Agri-Startup: A career’s starting point

 

 

 

The growth of Indian agriculture is unique in the entire world. The strategic growth model was a combination of political, technical, financial, social and ecological factors in India. Volumes have been written on the success story of Indian agricultural transformation from begging bowl status till 1970s to a leading food exporting country in the present times. Prominent revolutions like Green, Blue, White, Yellow and Grey are often quoted. Agriculture in India is a well-defined primary sector and also a State subject. Contribution of agriculture to the Indian GDP declined from 59(1950) to about 16(2024) per cent, this is another fact. Yet it still engages about 45 per cent of Indian population directly and indirectly. Agriculture that was once considered as backbone of the Indian economy is overtaken by service sector (Tertiary sector) since the last decade.

 

Major focus in agriculture over the last seven decades was on improving crop production technology, resource use efficiency and crop management. It paid immense dividends in terms of food surplus, self-sufficiency and exports. Growth in agriculture and allied sectors also took its own course. Food wastage associated with improper post-harvest management, marketing and value addition are the other side of the coin. As mentioned earlier intensive focus in this core sector was on crop production related technology generation and technology transfer. Thus, comparatively less attention to promote agri-entrepreneurship and Agri-Business, had its own fallout. In an Industrial (Secondary Sector) ecosystem, activities like Production, Procurement, Marketing, Branding or Sales are handled separately by highly skilled team. Against this, an average Indian farmer gets immersed into a multi-role, from procurement of inputs, human (labour) resource management, production of crops, hiring of machines and services, grading, packaging, and sales to mention a few.

 

In the absence of effective training to farmers in the area of marketing or sales, they continue to face issues related to sale of their produce every year. Engaging farmers and rural youth in entrepreneurial skills and volume selling through collective approach, is one of the recent policy shifts. Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs), Self Help Groups (SHGs), One District One Product (ODOP) are few prominent policy tools in this direction. Adding to this league is Promotion of Agri-Startups as an advanced step to promote Agri-entrepreneurship and Agri-business among farmers. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), through a policy initiative in 2018 introduced RAFTAAR (Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation) under its Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Cell, in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi). In an effort to promote Agri-Startups, twenty-nine Agri-Business Incubators (ABIs) are established across the Country. These ABIs of RVKY are referred to as R-ABIs.

 

The R-ABI established in Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (JNKVV)Jabalpur is coinedas Jawahar RABI or J-RABI. Institute of Agri-Business Management (IABM)in JNKVV Jabalpur was established in 2017. J-RABI established in the year 2018 in IABM, is the only Agri-Business Incubator in Madhya Pradesh. Since its inception, J-RABI has established 63 Agri-Startup Companies. Of these 46 are from MP, while the rest are from its neighbouring States. J-RABI is acknowledged as the leading Rural centric Agri-Business Incubator. The three categories of GoI-funded Agri-Startup are Students Orientation Programme (SOP), Agriculture Orientation Programme (AOP) and Agriculture Incubation Programme (AIP). They carry a Grant in Aid of Rs. 4.00, Rs. 5.00 and Rs. 25.00 lakhs respectively. Every year Online applications are invited for these three categories of Agri-Startup programmes. The J-RABI Team visits almost all districts of the State to create Agri-Startup awareness among rural youth, farmers and farmwomen. During the awareness campaign the Team explains the concept of the Agri-Startups to the participants with simple examples .

 

They also help in filling the Online applications on the spot or even at a later stage. Any innovative and scalable idea related to agriculture from production, processing value addition, recreation to services can qualify for an Agr-Startup. The programme is not just limited to rural areas and farmers. Students from ITI, Technical, Engineering and Professional Institutions, Home Science Colleges, even housewives and retired personnel, if they have any innovative idea, product or services in Agriculture Sector, can also be an applicant. The experienced, entrepreneur friendly J RABI Team, its cozy infrastructure with a network of over 45 industrial and institutional experts can be the best place for anyone to kick start his Agri-Business adventure.

 

(The author is the Director, Institute of Agri-Business Management Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur, MP)