NARASIMHAN KASTHURI
CHENNAI, AUG 9
In an effort to boost agriculture sector and encourage startups in the field, Ministry of Agriculture, on August 6, announced that it is planning to invest nearly Rs 36.71 crore in 346 agritech startups and startup working in allied sectors like agro-processing, artificial intelligence, digital agriculture, farm mechanisation, waste to wealth, dairy, fisheries, among others.
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The investment will be a part of a ‘component, innovation and agri-entrepreneurship development programme’ under Rashytriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in this domain by providing financial support and nurturing the incubation ecosystem.
In addition to 112 startups already funded Rs 11.86 crore, 234 startups in the agriculture and allied sectors will be funded Rs 24.86 crore in instalments, official sources said.
The selected start-ups were trained for two months at 29 agribusiness incubation centres (KPs & RABIs) spread across India.
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These start-ups will lead to employment to youth. Besides, they, directly and indirectly, will contribute to enhancing the income of farmers by providing opportunities to them. This will help fulfil the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to double the income of farmers by 2022, the sources added.
For achieving this target, the DAC & FW has selected 5 Knowledge Partners (KPs) as Centres of Excellence.
- National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), Hyderabad,
- National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM) Jaipur,
- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) Pusa, New Delhi,
- University of Agriculture Science, Dharwad, Karnataka and
- Assam Agriculture University, Jorhat, Assam
24 RKVY-RAFTAAR Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) from across the country have also been appointed.
The following are the components of this scheme:
- Agripreneurship Orientation – 2 months duration with a monthly stipend of Rs 10,000 (US$ 141.86)/- per month. Mentorship is provided on financial, technical, IP issues etc.
- Seed Stage Funding of R-ABI Incubatees – Funding up to Rs 25 lakh (US$ 35,466.02) (85 per cent grant & 15 per cent contribution from the incubator).
- Idea/Pre-Seed Stage Funding of Agripreneurs – Funding up to Rs 5 lakh (US$ 7,093.20) (90 per cent grant and 10 per cent contribution from the incubatee).
- The institutes issue calls for application for their programmes and based on a rigorous process of selection through various stages and training of two months, the final list of start-ups that are to be funded through grants-in-aid are finalised. Training on technical, finance, intellectual property, statutory compliance issues etc. is provided. Mentoring of start-ups through monitoring of milestones and timelines is part of the programme.
- Some start-ups that are being incubated offer the following solutions –
- Activx Animal Health Technologies branded as Vetzz, is a network of Veterinary Doctors which provides immediate connect with customers i.e. animal owners via real-time teleconsultation and doorstep visits.
- SNL Innovations – InnoFarms provides fruit and vegetable pulp processed directly at the farm using an in-house developed Monoblock fruit processing platform (on-wheels) to convert fruits to a pulp with a shelf life of up to 1 year with complete traceability from farm to customer.
- EF Polymer developed an Eco-Friendly Water Retention Polymer with an aim to solve the water scarcity crisis for farmers. This start-up made a super absorbent polymer designed to absorb water in the soil, retain it for a long time, and supply to the crops as required.
- Among the start-ups that have been selected are several start-ups led by women such as A2P Energy Solution that uses AI to track waste biomass and then works with farmers to collect it. On one side it generates additional income for farmers and on the other side, A2P converts the collected biomass into Next Gen biofuels like energy pellets, green coal, and bio-oil.
- Kyari Innovations is working on mitigating human-wildlife conflict pan India and internationally. They have created an innovative product called ANIDERS- Animal Intrusion Detection and Repellent System. This device works like a mechanized scarecrow that can protect farmlands from animal intrusions.
- Agsmartic Technologies has the vision to improve crop yield by precise irrigation and disease management through a data-driven approach by using AI, IoT and computer vision. Their product Croplytics is a combination of hardware and software solution that integrates ground sensor data and satellite imagery to translate data into actionable information for creating a precise model for irrigation.
Apart from the above mentioned 6 start-ups, there are many more with innovative solutions to improve the farming eco system and augment farm household incomes.
For more details on Agri-entrepreneurship, RKVY website: https://rkvy.nic.in.
(Narasimhan Kasthuri, Freelance Journalist, is a former Senior Correspondent of THE HINDU, Chennai)
