Growth of food processing sector acquiring momentum across country: expert
Agriculture and allied sectors are emerging as potential fields of entrepreneurship as the disruptions caused by COVID-19 have hit employment opportunities hugely.
While loss of jobs and declining profits worry many, the pandemic has opened a vast field of opportunities in agribusiness, food processing and food delivery. Many youngsters are entering the field now, says Dr. K.P Sudheer, Head of the ABI KAU (Agri Business Incubator under the Kerala Agricultural University).
“Kerala has many successful agri startups now. They are getting support from the government. Recently, 16 startups supported by the ABI KAU bagged a Central fund of ₹1.95 crore for pre-seed stage and seed-stage,” he says.
When chips are on the way up
A Kerala entrepreneur looks to build a brand of its traditional banana, jackfruit chips
For 36-year old Manas Madhu, a branded banana and jackfruit chips maker, the agri business incubator at Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has helped with his transformation from an entrepreneur to an agripreneur.
His start-up, Dr Jackfruit India, promoter of the Beyond Snack brand, aims for a makeover of Kerala’s traditional and widely-eaten banana and jackfruit chips, and has received a seed stage funding of ₹20 lakh under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana-Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sectors Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) scheme of the Agriculture Ministry through KAU RABI (RAFTAAR Agri Business Incubation) Centre. Owing to the detailed research done on jackfruit for the start-up, Madhu added the citation Dr before the company s name at the time of registration.
For pre-seed stage and seed-stage activities
A total of 16 start-ups incubated under KAU-RABI, the agri business incubator of the Kerala Agricultural University, have bagged Central funding of ₹1.95 crore for pre-seed stage and seed-stage activities.
The first instalment of grant-in-aid was distributed by Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar recently.
Entrepreneurs
KAU-RABI, established with aid from the RKVY-RAFTAAR (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana – Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation) scheme under the Ministry of Agriculture, is creating a new wave of entrepreneurship by providing technical and financial support to emerging start-ups amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The agri business incubator under the KAU is one among the four incubation centres from the southern States aligned with National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Hyderabad, as its knowledge partner,” R. Chandra Babu, KAU Vice Chancellor said.