New Delhi, India (13 July 2013) – The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will be holding a two-day Agri-Tech Investors Meet at the NASC Complex, New Delhi on 18-19 July 2013.
The two-day meet is being organized with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) as industrial partner, and the Indian School of Business (ISB) Munjal Institute for Global Manufacturing as knowledge partner.
The Agri-Tech Investors Meet is a unique technology commercialization platform that will showcase ready-to-commercialize agri-technologies from different sectors of agriculture and promote business incubation services. To be featured are presentations of agro-technologies developed under the NAIP and pre-selected through business-to-business (B2B) meetings. The 22 Business Planning and Development (BPD) Units of NAIP will also be featured to promote its incubator services for agro-enterprises and for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The event will be attended by a wide range of participants, from industry officials, scientists, entrepreneurs and incubator professionals.
“By helping nurture innovations and entrepreneurship in agriculture through its Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) program, ICRISAT is fulfilling its mission to help eliminate poverty and improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the drylands. The Agri-Tech Investors Meet, in particular, will serve as a platform for promoting incubator services to start-ups, such as providing innovators an opportunity to explore and incubate their ideas to facilitate technology commercialization through public-private partnerships,” said ICRISAT Director General William D. Dar.
Highlighting the importance of the meet, ICAR Director General S Ayyappan said, “Indian agriculture is full of challenges and opportunities. To accelerate agricultural growth, the way forward is to create a robust entrepreneurship climate within the sector. The Agri-Tech Investors Meet seeks to promote entrepreneurship in agriculture and accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies and activities through an array of business support resources and services,” Dr Ayyappan added.
The conference will showcase more than 70 ready-to-commercialize agro-technologies from different agricultural sectors – crops, horticulture, food technology, veterinary, agri-engineering, agri-inputs, and fisheries. In addition, B2B meetings will be held with over 60 top-level scientists from ICAR.
In 2009, ICAR through the World Bank-funded NAIP set up ten BPD units – five in state agricultural universities (SAUs) and five in ICAR Central Institutes – to promote agribusiness in the country through technology commercialization and by nurturing agricultural innovations through business incubators. These incubators which are being mentored by the ABI program of ICRISAT, have led to the formation of Network of Indian Agri-Business Incubators (NIABI).
