Plant based foods are an excellent opportunity for doubling of farmers income: PBFIA
A dedicated session on the 7th day of India Startup 360 AVCC Expo 2022 brought key stakeholders to address steps to empower farmers with plant-based foods opportunity. The virtual meeting was moderated by Dr Parthasarathy Iyengar, CEO, India Startup 360 for a powerful panel of Plant Based Foods Industry Association (PBFIA).
Sanjay Sethi, Executive Director, PBFIA, left the conversation with an appeal to one and all to support the plant-based foods movement, pointing towards the only plant-based venture capital from present in the meeting- Ahimsa venture capital, he said, this sector needs more VC firms to come forward and support the hundreds of promising startups in plant-based foods sectors.
Sethi expressed that farmer co-operatives can be a paramount step for the plant-based foods industry. private sector must come forward the cooperatives, there is a rapidly growing global market for protein isolates, India is well positioned to tap that market. In addition to already popular soy protein and pea protein; there is a need to scale up protein isolates from other commodities viz: wheat, rice, pulses and millets. India has a rich plant biodiversity to tap all these commodities. This can bring an opportunity to enable an ecosystem of income generation, train farmers and take initiatives for their skill development.
The key speakers were Pratichee Kapoor, Director – Big Bets: Middle East, Indian Subcontinent & Africa, Indian Subcontinent & Africa, Kerry Ingredients, Pranav Rajkumar, Investment lead – Ahimsa Venture Capital, Joice Mathew, CEO – Jackfruit World, Dr. Divya Kummari, from Australia, Former Research Scholar, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Aditi Sharma, Volunteer – PBFIA.