We celebrate India’s remarkable economic growth of recent years and the rise of the IT and manufacturing sectors but we preferably need to look at the statistical facts that are quite alarming and needs to be attended with serious efforts. Nearly one fourth of the world’s poor – almost 300 million live in our country and the most poverty vulnerable population accounts about 65% lives in rural India, depends for their livelihood on agriculture. This reflected the level of dependency of agrarian community for livelihood on agriculture based employment. Service and Industry and IT sector accounts for nearly 84.13 % of GDP but employs only small proportion of work force.
Thus, Technological Innovations for Agri and Rural Development has ample scope in helping reduce drudgery and the prevalence and severity of many developmental and socio-economic problems. It help improving the quality of life, especially for the poor and disadvantaged, by availing better services thereby transforming social and economic status. The appropriate technology may be something as elementary as a strategically placed hole in the ground to harvest rainwater or it may be a sophisticated satellite-based system for farm monitoring and digital based farm advisory and marketing services. What we need are solutions that are affordable, sustainable and acceptable to the people who end up using them. So the matter of high tech or low tech is immaterial, as long as it is the right tech. Some of the questions often raised are:
There are a number of organizations in India, both private and public, that do R&D for the rural sector. This includes the IITs. A range of applications are being developed that include energy (for lighting, cooking, transportation, and agriculture), water (for domestic consumption and cultivation), agriculture (better seeds, practices, and equipment), manufacturing (small scale, agro-based, etc.), sanitation, health, transportation, communication, environmental conservation, and rural employment.
AFC India Limited is committed to excel in this Domain of reaching out rural community through affordable innovative technologies and already involved in providing such services by partnering with the agencies and institutions inclined to work on similar policy lines. The company also involved in direct and indirect implementation in this core thematic vertical of Technology and Innovation for Agri and Rural Development on major identified gap area and scope.
AFC has qualified core professional staff with wide ranging experience in relevant fields as well as empanelled Consultants having experience and expertise in specific domain. Besides, AFC is also professionally organized to mobilize human resources for providing consultancy and technical support services in different states of the country through network of its offices and empanelled consultants, Business Associates and NGOs and survey agencies.
We also enjoy a good rapport with Government of India and other State government agencies, UTs, research Institutes and universities that adds on credential and deriving strength at organizational level of AFC.
The key assignments undertaken by AFC including ongoing assignments are :