarcane and cotton etc) as per targets below
- improve farmer profitability by at least 40-50%, while implementing their solutions
- offer affordable water efficient technology at costs not more than 20% of the cost of crop cultivation to smallholder farmers, (or offer flexible financing options)
Crop-wise targets* for the DCM Shriram AgWater Challenge | ||||
Rice | Wheat | Sugarcane | Cotton | |
Water savings / efficiencies | >60% | >40% | >20% | >50% |
Cost of tech as % of cost of cultivation | <20% | <15% | <15% | <10% |
*Targets are based on respective crop-wise benchmarks and then moderated basis multi-locational, multi-varietal consultancies and research. Solutions shall have an year to innovate, scale and move beyond their existing benchmarks/crops & achieve the aforementioned targets verifiably (within India & for smallholder farmers) |
Over the past three years, The/Nudge Prize has successfully launched and executed two challenges– Cisco Agri Challenge (CAC) and Ashirvad Water challenge.
They collaborated with over 50 innovators, handpicked from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants.
About DCM Shriram Foundation:
DCM Shriram Foundation, a philanthropic arm of DCM Shriram Ltd believes in responsible growth and driving social impact initiatives for the benefit of its communities.
DCM Shriram Foundation is working on two focus areas: Water in Agriculture and Holistic Development of rural communities.
The first covers agronomic advisory on water use efficiency, improving soil organic carbon, Agri – mechanisation with a focus on water use efficiency and advocacy related to this subject.
The second covers programs on healthcare, sanitation, education and skilling to name a few.
The Foundation’s holistic approach to betterment continues to facilitate positive transformation, creating a field of possibilities all around.
About The/Nudge Institute
The/Nudge Institute is an action institute working towards a poverty-free India, within our lifetime.
We partner with governments, markets and civil society to build resilient livelihoods for all, through our Centre for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (CSDE), Centre for Rural Development (CRD) and Centre for Social Innovation(CSI).