In this episode of the Discover India 101 Podcast, I speak with **Dr. Rimjhim Agarwal** about the fascinating intersection of **agriculture, food, research, innovation, technology and market intelligence**.
We explore how scientific research can move beyond laboratories and create real-world impact through **research translation, innovation and entrepreneurship**.
In this conversation, we discuss:
• Agri-food innovation and the future of agriculture
• How research can be translated into practical solutions
• Market intelligence and understanding emerging opportunities
• Agriculture, food systems and technology
• Innovation and entrepreneurship
• Organic farming, seeds and agricultural research
• Technology and AI in agriculture
• Education, careers and opportunities in research
• Life and work in Australia
• Farming and agriculture in Australia
• Differences between agriculture and food systems in India and Australia
• The journey from education and research to real-world impact
• Opportunities for young people interested in agriculture, science and innovation
Dr. Rimjhim Agarwal was also a **7NEWS Young Achiever Awards Semi-Finalist in 2026**.
This conversation is particularly relevant for students, researchers, entrepreneurs, agriculture professionals and anyone interested in the future of food, farming, technology and innovation.
🎙️ **Guest:** Dr. Rimjhim Agarwal
🌱 **Topics:** Agri-Food | Agriculture | Food Systems | Innovation | Research | Research Translation | Market Intelligence | AI | Technology | Australia | Farming
If you found this conversation interesting, consider **liking, sharing and subscribing** to Discover India 101 for more conversations about education, careers, technology, society, entrepreneurship and life around the world.
#DrRimjhimAgarwal #AgriFood #AgriFoodInnovation #Agriculture #Research #Innovation #ResearchTranslation #MarketIntelligence #FoodInnovation #AgriculturalResearch #Australia #AI #Technology #Podcast #DiscoverIndia101
**Disclaimer:**
This podcast is intended for educational, informational and conversational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Discover India 101 or its host. Information discussed during the conversation should not be considered professional, scientific, agricultural, financial, legal or medical advice. Viewers should independently verify information and consult qualified professionals where appropriate.
Some statements may reflect personal experiences, interpretations or opinions and should not be treated as universally applicable facts.
We explore how scientific research can move beyond laboratories and create real-world impact through **research translation, innovation and entrepreneurship**.
In this conversation, we discuss:
• Agri-food innovation and the future of agriculture
• How research can be translated into practical solutions
• Market intelligence and understanding emerging opportunities
• Agriculture, food systems and technology
• Innovation and entrepreneurship
• Organic farming, seeds and agricultural research
• Technology and AI in agriculture
• Education, careers and opportunities in research
• Life and work in Australia
• Farming and agriculture in Australia
• Differences between agriculture and food systems in India and Australia
• The journey from education and research to real-world impact
• Opportunities for young people interested in agriculture, science and innovation
Dr. Rimjhim Agarwal was also a **7NEWS Young Achiever Awards Semi-Finalist in 2026**.
This conversation is particularly relevant for students, researchers, entrepreneurs, agriculture professionals and anyone interested in the future of food, farming, technology and innovation.
🎙️ **Guest:** Dr. Rimjhim Agarwal
🌱 **Topics:** Agri-Food | Agriculture | Food Systems | Innovation | Research | Research Translation | Market Intelligence | AI | Technology | Australia | Farming
If you found this conversation interesting, consider **liking, sharing and subscribing** to Discover India 101 for more conversations about education, careers, technology, society, entrepreneurship and life around the world.
#DrRimjhimAgarwal #AgriFood #AgriFoodInnovation #Agriculture #Research #Innovation #ResearchTranslation #MarketIntelligence #FoodInnovation #AgriculturalResearch #Australia #AI #Technology #Podcast #DiscoverIndia101
**Disclaimer:**
This podcast is intended for educational, informational and conversational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Discover India 101 or its host. Information discussed during the conversation should not be considered professional, scientific, agricultural, financial, legal or medical advice. Viewers should independently verify information and consult qualified professionals where appropriate.
