Shows
Earthlings 2.0 Podcast#77: The Scope of Agriculture’s Future Hello Earthlings! For this week’s episode, we dive deep into the evolving world of agriculture and agritech with Venky Ramachandran, the visionary behind Agribusiness Matters. Joining us from Hyderabad, India, Venky shares insights on the transformative technologies shaping food production systems amidst climate change and market volatility. His firm and popular newsletter provide a global snapshot of agritech’s digital transformation and its impact on farmers worldwide.We explore key topics, including the differences in technological adoption on a global scale, the role of mechanization in addressing labor shortages, and the ongoing debate between opti...2024-10-0136 min
Agribusiness Matters with Venky RamachandranThe Future of Regenerative Agriculture is Agroecology: Dialogue with Ramanjaneyulu GVWith every David and Goliath Agritech player now co-opting ‘Regenerative Agriculture’, ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ has officially entered the trough of disillusionment.
Mind you, in a country like India, ‘regenerative agriculture’ is as much illegible as ‘organic agriculture’ or ‘natural farming’. Rightfully so, because each agroclimatic zone adapts ‘agroecology’ based on their specific ecological niche.
In a country with more than 1.8 million organic producers spanning over 2.66 million hectares (State of Organic Agriculture 2023), the challenge that India faces in the context of scaling ‘organic agriculture’ is extremely complex.
In August’22, when I wrote ‘Organic Foods and the Tricky Question of Luxury Belie...2024-03-012h 04Agribusiness Matters with Venky Ramachandran'Each Product is a minimum 1000 crore opportunity'Ajay TG, General Manager, Westfalia Fruit India, joined the Agribusiness Matters Townhall to talk of possibilities for agritech startups in exporting fresh and processed produce to international markets.
In this spellbinding, candid conversation with hard-earned ground insights, we discussed,
Why Westfalia globally has been focusing on geographical adjacencies- focusing squarely on avocado while scaling new areas of production?
How Westfalia has responded to climate change-induced supply chain disruptions?
What are the necessary operating conditions to scale the fresh produce export business from a smallholder grower perspective?
History and Legacy...2024-03-011h 54Agribusiness Matters with Venky RamachandranOrganic Food Branding Master Class with Shashi Kumar (Akshayakalpa) and Ryan Siwinski (GoodSam Foods)How do you navigate the tensions between being mission-driven and building a sustainable business in organic/regenerative food space?
Although Ryan and Shashi come from diverse worlds, there is a fascinating parallel in the work they are doing in the regenerative/organic food space. Whether it is GoodSam Foods or Akshayakalpa Organic, both are mission-driven, focusing more on direct-trade, local-supply chain models, and building deep relationships with farmers and farm partners.Building an organic/regenerative food brand requires a different mindset when compared to any other CPG food brand.Today, most organic food brands build on...2024-03-011h 00Agribusiness Matters with Venky RamachandranThirty Years of Agribusiness with Venkata Subbarao KolliSubbarao looks back at his illustrious thirty-plus-year career to reflect (in hindsight) on what has changed and what has not in the Indian agri-inputs market landscape.
In this extremely personal conversation with opinionated agribusiness insights that stem from first principles, Subbarao talks of
How reading “Social Impact of Computers” changed his mind about the role of technology and how he fell in love with genetics and plant breeding.
How doing a Ph.D. gave him an edge in the world of agribusiness and the struggles of doing molecular biology in India during the eight...2024-03-011h 11Agribusiness Matters with Venky RamachandranFarmer Advocacy Matters with Ajay Vir JakharIn this fascinating conversation, we explored
What is the idea behind Bharat Krishak Samaj? How to understand the role of Farmer advocacy organizations vis-a-vis farmer unions?
Why does politics remain an albatross around the neck of Agriculture?
Why do farmers not have much say on the policies that affect them despite being a majority vote bank? How to understand this contradiction in a global context where farmers, say, in the US have a bigger say on policies than Indian farmers?
Why is decontextualized policymaking a bane for Indian Agriculture?
