New Delhi: ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) said it targets to support scaling up of operations of a dozen agri-startups, having promising business model this year.
 
The training will be conducted under a six month programme 'Agri Udaan' at its Hyderabad headquarter with the help of Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad’s (IIM-A) Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).
 
A formal announcement in this regard will be made tomorrow. In the first batch of training conducted in 2015, eight were trained. Of which, three startups scaled up operations.
 
"Agri-entrepreneurs are less in the country. So, we are trying to provide basic support those who have good business idea under the Agri Udaan programme," ICAR-NAARM Director Srinivasa Rao told reporters here.
 
The applications have been invited to shortlist agri- entrepreneurs. About 40 startups will be shortlisted and out which 8-12 will be selected for final capacity building workshop, he added.
 
The shortlisted candidates will get six month training on different aspects of technology commercialisation, product validation, business plant preparation, risk analysis, customer engagement, finance management, fund raising and others.
 
The programme will culminate with demo day or investors meet at Hyderabad and Mumbai.
 
To reach out to agri-entrepreneurs, ICAR-NAARM has decided to organise road shows in Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad.