C. Anandharamakrishnan, Director of CSIR-NIIST (National Institute For Interdisciplinary Science and Technology), has underscored the critical role of agri start-ups in achieving agricultural sustainability.
He was speaking after during the inauguration of the one-month ‘Agripreneurship Development Programme – Cohort VI’ at Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) on Wednesday.
In his keynote address, Dr. Anandharamakrishnan highlighted the necessity of innovation and entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector, stressing the importance of business incubators in fostering a culture of innovation and supporting start-ups.
From a pool of around 300 applicants, 37 were selected based on the merit and potential of their innovative agri-based business ideas. These participants, representing diverse agribusiness sectors such as food technology, value addition of fruits and vegetables, machinery, drones, precision farming, and IoT, come from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Odisha.
The selection process and the programme’s objectives were detailed by Jacob John, Director of Extension at KAU, in his presidential address. The month-long training will cover critical aspects of agripreneurship, including product development, operational, marketing, and legal aspects, financial and human resource management, and the crafting of business ideas. Felicitations were offered by Sureshkumar P.K., Professor and General Council Member at KAU.
The KAU-RAFTAAR programme, with a notable history of nurturing agripreneurs, has trained 208 start-ups and disbursed ₹10.97 crore as pre-seed and seed funds. K.P. Sudheer, Professor and Principal Investigator of the KAU-RAFTAAR Agri-Business Incubator, highlighted the incubator’s achievements, including the completion of 200 entrepreneurship development trainings, benefiting over 5,000 potential farmers and entrepreneurs.
The event concluded with a vote of thanks by Abhishek S., Business Manager of the RAFTAAR-Agri Business Incubator at KAU, marking another significant step towards fostering innovation and sustainability in the agricultural sector and reinforcing the importance of nurturing the next generation of agripreneurs.
