Nikhit Agrawal

NIKHIT AGRAWAL, then a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, was awarded funding in September 2023 to aid research on “Techno-entrepreneurship and Agroecological Futures: Ethnographic Research on Agri-tech Interventions in India,” supervised by Dr Akhil Gupta. Funding supported twelve months of institutional ethnography at two agri-tech start-ups in India: one aimed to scale sustainability interventions in rice cultivation and generate carbon credits, while the other is a digital organic marketplace that aimed to connect farmers with urban consumers. The researcher conducted participant observation across start-up offices, rural farms, and industry events and shadowed farmers, rural marketing agents, agri-tech employees, and company founders. Fieldwork also included in-depth interviews with farmers, tech entrepreneurs, investors, agricultural scientists, and activists and was supplemented by a document analysis of gray literature and media reports. This approach enabled the researcher to examine how sustainability is imagined and operationalized through digital infrastructures in Indian agriculture and to trace the frictions, failures, and resistances encountered in scaling these interventions. The research explores how techno-solutions to ecological crises intersect with complex agrarian relations and contribute to debates on agrarian change, environmental justice, and the politics of climate-tech innovation.