Case Study: India’s investment in innovation for sustainable agricultural intensification

India faces crucial challenges of food security and sustainability. The country needs to grow a significantly higher quantity and quality of food to provide adequate nourishment to a population that is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by 2050. Furthermore, its environmental factors are already severely stressed. For instance, India has only 4% of the world’s freshwater resources but has 17% of the global population. Given the nature of agriculture in India which relies heavily on groundwater, the country is facing severe depletion in a large majority of its aquifers. A switch to more sustainable agriculture practices is critical for India, and greater investments in sustainable agriculture are critical. This case study provides an overview of investment patterns for agriculture as well as SAI innovation
in India with analysis of both the key sources of funding and segments of the agriculture ecosystem receiving investment.