INTRODUCTION:

Business planning and Development unit has been established under the aegis of Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur Madhya Pradesh to accelerate the commercialization of agro technologies. Entrepreneurs, who are interested to make business venture based on available technologies from the JNKVV University or any other technologies in agriculture and allied sector are being provided with incubation service from the Business Planning and Development unit at JNKVV, Jabalpur, M.P. The business planning and development unit at JNKVV, Jabalpur is working for public awareness about exciting opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs for the successful collaboration.

Since the inception (i.e. 15 December 2009), it is playing a vital role in the development of entrepreneurship and flags transferable technology through incubator, protection through IPR, licensing, commercialization, market linkages, quality assurance system and human resource development. It is the principal agency with special responsibility for entrepreneurship development. It has been focusing attention on developing programmes for entrepreneurship development and innovative training techniques for trainees. It conducts research, specific trainings on Seed, Bio-fertilizer and Herbal-Medicinal products, DPR preparation, 25 nos. of Need specific one day workshops., field day, Agri. Business camp, Sensitization session, Startup and Banker Meet, generation and dissemination of new knowledge, Thematic seminars, Innovative trainings, performance improvement programmes for existing entrepreneurs, competent management programmes for unemployed non-technical graduates and institution building activities for encouraging the participation through PPP. It has continued to offer its services to Pan India.

It has a “Glo-cal¹ spectrum” of networking through 9 MoUs, 23 consortium, 20-corporate members and 28-individual entrepreneur and Empanelled with MANAGE, Hyderabad for AC and ABC Scheme (Agriclinic and Agribusiness Centres Scheme) and MSMEs. In the present paper the role played by the BPD-JNKVV unit in promotion of agribusiness is narrated with following specific objectives.

OBJECTIVES:

Our objective is to sketch the performance and impact of BPD Unit as institutional initiative for creating an ecosystem of agri-innovators for agricultural development. Specifically for incubation services provided, commercialization of technologies and capacity building programs organized.

METHODOLOGY:

The Business Planning and Development Unit of Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh is providing incubation services and capacity building programs on various agri-managerial aspects, along with showcasing of technologies for commercialization. The author of this paper is involved in the activities of Unit. Here the data/ information used are blend of primary and secondary in nature and collected from 2014 to 2019. We interpret the information for the fulfillment of objective mentioned above in descriptive manner.

Broader picture of BPD Unit:

JNKVV(Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya) has developed various technologies in agriculture and allied field from well-knit action oriented research system. This is the time to harness value from these technologies through a sustainable model which in turn will help the stakeholders in promoting agribusiness. In this context, Business Planning and Development (BPD) Unit was established at JNKVV under the aegis of NAIP to accelerate the commercialization of the agro technologies. The vision of this program is to promote agribusiness entrepreneurship for technology commercialization. The entrepreneurship will be provided with incubation services from the BPD Unit at JNKVV, who would be interested to make business ventures based on the available technologies. BPD Unit at JNKVV will be working for public awareness and bring exciting opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs for successful collaborations. Also, JNKVV would be lending its networking to different industry participants and entrepreneurs for successful participation in the agri-value chain. JNKVV also provides services w.r.t. consultancy, DPR preparation, product testing, contract research, product formulations, etc.

Overall Objectives:

· Promotion of market responsive products and technologies through effective entrepreneurship development.

· Promotion of public private partnership for commercialization of technologies.

· Human Resource Development for entrepreneurship promotion.

Technical Profile

· Three sectors are selected to be focus areas under this sub project. These are:

Ø Seeds

Ø Biofertilizers and Bio-control Agents

Ø Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

· Entrepreneurs had been enrolled as members of the BPD unit and business incubation services were provided to them to establish and enhance their business. Incubation Services were provided on a cost basis to the entrepreneurs.

· BPD-JNKVV promoted through various marketing channels like Agricultural exhibitions, Trade shows, Technical symposia, Technology transfer conferences, Trade association meetings, Professional association contacts, farmers fair, news-paper advertisement and web marketing.

