The Government of India is committed to promote Agri-startups by providing financial and technical support to agri-startups in agriculture and allied sectors. Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare (DA&FW) is implementing “Innovation and Agri- Entrepreneurship Development” programme under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) from 2018-19 with an objective to promote innovation and agri-entrepreneurship by providing financial and technical support for nurturing startups ecosystem in the country.
So far, 5 Knowledge Partners (KPs) and 24 RKVY Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) have been appointed for training & incubation of agri-startups and implementation of this programme. The list of these 5 KPs and 24 R-ABIs is at Annexure. Under the programme, the funds are released to KPs and R-ABIs functioning in different States. These KPs and R-ABIs have established incubation centres to provide trainings, mentorship and financial support to startups under the programme.
So far, 1554 agri-startups including 387 women led startups working in various field of agriculture & allied sector have been supported with technical and financial assistance of Rs. 111.57 crores released in instalments through various KPs and R-ABIs from 2019-20 to 2023-24 under this programme.
Under the programme, the financial support up to Rs. 5.00 lakh is provided at the idea/pre seed stage and up to Rs. 25 lakh at the seed stage to entrepreneurs/ startups in the field of agriculture & allied sector to launch their products, services, business platforms, etc into the market and facilitate them to scale up their products and operations. Start-ups are trained and incubated by these Knowledge Partners (KPs) and RKVY Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) appointed under the programme. Besides, Government of India organize various national level programmes including agri-startup conclave, agri-fair and exhibitions, webinars, workshops to provide a platform for the promotion of agri-startups by linking them with various stakeholders.
This Department is implementing “Agriculture Infrastructure Fund” scheme from 2020-21 onwards with an objective to provide medium-long term debt finance facility for investment in viable projects for post harvest management and community farming assets through interest subvention and credit guarantee support to the eligible beneficiaries including farmers, agri entrepreneurs, start-ups etc. There is no specific provision for landless tenant farmers to setup start-ups under this scheme. However, 1284 startups have been supported with medium-long term debt financial support of Rs. 1248 crore including startup initiated by farmers under this scheme.
