Agribusiness camp in ICRISAT

An agribusiness development camp is scheduled to be held at the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) under its Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) program on Friday.

The camp will be held in partnership with Technopreneur Promotion Project (TePP) and Union Department of Science and Industrial Research. TePP focuses on lending financial support to individual innovators for converting novel ideas into working prototypes/models, an ICRISAT release said here on Wednesday.

ABI-ICRISAT, an outreach centre for the TePP funding program, holds these agribusiness camps to identify new ideas and innovations that have the potential to transform the lives of the people in the rural sector, especially those engaged with the agricultural sector. Through such camps, ABI-ICRISAT had so far identified 51 innovations and is currently supporting 26 clients under major schemes of the government of India.

Entrepreneurs and individuals, who have innovative ideas or technology that can benefit the farming community and rural society, can participate in the camp. Registration, which is free of cost, will begin at 9 am on Friday.

The ABI program, started in early 2000, focuses on nurturing and promoting agribusiness start-up ventures through technology commercialisation and supports innovations in agriculture sector.

ABI-ICRISAT has been in the forefront of promoting agribusiness ventures using technology transfer and incubation support that includes technical and scientific backstopping, aided with training and mentioning support and financial assistance from venture capitalists, banks and other government agencies.

ABI-ICRISAT is also the coordinating body for the Network of Indian Agri-Business Incubators (NIABI) which consists of ten agribusiness incubators spread across the country and covering agriculture and its allied sectors.