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
00:00so they are dependent on the China or Vietnam, may be
00:05because I have seen that they import was a dual team from China
00:09so startap based on that, in Agriculture sector as well
00:16but they have farming equipment companies as well right
00:22like they also produce their own tractors
00:25aha
00:27sorry i don't know about that but
00:31imports are there but australia is a major exporter for a lot of these countries including vietnam and china
00:38so we do sell a lot of raw products to theкого countries which is one of the biggest markets
00:48and the thing with this industrialization or farming is that the person who is
00:53or the company who is going to do that they have to invest a lot of money in infrastructure it
00:59has
00:59to be quite massive because labor is quite expensive construction is quite expensive and
01:05you need to have some supply chain to basically move around stuff so it has to be some very big
01:12company that is able to do it to move things and have refrigeration like small small distances
01:19like people might say small distances here for three four hours but it's fair way away if you
01:25have to travel three four hours so in that regard because of distance and the labor cost value
01:31addition for fruits and vegetables is quite difficult here so a lot of times what happens
01:38is that india sells sorry australia sells a lot of their products to other countries which have
01:45well-established processing units for example most of the tomatoes that we have here go to Spain
01:53to be canned and they are imported back to Australia as canned tomatoes so that is the level of difficulty
02:07that I'm saying in processing in Australia is you would you would wonder that a tomato has gone to
02:15Spain and it has been only canned there and come back to Australia as opposed to Australia doing
02:22it over here that would be cheaper but it's not it's more expensive so I think with industrialization of
02:31agriculture we would need a lot of capital basically and how about this in India we have a mandi right
02:38to
02:38sell means they decide the price so is this the same kind of concept in Australia do they have a
02:44mandi kind of setup or farmers can decide their own price I'm not sure about it but we do have
02:54farmers markets here there is a wholesale place also from where small small markets are set up in
03:02different suburbs but I'm not sure how the prices are set in these markets but as for as I know
03:10for
03:10grocery stores and retailers I think the big companies all send they directly uh you know do contract
03:22whatever you produce means buy something like that according to their uh dimensions like as a
03:29specifications yeah uh and one more thing like in India uh I visited few uh agriculture expo so they are
03:38trying to rent or sell a drone plus uh automated uh not ai but gps enabled tractors and things like
03:46that but when I say them uh people don't have this much of big farms what is the purpose of
03:53two like
03:54three like of product you know but I guess in Australia they have a big farm so they can have
04:00a
04:00helicopters and helicopters and but I guess helicopters are outdated because of drone now people
04:06don't need uh helicopter trainings because they I have seen in Adelaide uh farmers uh get to training in
04:14helicopter for pesticides yeah but a drone solve this problem right yes yes yeah we do have a lot of
04:26um
04:27farming farming like agriculture people both animal and plants use um such kind of equipments um
04:38there are also companies that do service for like a you you don't have to purchase you don't necessarily
04:44have to purchase drone you can just do like a service contract and they will come and help you do
04:49it so those kind of things are there but I'm not sure how big the uh uptake is but I
04:56have
04:57also seen in agricultural expos that there are all these kind of drones and other kinds of weed
05:03killer automated machine physical removing of uh weeds that um companies talk about but yeah
05:14the bigger ones I would have to go and see you know actually I have seen a one uh service
05:20uh uh
05:22uh promotional video of one uh company in Australia that uh basically if uh there are some uh pigs or
05:29uh animals like that uh get into this lots of this kind of uh animals get into your farm so
05:36they just
05:37eliminate you know from helicopter they shoot them basically so this kind of service I have seen for
05:45first time because uh yeah it's very interesting you know the land is so big that's that's what it
05:56is the land is really big and even for one farmer and their family to be able to do everything
06:02by
06:02themselves it's really hard so they rely quite a lot on seasonal workers who are here on working
06:13holiday visa yeah they open it for Indian as well but I don't know they are start giving it or
06:19not
06:21but yeah yes I heard when uh Modi was here I heard that they started that but I don't know
06:27if anyone
06:27has used it I haven't come across any Indian on that visa yet and uh how about I guess in
06:34future
06:35uh AI enabled uh tracking system like this kind of predators coming to your farm they can directly
06:45kill them you know with laser or I don't know something like that because uh a lot of places
06:50are in Australia as well they started implementing AI enabled uh cctv cameras so if even if your phone is
06:58on your lap and you are using it you will get a fine yes this kind of thing also uh
07:06may be available
07:08can happen maybe in the in the agriculture sector this kind of thing yes at the moment um I have
07:16seen
07:17some kind of robotics happen in banana farms where um de-handling the banana is quite risky job a lot
07:27of
07:27people get injured doing that and it's quite heavy also so I came across this one technology
07:34recently it was like a robotic arm I don't know how much uptake would be there for that attack but
07:41that
07:41was one that I recently saw something new last year that they're doing something yeah and how is your
07:50local Australian they are adapting artificial intelligence means
07:53intelligence because it's a kind of power you know now you can build something by yourself maybe
08:00have you ever think to build something to solve something you know like building an application
08:08or software or anything like that have you have you any desire that I will solve this problem because
