The National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has set up a venture capital fund with a corpus of Rs 200 crore to support agri entrepreneurship in Haryana, Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman, NABARD, said on Friday.
Bhanwala was speaking after he laid the foundation stone for the NABARD supported Agri Business Incubation Centre (ABIC) in Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU), Hisar in the presence of Haryana Chief Secretary, D S Dhesi.
The NABARD Chairman said that the ABIC at CCSHAU is one of the first two centres funded by NABARD anywhere in the country – the other being in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu. NABARD has sanctioned a grant assistance of Rs 11.75 crore towards the capital and recurring expenditure of this centre.
Bhanwala also delivered the keynote address on the occasion of Foundation Day of the University. He shared with the audience how NABARD as the apex Financial Institution for Agriculture and Rural Development with responsibilities for Finance, Development and Supervision of RFIs in last 35 years has made a difference in the lives of rural people through various programmes.
Speaking on the theme of ‘Nurturing Business, Incubation and Entrepreneurial Approach in Agriculture’, he opined that though India has made great strides in every sphere of the economy, agriculture still remains the main stay, but can perform better specially since farmers have remained one of the poorest of the poor in India.
It was imperative to focus on innovations and entrepreneurship development for increasing the productivity of land, encouraging crop diversification, finding out new and more remunerative marketing channels etc, he said. The youth, especially in rural areas, should strive for becoming employment generators instead of employment seekers.
He added that the youth is not keen to join agriculture therefore, there is need to glamourise agriculture to attract youth. More importantly, there is a need to develop agri-business entrepreneurs/ agripreneurs who can work with farmers or are involved directly in farming. They can add value to the supply chain, improve efficiencies, reduce wastage etc. through innovative interventions.
Entrepreneurship in any sector moves the economy forward and imparts dynamism and a new outlook to the sector. It is now time for eentrepreneurship to flourish in Agriculture through a conducive ecosystem.
The NABARD Chairman informed that though there are more than 100 incubation centres in India, there are only two incubation centres in Agricultural University. Realising the importance of Agri Business Incubation Centres in creating employment opportunities and also for supplementing the efforts of Government of India in its mission of doubling the income of farmers by 2020, NABARD has embarked on a programme for providing financial support for setting up selectively Agri Business Incubation Centres in Agri Universities (AUs).