Some statements may reflect personal experiences, interpretations or opinions and should not be treated as universally applicable facts.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00वह इस था एफ या वाद प्रफी नहीं चिह जब एफ इस इन देटेस्ट। ऑर इन्ड यर्थासिट था उन्ड प्रडेश
00:17अर्मार निवरसिट्य निवरसिट
00:27there are heaps of agricultural universities there
00:31so I guess there are a lot of agriculture students from there
00:35they are doing a lot of work
00:37but one question is that
00:40do they grow things from seeds or how do they grow
00:47or hybrid seeds or do they have seed banks
00:50because in India now a lot of people
00:52so actually American companies want us to grow using their hybrid seeds
01:01so basically our natural seeds will go away
01:05and after that we have to buy from them
01:08so the same kind of concept is implemented over there
01:11like you need to buy seeds from company every time every year
01:15or how it works
01:18yeah unfortunately that's the reality of the world
01:21and most of the countries are forced to do this
01:24because of the monopoly that people have on seeds
01:28so yes you cannot regerminate if there was
01:32like a plant breeders right on one particular variety to be grown
01:37in one particular region of the property
01:39but if for example that seed has fallen into neighbors property
01:43so you have violated the plant breeders right there
01:47in Australia there is something like that
01:50yes
01:50okay
01:52yeah
01:53so the biosecurity laws
01:55yes
01:56no seed bank or something like that
01:59I mean even the seed banks are made from hybrid seeds
02:05they are collecting seeds some of them
02:07the professors that are working on breeding
02:09they have their seed banks
02:11they can do crosses for one generation one generation two generation three
02:16but that has to be used for research purpose only
02:20they can't sell it to normal people to grow
02:23and means is there any kind of research happen like effect of this hybrid food on people's health right
02:34is there any kind of research happen in Australia
02:37what means have you ever seen
02:40I haven't come across it but I am sure people must be looking
02:44because I have seen that in the USA they protest against this kind of hybrid food
02:52this food generator generated from hybrid seeds
02:56so a lot of lobbies are also opposing this kind of thing that natural seeds should not be destroyed
03:03even if you want everything seedless or something like that
03:08so one question on that
03:10so by hybrid seeds do you mean only any kind of hybrid seeds or do you mean GMOs
03:16yeah GMOs like you cannot reproduce from
03:19or you cannot get the seed actually
03:23so genetically modified seeds are different to hybrid seeds
03:27genetically modified seeds are not in use in Australia
03:31they are not legal
03:33there are no GMOs
03:36but for hybrid seeds
03:40hybrid seeds is just a breeding way of creating one parent
03:44and the second parent make another hybrid seed
03:48that is there and that is how even in nature hybrid seeds are used
03:52so I don't see any issue there
03:55until and unless it is genetically modified
03:58Australia is okay with it
03:59but from the customer perspective
04:01yes there is a big push against not having any GMO products in Australia
04:08and how about organic because I feel in India
04:13organic farming is kind of different compared to Australian organic farming right
04:19in what terms
04:21like in India we have a lot of local way to make up fertilizers for you know
04:29but I have never seen this kind of thing in Australia
04:34so I guess they just control the pesticides
04:39so that is open farming
04:42I don't know
04:43there has been
04:44there has been a move to go towards organic farming
04:47and in last few years a lot of organic farmers have also popped up
04:52but again they are very localized as you said
04:55because they cannot do mass production
04:57and often their product is quite expensive as compared to
05:02a large field that has produced tons and tons of fruits and veggies
05:07so at this point
05:08this organic segment of fruits and vegetables is very premium
05:13and mostly rich people like to buy that
05:18but if you come to normal people who are having like middle class salaries
05:22and stuff like that
05:24they still are happy to buy the pesticide or insecticide food
05:28just because of the cost of growing those kind of products
05:33so basically I just want to ask that you know
05:36as an example in India people use this plant
05:40maybe I don't know how does it called in Hindi
05:44it's a
05:47Keletrofi plant
05:48giant Keletrofi plant
05:50I don't know if you heard about it or not
05:53or it's grown in the north part of India or not
05:56I don't know
05:59so
05:59I haven't heard its name
06:01C-A-L-O-TROPE
06:04T-R-O-P-E
06:07okay
06:08okay
06:09so
06:10this is a
06:11they use it for maybe potassium or something
06:15after maybe
06:16a week
06:17they do fermentation or I don't know
06:20but they use it very much
06:21they use it
