Giving new dimensions to agripreneurship development and to enhance agricultural growth through innovation and partnerships, a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) has been signed between the niversity of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur (UAS-R) and ICRISAT. This will lead to setting up an agribusiness incubator (ABI) at the UAS-R campus, in Karnataka, India.

As per the MoA signed, UAS-R and ICRISAT will jointly work towards:

• Establishment of co-business incubation platform to promote agribusiness and related activities;
• Technology transfer and exchange in their respective areas of competence to promote agribusiness;
• Training and support to staff and entrepreneurs to promote agribusiness; and
• Promotion of R&D and technical collaborations between ICRISAT and UAS-R, through increased involvement of scientific staff.
• ICRISAT will help identify and promote agribusiness start-ups, as well as facilitate agro-technology transfer in the North Karnataka region, which is expected to enhance the impact of outreach activities for the university.

Entrepreneurs will get technical and business development support in seed production, farm machinery and food processing domains. This will be through technical support to develop business models, capacity building and training for incubator personnel, facilitate strategies and systems for technology commercialization, and consulting services for promotion of agribusiness in the region.

“This partnership with ICRISAT opens a new chapter for the University in promoting technology and agri-based entrepreneurship in the region,” said Dr PM Salimath, Vice Chancellor, UAS-R.

“ICRISAT and its partners have been successful in facilitating the establishment of agribusiness incubators in India and Africa aimed at engaging youth, women and farmers to initiate small and micro-level agribusiness ventures. We hope to achieve similar results through this partnership with UAS-R,” said Dr Peter Carberry, Deputy Director General-Research, ICRISAT.

The handholding and mentoring support for UAS-R will be provided through the co-business incubation initiative of the Agri-Business Incubation Program, that is part of the ICRISAT Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP) that focuses on promoting agribusiness ventures and public-private partnership initiatives in the agricultural sector.

ICRISAT AIP provides prototype innovations, knowledge and expertise, training and co-location with researchers for close interaction; while the entrepreneurs fine-tune the prototypes and take them to market, as well as bearing the risks and reaping the rewards involved.

The MoA was signed on 4 May at the ICRISAT campus in Patancheru, India.