Wh...2024-03-0154 minAgribusiness Matters with Venky RamachandranThe Business of Plant Communication with Shely AronovInner Plant Founder and CEO Shely Aronov joins us to talk about strategic tradeoffs, the evolution of technology, commoditization, and disrupting the consolidation of the Big 6 agri-input landscape.
These are the questions we delved into:
Why does Inner Plant consider its core business to be in traits and not chemistry? Would the farmer pay for data or the trait?
Why does InnerPlant firmly believe in their customer mantra: “No additional work, no changes to operations, scalable, and affordable”?
What are the trade-offs in building a biosensor platform? Why does InnerPlant focus on t...2024-03-0152 minAgribusiness Matters with Venky RamachandranOn Organic Agriculture and RetailIn this edition of Agribusiness Matters Podcast ('Agritech Samvaad (Dialogue)), let's talk about organic Agriculture and retail. We are going to talk about the challenges in doing organic farming and retailing with an eminent panel. 1) Narasimha Nakshatri 2) Vishala Padmanabhan, Consultant Executive Director, PGS Organic Council 3) Shefalika Sharma, CEO, Froots. This dialogue happened live at Clubhouse 2024-01-231h 59
The ContraMinds PodcastBest of 2023 | The Super CMO ShowWe launched The Super CMO Show in January this year and it has been a truly rewarding journey so far.
This episode is a curation of the top marketing moments we’ve had with our esteemed guests on the show... moments from our conversations with Unilever veteran Marc de Swaan talking about Humanized Growth and the Da Vinci CMO Model, to Prof Tanvi Gupta of IIM Jaipur on Visual Semiotics in marketing. From prolific author and Prof, Peter Fader on the Customer Base Audit to marketing leader Sukumar Muthya on the need for technology-driven marketers. Amit Tiwari of TCS’s Gl...2023-12-2021 min
The ContraMinds PodcastBest of 2023 | The Super CMO ShowWe launched The Super CMO Show in January this year and it has been a truly rewarding journey so far. This episode is a curation of the top marketing moments we’ve had with our esteemed guests on the show... moments from our conversations with Unilever veteran Marc de Swaan talking about Humanized Growth and the Da Vinci CMO Model, to Prof Tanvi Gupta of IIM Jaipur on Visual Semiotics in marketing. From prolific author and Prof, Peter Fader on the Customer Base Audit to marketing leader Sukumar Muthya on the need for technology-driven marketers. Amit Tiwari of TCS’s Glob...2023-12-2021 min
BusinessLine PodcastsWhat does 2022 hold for Indian agribusiness?How has 2021 been for Indian agribusiness in general and agritech companies in particular? There were of course the continuing protests by farmers that ended in the repeal of the three signal farm bills. How did it go down with India's agri private sector? Did Indian agritech break any new thresholds on the road to maturity? And what prospects does 2022 hold? TR Vivek is in conversation with Venky Ramachandran, a consultant who advises agri-businssses on strategy, market access, fundraising and technology. He also runs the weekly newsletter Agribusiness Matters.
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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/p...2021-12-2925 min
Agtech - So What?What's caused the farmer protests in India and what does it mean for innovation in Ag?Agriculture in India has been thrust onto the international stage as the world watched and celebrities tweeted about the tens of thousands of farmers camped out in Delhi to protest against governmental reforms which loosen rules around the sale, pricing, and storage of produce. Farmers say these changes prioritize corporate interests and threaten livelihoods, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi argues they will lead to greater efficiency and ultimately income for smallholder farmers.In this episode, Sarah is joined by colleague Komal Patel to unpack why farmers are protesting, what’s working (and what’s not) in India’s agricu...2021-06-1632 minAgribusiness Matters with Venky RamachandranAgribusiness Matters Digest Edition: Ep: 1 Making Sense of Plantix Strategy in IndiaHow do you make sense of Plantix Strategy in India? In this digest edition, I summarize the two articles I wrote on Plantix India play. 2020-09-2008 min