06:26good
06:28jaggery
06:30for organic farming
06:31but I
06:32never heard in Australia they do it
06:35this kind of
06:37local stuff you know
06:38actually they provide this kind of training
06:41Gau Mutra
06:42yeah they use Gau Mutra for organic farming
06:45and
06:46so
06:47in that terms
06:48I just want to know that
06:49means
06:50what kind of things they do you know
06:52they just don't use the pesticides
06:54and whatever they grow
06:57they sell
06:57something like that
06:58because production will reduce
07:01that's why
07:02production will reduce
07:04yeah
07:06yeah
07:06so
07:07they do a lot of like
07:09manuring and stuff
07:10they have composts in their own fields
07:14the people who are doing organic farming
07:15so they kind of use those kind of things
07:18like warm compost
07:20vermicompost and stuff like that
07:22I haven't heard of cow dung specifically
07:28I haven't been to an organic farm so I can't really speak about it
07:32but I do know that vermicompost is quite popular
07:35even among people who have garden in their backyard
07:39they would use that kind of manure for their house gardens
07:47okay
07:48um
07:49so this award
07:50is
07:51actually given by
07:53um
07:53a channel here called 7news
07:56um
07:57and it is
07:58focused on people who are under the age of 30
08:01who have
08:02done some achievement
08:04or who have created some real world impact
08:08so 7news
08:09does a lot of categories
08:11it can be anything
08:13from social help
08:15to social
08:16and legal justice
08:17a lot of
08:18um
08:18those kind of awards are also there
08:20and they do
08:20do it
08:22annually
08:23in all the states
08:24of Australia
08:25in different fields
08:26so this particular one
08:28in different sector
08:29so there are
08:30I think
08:31yes
08:31so there are around six to seven categories
08:33like mining
08:35then women
08:36health
08:37empowerment
08:38and then there was the food industry one
08:41which I was in
08:42but
08:44these were the main fields
08:47for this particular award
08:48there are specific other awards also
08:51um
08:52depending on what you're interested in
08:54interested in
08:56like women in technology award
08:58which covers a lot of
08:59um
09:00tech kind of awards
09:01so if you're looking for computer science
09:03or
09:04AI
09:05or those kind of fields
09:06that can be one of the awards that you look into
09:10so
09:11um
09:12the
09:13the food innovation award is actually
09:17um
09:17sponsored by one of the food companies called Turosi
09:21they do a lot of aviation meals
09:23and
09:24so they were also the sponsor of one of this
09:27young achievers award
09:30so
09:31basically
09:32basically
09:32um
09:34you have to be nominated for this award by someone
09:36you can also self nominate yourself
09:38but
09:40many times
09:41it's someone else who is nominating you for this award
09:45and so then you have to like go through the application process
09:48pretty much like how most of the competition works
09:51and you need to have like reference letters from your managers or someone you have worked with
09:58showing the credibility of your work
10:01and then there were multiple rounds like
10:04the top 20 top 10 and then the finalist who actually won the award
10:11so
10:11it's a very rigorous process
10:12it's a very rigorous process
10:13very difficult process i guess
10:17not everyone can participate
10:21i mean
10:23people also tried it right something like that
10:27i mean people do try
10:29follow people smart people
10:30or
10:30you can say something like
10:32i would say it's both
10:35it's
10:36being smart and also being able to position yourself as the award one set
10:40which is
10:41the case with most of the awards
10:43it's not really
10:45awards don't really judge you on your intelligence if i may say so
10:49it's my experience
10:50but they also want to see how you present yourself
10:55and that is most of the world today
11:01so even at work you can be the most smartest
11:04but if you're not presenting yourself in a way your boss wants to see it
11:08you might not get the promotion
11:09that's true
11:10so pretty much
11:12that's my experience with the award
11:15yeah
11:17yeah
11:17so how about like did you get into data science or something like that
11:22data analytics or data science did you
11:26yeah
11:27study
11:28in
11:29those fields or
11:32something like that
11:33yeah
11:34so
11:35actually after my masters and my phd
11:38which was also in
11:40similar field agri-food tech
11:42i actually
11:45worked in commercialization field which is research translation
11:50so doing so i saw a different side of research which i wasn't aware of
11:56i always thought that scientist was the only way impact could be created
12:01but while doing phd i realized that that might not be the case actually even if you're a scientist but
12:07if nobody is using your science
12:10it's useless
12:10it's useless
12:11which i learned during my phd
12:14i did some project but nobody is using it so what's the point of it it's a waste so what
