RKVY- RAFTAAR Agribusiness Incubator
The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) is a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India aimed at strengthening infrastructure in agriculture and allied sectors while accelerating innovation, entrepreneurship, and value creation across the agri ecosystem. To further promote innovation, agripreneurship, and agribusiness development through incubation, mentorship, and funding assistance, the Innovation and Agripreneurship Programme was launched under RKVY.
The Innovation and Agripreneurship Programme of RKVY supports agribusiness incubation by identifying innovative technologies, scalable business ideas, and entrepreneurial talent for venture creation in agriculture and allied sectors. Under this initiative, the incubation infrastructure, technical expertise, and mentorship capabilities available with leading academic institutions, technical universities, management institutes, and R&D organizations across the country are leveraged—both individually and collaboratively—to create a strong, innovation-driven agricultural startup ecosystem.
As agribusiness incubation continues to evolve in India, the programme focuses on strengthening existing institutional incubators and establishing new incubation centres on a need basis through strategic institutional support and funding assistance, enabling innovators to transform ideas into commercially viable enterprises.
AIC Anand Foundation, promoted by Anand Agricultural University, serves as the State level RKVY Agribusiness Incubation Centre for Gujarat under the Innovation and Agripreneurship Programme, with a mission to identify, nurture, mentor, and support high-potential startups in agriculture and allied sectors, empowering them to build scalable and impactful ventures.
University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad Centre of Excellence (UASD CoE) Agri-Business Incubator (UASD-RABI) is a Knowledge Partner in RKVY RAFTAAR project among five Knowledge Partners throughout India. RKVY RAFTAAR Agri-Business Incubators (R-ABIs) who get the handholding support from UAS, Dharwad are:
1. Anand Agricultural University (AAU), Anand, Gujrat.
2. Dr. Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra.
3. National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics (NIVEDI), Bengaluru, Karnataka.
4. ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Knowledge Partner
Idea/ Pre-Seed Stage Startups
*Funding up to Rs. 5 lakhs
Seed Stage Startups
* Funding up to Rs. 25 lakhs
The key components of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Cell under RKVY- RAFTAAR
a. Strengthening of existing agribusiness incubators for integrated rejuvenation and development and setting up new ones – R-ABI (RKVY-RAFTAAR Agribusiness Incubators).
b. Seed Stage Funding of R-ABI Incubatees
c. Agripreneurship Orientation
d. Idea/Pre-Seed Stage Funding of Agripreneurs
Objectives of RKVY-RAFTAAR Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABI)
a. To achieve ''Lab to land'' by dissemination of new technology /varieties to farmers through promoting a culture of Agri startups
b. To promote innovation, entrepreneurship and business creation in agriculture and allied sector by skill development, capacity building and technology scale up;
c. To create employment opportunities for youth in agriculture in the rural vicinity;
d. To promote an integrated approach for technology acquisition, R&D, commercial technology transfer and knowledge dissemination;
e. To facilitate evolution of an agri-startup ecosystem by support for cost effective, value added services including technical, legal, financial, intellectual property and regulatory compliance related services to agripreneurs;
f. To build a vibrant agri-startup ecosystem, by establishing a network between academia, financial institutions, industries and other related institutions;
g. Capacity building of existing agri-incubators as R-ABIs to achieve other related objectives;
h. To generate/ provide innovative solution to meet local and global agriculture and business challenges, and competitiveness.
Student/ Agripreneurs
Orientation
Prasoon
Pallav
a. To ensure timely seed support to deserving incubatees within R-ABIs.
b. To enable translation of minimum viable product (MVP) to marketable stage and scale up the product and business.
c. To provide a platform for faster experimentation and modification in their approaches or minimum viable product (MVP) based on innovative solutions/ processes / products/ services/ business models etc. for scaling up.
a.To develop an innovative idea based on technology, service, business platforms etc. into prototype/ product, services/ platforms etc. and launching of a business based on that.
b. To provide an opportunity to budding agripreneurs/students for venturing into the agribusiness arena as well as for minimizing risks involved in businesses based on innovation;
c. To attract and retain a large number of enthusiastic and skilled youth in agriculture;
d. To create a pipeline of innovative startups for incubators.
a. To ensure timely seed support to deserving incubatees within R-ABIs.
b. To enable translation of minimum viable product (MVP) to marketable stage and scale up the product and business.
c. To provide a platform for faster experimentation and modification in their approaches or minimum viable product (MVP) based on innovative solutions/ processes / products/ services/ business models etc. for scaling up.