Govt released Rs 122.50 cr to over 1,700 agri-startups in last 5 years: MoS Agri

The government has released Rs 122.50 crore to over 1,700 agri-startups in last five years under the Innovation and AgriEntrepreneurship Development programme, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

The programme, implemented in 2018-19 under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), aims to promote innovation and agri-entrepreneurship, by providing financial and technical support for nurturing startups.

Minister of State for Agriculture Bhagirath Choudhary, in his written reply to the Lok Sabha, said a financial assistance of Rs 122.50 crore has been released to 1,708 agri startups from 2019-20 to 2023-24.

The funds were released through five Knowledge Partners (KPs) and 24 RKVY Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) that provide training and incubate startups for implementation of this programme.

During 2023-24, about Rs 147.25 crore was released to 532 startups.

Under the programme, financial support of up to Rs 5 lakh is provided at the idea/pre-seed stage and up to Rs 25 lakh at the seed stage to entrepreneurs/ startups in agriculture and allied sector to launch their products, services, business platforms, etc and to facilitate in scaling up.