Agri business incubation centres promoted by Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) to support small and medium startups are yielding results.
The first such centre, started in 2004 at its campus here, has so far supported close to 90 startups, which are now in business having size of as low as Rs 1 lakh to as big as $10-12 million (Rs 53-64 crore), according to Kiran K Sharma, director Transitional Platform for Transgenic Crops and CEO of Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP) at Icrisat.
The AIP had launched similar incubation centres in 10 more locations — five in association with universities and five along with the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) — across the country in the last couple of years. “All these centres are working properly based on a self-sustaining business model. This itself is a success,” he told Business Standard.
While the business activities of these startups vary, they are all related to the agriculture sector. For instance, an incubation centre helped two start ups get in to seed production and they have now launched Bt cotton seed in the market after acquiring the technology from Monsanto. A startup that was given the knowhow and initial support by another centre in making ethanol from grains is now operating a big plant.
Some of these startups are into making small modified farm implements such as cotton picking machines. One particular startup has come up with the idea of bioalternative in the form of neem extract to the cutting oil used by foundry and manufacturing industry. The research team at the incubation centre is now working on fine tuning the properties of neem extract so that it perfectly fits the bill, according to Sharma.
Venture capitalists and other investors are also showing keen interest in these startups, he said. While these centres also take care of monetary requirements to the extent of making the startups ready to enter the real world, the AIP has been facilitating the requisite funding through banks and other agencies to establish businesses by them, according to him.
Now all the incubation centres are linked with each other to exchange the experience and technical knowledge they acquired through supporting the startups.
Icrisat to develop seed farmers across India
In yet another initiative, Icrisat has begun training farmers as seed growers who can meet the needs of other farmers in their villages. So far, the institute has trained 70 farmers across AP, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and is planning to replicate the programme across India.
“Normally farmers use a portion of their produce as seed for future cultivation as seed companies are also not very active as far as open pollination crops are concerned. In this scenario, small interventions will make a big difference in terms of productivity if the same practice is backed by proper techniques. For instance, groundnut procured from the market usually offers 75 per cent germination. This can be raised to 90-95 per cent thus adding to the overall yield of the crop,” he said.