12:19impact i thought as a kid that i want to do through science did not happen
12:24so then doing research translation with commercialization i realized that there is like another
12:32you may say segment in the middle segment of people who actually work with businesses and with researchers so that
12:40both these parties can talk
12:43and that was research translation space
12:45so while working there i was introduced
12:50to
12:51my recent job that i was at
12:53it was the accelerator program in australia for food and beverage industry
12:59and so
13:01when i was applying for that job basically it was about someone who knows
13:06science and someone who knows how to take it in the market
13:09so i kind of fit in the bill and i got that job but that job was very focused on
13:16using data analytics to help the businesses
13:20of course i wasn't trained in it
13:22my background is not in it my background is in biotech and i have learned some little bit of research
13:28translation through my last role
13:29so most of the data analytics actually that i learned was on my job during doing my job
13:37so can we say it's a kind of self study plus experience based learning right
13:44experience based learning peer based learning there was a data scientist in our team who i would ask help for
13:51so yes i don't have any formal training in data science but i have worked quite a bit quite extensively
13:59but now you can train a data scientist
14:02something like that
14:03i wouldn't say that
14:05means you have experience
14:08practical experience
14:10practical experience but yes i would
14:13i wouldn't compete with them
14:14i understand what data science is
14:16but if you are going to ask me to generate some code or something
14:20it's not my forte
14:21i can know how to use it
14:23so basically in my role my job was to bring in my food science knowledge and work with data science
14:29people
14:30to combine both these sectors
14:34a lot of times in today's world i feel like data analytics is only useful when it's combined with another
14:42specialized field
14:43so for example in hospitals if you will do it or if you are doing data analytics for some companies
14:49or businesses looking into their marketing sales for example YouTube
14:53you need to have data and you need to analyze it to see how your platform is working
14:58so pretty similar to that i had data analysts who were working in my team
15:04they were the they were masters of data science student but they were working with me
15:11so it was a lot of communication across the segment to make that thing work
15:17and yeah so i just had to bring in my food science hat tell them what makes sense what doesn't
15:24make sense
15:25because data can say random stuff
15:27until and unless you put it into context it doesn't really mean anything they're just numbers
15:32so yes working on that i can say now i know something about IT architecture and stuff like that
15:40and means how do you feel when you go inside a vegetable market or food market
15:47do you see this field as a scientific way or just buy and go cut and eat something like that
15:57so for me it's a very funny question that you asked because i keep like thinking in my head
16:04because you know as an example i there is one of my friend who was studying botany
16:11so he wherever he go with me he collect leaves and seeds and cut it and watch it in a
16:20microscope and you know he make notes of kind of everything
16:27yes
16:27means vision is different you know
16:32yes i would say it's quite similar to me because my my phd has been so even though i have
16:38like my background in agriculture
16:39but my focus has been really into like nutrition specifically in nutrition for humans
16:44so in my phd also i was looking for nutrients in orange capsicums that can help people in their eye
16:53health
16:53so reading all those things all about like vitamins and stuff like that
17:00you start explaining
17:03you start explaining about anatomy of everything to someone
17:08something like that you know
17:10it depends who wants to hear it
17:12so not always most of the times i don't even talk about my phd to a lot of people specifically
17:18when working in a business kind of environment which i have worked
17:22a lot of people are not interested in science but a lot of times when i'm going to science festivals
17:26science event i do a lot of science communication also
17:30so if someone is interested in those kind of aspects definitely whenever i go to a grocery store definitely i'm
17:37reading the label i know what means what and then i'm like i'm not going to buy this
17:41so i have the lens that you're talking about your friend it's quite similar but it's for like the packaged
17:47food because i'm looking for the nutrients in it fruits and veggies i'm pretty happy with them all the fruits
17:54and veggies do their own thing in nutrient space
17:57so i'm pretty happy with that i don't have anything to judge in there it's good if you have
18:02so i'm pretty happy with that
18:02so i'm pretty happy with that