Innovative solutions presented at ‘Agri Rural Ideathon 2026’

Around 26 teams of agri-entrepreneurs and pupil innovators presented a scope of innovations for sustainable farming and agrarian improvement astatine the ‘Agri Rural Ideathon 2026’ present connected Friday.

The lawsuit held astatine the College of Agriculture, Vellayani, was organised by K-AgTech LaunchPad, a NABARD-funded collaborative task of the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), the Western Sydney University and manufacture partners.

The innovation-driven ideas were presented nether the themes NextGen AgTech Innovations, Community-Centric Rural Solutions, and Climate Action for Farms and Villages.

“The proposals addressed cardinal challenges specified arsenic labour shortages, clime resilience, post-harvest losses, nutrient safety, integrative pollution, and husbandman income instability. The ideas included automated MultiFarm bots, precision harvesting equipment, solar-powered irrigation and chaotic carnal deterrent systems, biodegradable packaging derived from cultivation waste, genomic tools for works assortment authentication, and community-led agrarian endeavor models,” K-AgTech LaunchPad said successful a statement.

Among the innovations presented astatine the lawsuit were a ‘village-to-value’ assemblage endeavor exemplary aimed astatine enhancing husbandman incomes, a mycelium-based biodegradable packaging solution offering alternatives to plastic, and a Genomic SSR profiling level for close works assortment identification.

Inaugurating the event, Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (Kerala) managing manager Rajesh Kumar S., stressed the value of strengthening cultivation worth chains. He underscored the request for startup promotion and person collaboration with Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) and Farmer Producer Companies (FPC) to guarantee sustainable incomes for farmers.

Allan Thomas, manager and main investigator, K-AgTech LaunchPad; Jacob John, Dean of Faculty (Agriculture); Dinesh R., wide manager, District Industries Centre (DIC), Thiruvananthapuram; and Vishal B., Corporate Acceleration, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), spoke.