It will incubate innovative ideas in agriculture and food technology domain for creating Agri-preneures
Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ flagged off the Agri-Food Techathon at IIT Kharagpur (Kgp) and also laid the foundation for Agri-Business Incubation Centre, which will incubate innovative ideas in the agriculture and food technology domain for creating Agri-preneures.
Addressing the first Agri-Food Techathon organized by NABARD and IIT Kharagpur, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that the country’s agricultural sector, including our farmers, our villages, are the pillars of self-reliant India. If they remain strong then the foundation of self-reliant India will be strong and I believe that the role of agri-food startups will be very important in developing a self-reliant India.
This Techathon has been organized to promote the participation of the youth of India in innovation and entrepreneurship in various sectors of the agri-food sector. This agri-food techthon will identify new ideas for startup incubation in the region and help them become successful businesses. The main objective of this event is to find new solutions to agricultural problems through technical talks by encouraging academics and encouraging young farmers, besides spreading awareness is also an important objective of this program.
Talking about agri-food startups, the Union Minister said, Indian agriculture can be improved to a great extent with the help of advanced agri-technology. In this case, there is a huge scope for agri-food startups in India. In a decade, the indomitable spirit of launching educated youth, innovative ideas and advanced technical and business ideas has been given a new height to Indian agriculture.
Special emphasis will be given through action-oriented research to promote climate-resilient agriculture in vulnerable districts, agricultural value chains, promote farmers’ collectives, value addition, market-linkage, and risk management; also offering expert advisory services, policy advocacy including building up of human capital in rural areas.