· The existing JNKVV network of Zonal Agricultural Research Centers, Regional Agricultural Research Centers and technology transfer channels and other BPD units were utilized to promote BPD-JNKVV and its services vigorously.

· Arranged interactive business opportunity workshops with various entrepreneur, development cells, Agro-Industrial associations, Agro-Industrial development/Agril. Financial corporations, other SAUs and so on. BPD-JNKVV has also created suitable linkages with various technology promotion agencies within the State and in India.

· Licensing of the available technologies was provided to interested companies for transfer of technologies to the market. Early maturity hybrid rice is one such technology where private companies have taken interest and they have aggressively pursued to take licensing of the hybrids. Appropriate licensing fee was charged to them along with signing of MoUs.

· Human resource development in the field of identified technologies and product processing through various training programmes was organized. Agri-Service Provider training programmes, sensitization programme for agriculture graduates, agri-clinic and agri-business training programmes have been planned for better transfer of knowledge and skills to the interested partners and entrepreneurs.

Madhya Pradesh: A preferred investment destination and background of agriculture

· 31% of the State under forest covers with a largely unexploited species of rare, valuable medicinal- herbal plant.

· The total agriculture production in Madhya Pradesh was 142.45 lakh metric tonnes in 2002-03, which has been increased to 254.86 lakh metric tonnes in 2010-13. Thus, about 80 per cent increase in crop production has been achieved. Production and productivity of wheat, paddy, soybean, gram, mustard etc. has specially increased in the state.

· Over 100 agricultural farms with an area of over 20,000 acres is available on lease to investor

· Favourable climatic conditions for cotton and over 40,000 power-looms are driving the textile industry

· Largest producer of pulses and oilseeds in the Country (~75% of soyabean production)

· Several advanced Institutes have been established in the M.P. State for research purposes. National Research Center for Soyabean is situated in Indore, Central Agriculture Engineering Institute is situated in Bhopal, and the only Agriculture University JNKVV is at Jabalpur.

· Main crops of the state are Soyabean, Pulses, Paddy and Wheat. About 88% of the total national production of soyabean is produced in M. P.

· MP is the second largest state in the Country with an estimated population of about 60 million. Agriculture is predominant sector in the state with 75% of rural population largely dependent on it. This results in wide availability of manpower at a reasonable cost.

· The agriculture sector forms almost one-third of the GSDP and forms the backbone of the MPs economy

· The State has 5 crop zones, 11 agro climatic regions and 4 soil types, which add to the biodiversity in the State and acts favourable for the production of various crop types.

· Madhya Pradesh is the largest producer of pulses and oilseeds in the country. The State also shares a major share of the National agriculture production. About 25% of pulses and 40% of grams are grown in the state.

· The State is the largest producer of soya bean and gram and the second largest producer of Jowar and Masoor in the Country and is third for the production of Arhar

· The agricultural land in the district Narsinghpur is considered to be the most fertile land all over Asia. The district is famous for its rich agricultural production.

· Madhya Pradesh leads in spices production with the largest production of garlic, accounting for 37% of the total national production

· The state is the second largest producer of Coriander in the country.

· Malwa potato grown in the western part of the State (malwa region) has a quality that has been proven useful for the potato chips processing.

· MP’s share in the total national production of Pea is 15 %.

· Out of the total gross cropped area 59% is sown in the Kharif season and 41% in the Rabi season.

The potential areas of assessment of entrepreneurial need are as given below:

1. Seeds Business Incubation:

2. Biofertilizers Ventures

3. Herbals/Medicinal plants Ventures

Seed Business Incubation:

It is a programme of BPD-JNKVV aimed at promoting rural seed business ventures so as to bridge the gap between the demand and supply in the seed industry through public private partnership.

Support Services:

· Project Reports: Detailed Project Report for the seed business could be prepared.

