New Delhi: The government is encouraging start-ups in the field of agriculture to enhance the income of farmers and providing employment opportunities to youth, said Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar here on Friday (July 31).


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Tomar said the Agriculture Ministry is funding start-ups under the innovation and agripreneurship component of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, and in the first phase (2020-21), 112 startups in the area of agro-processing, food technology and value addition will be funded for a sum of Rs 1185.90 lakhs. This fund will be released in instalments to contribute in enhancing the income of farmers, he added. 


The Union Agriculture Minister stated that as emphasised by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, new technology in the field of agriculture and allied sectors through start-ups and agripreneurship should be promoted. Therefore, under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, the innovation and agripreneurship component has been promoted. 


Tomar also stressed on the need to make agriculture competitive, provide handholding to agriculture-based activities and adopt new technology at the earliest. Emphasizing on increasing private investment in the field of agriculture, the minister has drawn attention to the need for value addition and start-ups, according to an official statement.


In keeping with these initiatives of the Government of India to boost agriculture and allied activities and give an impetus to the rural economy, the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) which aims at strengthening infrastructure in agriculture and allied areas, has been revamped, the statement said.


Under the revamped scheme, a component Innovation and Agri-entrepreneurship Development programme has been launched in order to promote innovation and agripreneurship & startups by providing financial support and nurturing the incubation ecosystem. 


DAC&FW has selected 5 Knowledge Partners (KPs) as Centres of Excellence and 24 RKVY-RAFTAAR Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) from across the country after a nation-wide advertisement and a rigorous selection process.


These start-ups were trained for two months at 29 agribusiness incubation centres (KPs & RABIs) spread across India. These start-ups will lead to employment to youth. Besides, they, directly and indirectly, will contribute to enhancing the income of farmers by providing opportunities to them, the statement said. For more details on Agri-entrepreneurship, RKVY website: https://rkvy.nic.in may be visited.