Agriculture Ministry to fund startups with a sum of 11.85 Cr
31 July 2020, New Delhi: To promote development in agriculture, Agriculture Ministry has decided to fund startups with a fund of 11.85 Cr in the first phase for the year 2020-2021. This will contribute directly and indirectly to the enhancement of farmers’ income by providing opportunities to them and provide employment to the youth.
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112 Startups selected by different knowledge partners and agribusiness incubators in the area of Agro-processing, Food Technology and Value addition will be funded in the first phase for a sum of Rs. 11.85 Cr. This fund will be released in instalments.
Under the scheme Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY), a component of “Innovation and Agri-entrepreneurship Development Programme” has been launched. This will help to promote innovation and agripreneurship & startups by providing financial support and nurturing the incubation ecosystem.
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Promoting Agripreneurship
Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Mr. Narendra Singh Tomar stated that new technology in the field of agriculture and allied sectors through start-ups and agripreneurship should be promoted. Additionally, he stressed on the need to make agriculture competitive, provide handholding to agriculture-based activities and adopt new technology at the earliest.
DAC&FW has selected 5 Knowledge Partners (KPs) as Centres of Excellence and 24 RKVY-RAFTAAR Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) from across the country after a nation-wide advertisement and a rigorous selection process.
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These start-ups were trained for two months at 29 agribusiness incubation centres (KPs & RABIs) spread across India. 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.
Photo credit: aqua.mech on Visualhunt.com / CC BY