· Capacity Building: Training would be given to the company officials to upgrade relevant skill sets required for running the business

· Breeder Seed Supply: Breeder seeds of various crops would be supplied to the companies considering the availability

· Quality Control: BPD unit can facilitate quality control of seed production in field as well as seed testing for specific parameters

· Processing: Besides imparting training on seed processing companies can process their seeds through processing facilities of JNKVV.

Biofertilizers Ventures:

JNKVV is having strong research base and developed technologies in biofertilizers. Entrepreneurs can avail these technologies and produce high quality biofertilizers to fulfill the increasing demand from farmers.

Support Services:

· Access to information on Bio-fertilizers

· Training program at JNKVV on biofertilizers production technologies

· Field visits by scientists

· Access to programs and exhibitions conducted by BPD Business plan preparation

Herbal/ Medicinal and aromatic plant ventures:

Ever increasing demand in Ayurvedic medicinal and Nutraceuticals, business ventures based on medicinal and aromatic plants have excellence opportunities. Entrepreneur can avail services provided by JNKVV in establishing and growing their business

Support Services:

· Access to information on medicinal and aromatic plants

· Training program on package of practices and processing technologies

· Access to planting materials

· Field visits by scientists

· Access to programs and exhibition conducted by BPD

· Business plan preparation networking with agencies and government

Latest activities for benefiting the society:

Since the inception it has been organizing more than 60 Capacity building programmes on various burning issues of farmers’ community along with tailored programme for scientific community for up gradation of technological knowledge. For Technology Transfer (ToT), Unit is working on enhance the TRP level of available technology by which actual utility of technology can be measures and modified theses accordingly if any. Unit in recent time, aggressively work with two projects both are funded by the RKVY (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana). Under this, first one on Building Programme on Incubation Opportunities for Agribusiness in FPO’s this is specifically for FPOs² and another one are on promoting startup culture in agriculture sector under the flagship of Jawahar RABI.

1. Capacity Building Programme on Incubation Opportunities for Agribusiness in FPO’s:

The major problem face by FPOs is long term sustainability after government support and subsidy in initial stage and therefore to make FPOs self-sustainable the training programme of business opportunities for FPOs in Agriculture sector were undertaken to fill the gap exit to make them self-sustainable. In the context of 2014 being observed as “Year of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, greater attention was given to these emerging farmers organization. The Govt. of India in the Union budget 2018-19, announced to promote FPOs for a prosperous and sustainable agriculture sector that enable farmers to enhance productivity through efficient, cost- effective and sustainable resource use and realize higher returns of the produce. With a view to encouraging enabling environment for aggregation of farmers into FPOs and take advantage of economies of scale, the GOI announced 100% tax exemption for FPOs with annual turnover of up to Rs. 100 crores. Business Planning and Development Unit, JNKVV, Jabalpur, M.P. offers a Capacity Building Programme on Incubation Opportunities for Agribusiness in FPO’s. This capacity building program is funded by RKVY (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana). In ten phases around 300 members of Farmer’s Producer’s Organizations has been trained by the JNKVV on different aspects of the agribusiness. The motive of this training is to apprise about recent technology, to provide quality seeds with best variety, and to give right direction to FPOs by connecting farmer’s with the Prime Minister’s 2022 programme to double farmer’s income. FPOs can connect farmers for input supply, financial and technical advisory, marketing linkage, contract farming, organic farming, integrated farming systems etc. JNKVV Scientists, resource persons from different field with specialization in FPOs share their experiences to motivate FPO members for agribusiness and build their confidence in agri-business and the Key insights of this programme are as given below:

The BPD-JNKVV support to facilitate the training, networks, and mentoring systems throughout their training through following

· 148 trained CEOs (Chief Executive Officer/Chief Operation Officer)/BoDs(Board of Director) along with members are readily available as human resource for agri-business promotion.

· Develop institutional linkage like BPD-JNKVV, BISA and ASA, Solidariad etc.

