Around 26 teams of agri-entrepreneurs and student innovators showcased a range of innovations for sustainable agriculture and rural development at the ‘Agri Rural Ideathon 2026’ here on Friday.
Held at College of Agriculture, Vellayani, the event was organized by K-AgTech LaunchPad, a NABARD-funded collaborative project of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), Western Sydney University and industry partners.
Innovation-based ideas were presented under the themes of NextGen AgTech Innovations, Community-Centric Rural Solutions and Climate Action for Farms and Villages.
“The proposals addressed key challenges such as labor shortages, climate resilience, post-harvest losses, food security, plastic pollution and farmers’ income instability. Ideas included automated MultiFarm robots, precision harvesting equipment, solar irrigation and wildlife deterrent systems, biodegradable packaging derived from agricultural waste, genomic tools for plant variety verification and KPadA’s community statement in GPadA.
Among the innovations showcased at the event were a village-to-value community business model aimed at increasing farmers’ incomes, a biodegradable mycelium-based packaging solution that offers alternatives to plastics, and a Genomic SSR profiling platform for accurate identification of plant varieties.
Inaugurating the event, Agribusiness Consortium (Kerala) CEO of Small Farmers, Rajesh Kumar S. emphasized the importance of strengthening agricultural value chains. He emphasized the need for startup promotion and closer collaboration with Farmers’ Organizations (FPOs) and Farmers Producer Companies (FPCs) to ensure sustainable income to farmers.
Allan Thomas, Director and Principal Investigator, K-AgTech LaunchPad; Jacob John, Dean of Faculty (Agriculture); Dinesh R., General Manager, District Industries Center (DIC), Thiruvananthapuram; and Vishal B., Corporate Acceleration, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), spoke.
Published – 27 Feb 2026 21:55 IST
