Hyderabad, 17 January 2014: The one-day Agribusiness Fair organized by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) proved to be a major success, with more than 300 agribusiness innovators and entrepreneurs attending the event.
Held today at the ICRISAT headquarters in Patancheru near Hyderabad, the activity gave participating agribusiness ventures the chance to explore numerous opportunities within the sector and avail of the services of ICRISAT’s Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) program in technology upscaling and commercialization.
“ICRISAT nurtures a research for development paradigm, now guided by a strategic framework called Inclusive Market-Oriented Development (IMOD). We have been reinventing ourselves for the past 41 years to efficiently and effectively serve the interests of smallholder farmers in 55 semi-arid countries across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa,” said Dr William Dar, ICRISAT Director General, in his address during the inaugural program.
“Our mission is to make smallholder farmers in the drylands prosperous, not just self-sufficient. And that is why we are engaged in promoting an inclusive and technology-based entrepreneurship and agribusiness program,” Dr Dar added.
In his welcome address, Dr Kiran Sharma, CEO, Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP) – ICRISAT, stressed that events such as these contribute to the sustainable transformation of the agricultural sector. “Entrepreneurship at the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) level is one of the most efficient ways of taking products of research for development to the farmers,” he added.
Seeking further active participation from potential entrepreneurs present at the gathering, Dr Sharma assured them of effective business incubation support to help take their agribusiness ideas and ventures forward.
Dr AS Rao, Former Advisor, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Govt. of India, in his special address to the participants, emphasized on the growing prospects in the agribusiness sector for innovators and entrepreneurs and shared his business insights with the participants.
“The event proved to be a highly valuable initiative to guide and mentor individuals interested in agribusiness. I can now link my big ideas with the available support systems to nurture my interests. The Fair helped me interact with several entrepreneurs in the sector and has given me insights on various funding schemes, incubation support, and market information,” said Dr Janaki Srinath, a participant at the Agribusiness Fair.
ICRISAT’s ABI, which is one of the programs under the AIP, has emerged as a champion in nurturing and incubating agricultural technologies and innovation over the past 10 years, and is a model for facilitating the creation of competitive agribusiness enterprises through technology development and commercialization. ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium.
