The transformation of India’s agricultural sector is key to the government’s vision of national development. Today, the farm sector employs over 50 per cent of Indians yet contributes just 18 per cent to the country’s GDP. In contrast, the service sector employs just over 12 per cent of Indians yet contributes over 50 per cent to the country’s GDP.
The government envisions making the agricultural sector far more efficient, ensuring food security while lowering the number employed in farming. The vision is aligned with increasing India’s manufacturing footprint, as those currently working in agriculture are expected to migrate to urban areas to work in higher-paying jobs in other sectors. Meanwhile, Indian farms will have to produce more with less, necessitating new technologies, methodologies, and a more significant number of certified project management professionals.
Project management’s role
Certified project management professionals already play a vital role in Indian agriculture. Today, they use their skills to employ a structured approach to planning, executing, and monitoring agricultural projects to improve efficiency, sustainability, and innovation. For instance, land, labour, and capital are the sector’s primary inputs. Project management professionals are optimising how these resources are used, thereby maximising productivity and reducing waste.
They’re also fostering digital integration that uses GPS, drone images, and AI to provide farmers with real-time data on crop health, soil conditions, and weather patterns. With this information, farmers make informed decisions, leading to higher efficiency, allowing them to produce more using fewer resources. In addition, project managers are streamlining agricultural processes from planting, harvesting, storage, and distribution to enhance the use of labour and resources.
Their expertise also plays a part in seed breeding, shortening a nearly decade-long process to two or three years, producing seeds that’re more resilient to climate change and pests and having a three times higher yield than existing variants. For instance, project managers play a part in speed-breeding seeds from genotype to market-ready varieties, a process that requires integrating genomic selection and marker-assisted workflows
Project managers are giving flight to AgriStrack – a transformative digital public good. AgriStack digitizes farm records, makes it easier to distribute subsidies, and integrates land records with farmer-linked Government IDs. This vital digital public good serves as a central dynamic platform farmers use to adopt more effective farming practices, improve crop health, estimate harvest size, learn where produce prices are most favourable and more. Notably, it is a platform the agritech industry and startups use to innovate new products and solutions.
Certified project management professionals are also unlocking the potential of agtech by making hydroponic farming commercially viable.
The green Rrevolution 2.0
Hydroponics represents a dramatic departure from traditional farming. UrbanKisaan with their technology helps farmers cultivate crops without soil, using 95 per cent less water than conventional methods. Crucially, hydroponic farms are in urban areas. Being close to end consumers, including restaurants, these farms significantly reduce their carbon footprint. They also support government initiatives aimed at food security.
Establishing a hydroponic farm requires meticulous planning and execution. Today, project managers certified by Project Management Institute® are helping transform empty urban spaces into productive growing areas, managing budgets, timelines, and resources. Their procurement expertise is ensuring essential equipment—from pumps and lights to sensors and nutrient delivery systems— arrives from reliable suppliers at competitive prices.
Modern hydroponic operations generate vast amounts of information through sensors monitoring everything from nutrient levels to light exposure. They are managed by conversational farm intelligence operating systems that unify sensor data, AI-driven alerts, and workflow automation to maximize productivity. Project managers certified by PMI® play a vital role in overseeing these systems.
Expanded role in decades ahead
In line with the government’s long-term vision of making the agricultural sector more efficient, project managers’ well-established role in agriculture will magnify and accelerate as rural-to-urban migration intensifies in the years ahead. Project managers will be vital to implementing more efficient and robust systems that increase productivity in farms across India.
Furthermore, with a growing emphasis on sustainability, lowering emissions, and harnessing renewable energy, project managers’ agricultural mandate will broaden to encompass new, exciting, cross-disciplinary, and cutting-edge technologies, making it a remarkable profession. These changes present a huge opportunity for those with project management expertise—or those wanting to earn experience—by ensuring individuals a place at the vanguard of a once-in-a-century transformation.
The author is CEO and Co-Founder of UrbanKisaan
Published on June 7, 2025