660 stalls, one goal: modernising how India farms

India’s agricultural technology sector is on full display in Coimbatore this week, as the 24th edition of Agri Intex brings together 496 companies across 660 stalls at the CODISSIA Trade Fair Complex. The five-day expo, which opened Thursday and runs through July 13, spans 150,000 square feet dedicated to modern agriculture, horticulture, dairy farming, poultry and food processing technologies.

This year’s standout theme is automation. The expo features advanced drone sprayers, direct paddy-transplanting machines and automated harvesters designed to streamline farm labour from seeding to harvest. Among the exhibits, XMatic Innovation’s FarmX 500 has drawn particular interest for combining load-carrying, spraying and stubble removal into a single electric machine, which the company says can run for up to six hours on a full charge using a 4.8-kilowatt battery.

The expo draws exhibitors from across India, including Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, alongside international companies from Italy, Malaysia, Japan and the US. Specialised zones dedicated to nurseries, livestock and live machinery demonstrations round out the event.

Visitors say the expo offers value well beyond large commercial farms. Kanjana of Sulur, who manages a terrace garden, said she was able to buy rare seed varieties unavailable in regular shops, calling the event “a one-stop shop” for both large-scale farmers and home growers alike.