08:15in early days I need to hire 2050 software engineer but now maybe I can do it using artificial intelligence
08:23means have you ever thought about it or how do you use artificial intelligence
08:31so I used artificial intelligence quite a lot when I was doing the data analytics work
08:36that really helps it accelerates your work quite a lot but um what I have been recently getting interested in
08:47is basically I feel like there is a lot of research that has already happened there are a lot of
08:53technologies
08:53that are already existing it's just that it's not reaching to the people that it should be reaching to
08:59so my main um concern or idea or vision you can say is going to be working in organizations that
09:10actually do this kind of basically set up rules program is something set up a rules for using artificial intelligence
09:23going not not really like AI is okay I used it for the work that I had to do but
09:29I think there
09:30is a lot of groundwork that needs to happen so when I look into a lot of world food programs
09:36work in India
09:37also they do things like um grain ATMs they are doing other things to help supply chain logistics using sensors
09:47and
09:47cameras so that the food that is produced is not wasted so I feel like these kind of technologies are
09:54helpful but the fact is that they're already existing people haven't implemented them so we are
10:01still losing so much food one third of the agricultural produce that is produced by world
10:07goes into waste so I am coming from a food security perspective it might not sound very
10:12interesting technical savvy but the thing is that you have to think that is getting wasted also
10:21there are so many yes so basically yeah there are so many people who still can't afford a meal
10:29why not so food distribution channel and uh food security so more waste of food yeah
10:39yes it would be good like even in Australia there are as you spoke about Coles and Woolworths they
10:45have specific standards and they reject the most of the produce which doesn't fit in that standard
10:53it's a heavy amount of food that goes into dump so nowadays people have started like making businesses out
11:00of it there was this one business i think funky foods australia or something so basically all the
11:06misshaped fruits and vegetables um yeah i was just saying that so yes they are trying to rescue the food
11:14rescue vegetables but uh i guess uh they have a vegetable markets right they means people can a lot of
11:24people asian people or sometimes uh white people also buy from uh west means in the vegetable market or
11:32farmers market at a little bit of cheap credit because coles is little bit expensive
11:40coles is definitely much more expensive yes uh us and australia and maybe china they produce
11:47more food because of uh implement processes and you know they have a lot of land maybe they are
11:56producing more than india i don't know they have lots of because us also want to push their produce
12:07everywhere china's don't want to buy it so now they are they want other countries to stop their agriculture
12:14and they won't uh start buying from usa because they are producing so much because they they they
12:20have a yeah infrastructure like that yeah yeah i think it's also the research that helps them reduce
12:27that much they have reduced a lot of pests and disease which leads to wastage of a lot of plants
12:34on
12:35farms so in both these countries specifically in australia um the focus of research is pretty much on
12:44increasing the yield quite a lot so there is less food wastage at that stage and also the population
12:53australia is not that big so naturally we produce a lot more food than we actually need while for india
13:02there are a lot of products produced that india is number one producer of but we use a lot of
13:11it
13:12and uh means do australia export their food to china or you don't know about it have you ever
13:19heard a little bit of what kind of instead yes i guess coffee definitely they sell coffee because
13:27but yeah in china they don't drink coffee right they drink tea yes and also australia is not a big
13:33producer of coffee so no we don't have the capacity to be doing that we have only recently started growing
13:40coffee in australia also otherwise most of our coffee was coming from africa brazil or other
13:46countries that grow coffee but i think most of the uh export that we do to china and japan is
13:56mostly beef
13:58um australian beef is quite highly regarded so that has a premium market for australians there
14:07i'm not 100 sure of any fruit or vegetable in particular that goes to these markets but australian
14:14beef definitely goes to both chinese market and japanese market and how about seafood do they sell
14:22seafood or it's restricted i guess there are a lot of environmental constraint right
14:30um australia for seafood uh i don't know if there is in environmental restrictions so but like
14:40japan and china both are near to the ocean so they do a lot of seafood yes they do it
14:47a lot by themselves
14:48and their produce is also quite healthy and rich so don't need it okay but yeah china is as you
14:58said
14:59is a very big uh agricultural products producer and they are just going on and on with it they have
15:06one
15:07of some of the biggest aquaculture farms or other things that i have heard they're doing an amazing job
15:14so i think slowly and slowly they are trying to reduce their reliance on usa or australia they
15:20would be fully catered to by their own produce maybe indian farmers should stop thinking about israel
15:28now maybe they have to go and see how china is or go for you know an agriculture course is
15:35over there
15:36and study how they do it i don't know maybe it will be more helpful i think so i would
15:43highly
15:45recommend it actually they're doing quite well in tech do they produce a wheat have you heard i
15:51guess or they just produce a rice or no don't know i i don't know about i don't know i
15:59don't know about
16:00wheat but i know that they produce everything so if there is a market for something they will produce it
16:06do they produce a chiku and guava and mangoes i guess no idea
16:15i think for mango the largest producer is still india just because we have so many
16:21and thailand and thailand i guess i also have mangoes yeah but they do not have as many varieties as
16:30india india has the most varieties in the world