Despite seemingly pro-agricultural policies and subsidies enacted by the Indian government, the country’s farming sector is inefficient and unsustainable; suffering the loss of profits and thousands of tons of grain because of a lack of storage, infrastructure and corruption. Even though India overtook Thailand as the world’s largest rice exporter and became the world’s top exporter of buffalo meat in 2012, experts are voicing concerns about India becoming a net importer of grains in the next 20-30 years. Towards reversing this trajectory there are venture capital and private equity entities striving to make Indian agriculture more productive and profitable. In the following article Mark Kahn, founding partner of Mumbai-based venture capital fund Omnivore Partners discusses the state of India’s agriculture and the steps that he sees that need to be made in order for the sector to mature.
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