· Offer a structure of comprehensive, holistic, whole-farm educational opportunities for farmers to plug into at multiple phases on their farming business.

· Provide resources for equitable and affordable access to farm inputs.

· Participate in ongoing mentorship and networking opportunities.

· Provide increased regional leadership and support of farmers that result from the collective impact and synergy of the farm pathways collaborative.

· Working knowledge of farm production, management, and business operations are provided.

· Establishment of connections to a local, regional, and national network of people who are active in the sustainable agriculture movement as well as exposure to a wide variety of technology and organizations viz. FPO, APO, Cooperatives, NGOs and Govt. bodies etc.

Findings:

We have successfully completed 09 training programme under which we trained 284 trainees from different farmer producer organization of Madhya Pradesh state. These trainees were holding on various positions of FPOs like CEO, BoD, Member and FIG Representative. This programme attended by approx. 40 percent women participants from different districts of M.P. The basic objective of this short training was to aware about the concept of FPOs and its functioning and It impacted as Agribusiness FPO members were able to leverage collective strength and bargaining power to access financial and non-financial inputs and services and appropriate technologies, reduce transaction costs, tap high value markets and enter into partnerships with private entities on more equitable terms. Farmers were collectivized, sharing their farming experiences with each other. Production cost lowered due to low cost inputs available in FPO.

2. Jawahar RABI:³

Agri- business incubator is a unit that helps budding and startup Agro-based entrepreneurs to develop by providing services such as management training, office space, mentoring etc. JAWAHAR-R-ABI as business incubators Center for Agri-Startups has been conceptualized and established under Institute of Agri-business Management, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India with aims to promote innovation-led entrepreneurship and business creation in agriculture and allied sector by skill development; capacity building and technology scale-up.

This program is financially supported by Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana – Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR), under Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship cell, an initiative of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. Under this 22 startups from various field of Agriculture and allied are selected for incubation at JNKVV, Jabalpur. Under this incubator during 2019-20, twenty four Startups have been registered, out of these 16 were registered under PRERNA (idea stage) and 08 were registered under SAAKAR (Prototype Stage), these are incubated for two months and after completion of orientation/incubation the idea stage Startups will be facilitated with stipend of Rs. 10,000 per month. The PRERNA and SAAKAR Stage Startups will be recommended for grant in aid for maximum of Rs. 5 lakh and 25 lakhs respectively to Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship cell, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Government of India.

Findings:

It is a two-phase Incubation programme. The first phase PRERNA (Idea to Product Prototype -Idea to assessment stage) is a Launch pad for Agri-Startups and the second one is SAAKAR: Product Prototype to its Commercial Launch (Assessment to Expansion stage). As this programme has VISION “Creating an Ecosystem of Agri-innovators for Agricultural Development”. This time under First and second phase, total 14 and 08 participants were selected for further support under this programme respectively. These were the area⁴ of startups under first phase like BIO Plastic BY Composition of Corn Starch, Water Reguletri gard (WRG) of Drip irrigation, Mushroom Products Sailing, Online demand pa Organic/ Dairy Utpado ki Delivery, sustainable approach to produce economic nutritional, supplements, seed oil and purification of sewage water, Herbal and Aayurvedic plants production of group of farmers, Agri Solution Services through Mobile App, O. R. C. electronic India pvt. Ltd and the second phase subject areas were Irrigation Automation and Remote Monitoring and Controlling of irrigation pumps, Food Processing and Manufacturing, OINION Pest, Fintac startup AGGOIS Business Solution Pvt Ltd -Fintac Startup to de-risk financial requirements of Farmers, Startup for reducing post-harvest loses by solar dryer, Mushroom Production Multimillet Daliya and Flour Animal or Human driven durable Agricultural equipment’s. After successful completion of this programme, Startups got funding of Rs. up to 05 lakh for first phase and the 25 lakh for second phase for the further development and expansion of their startups.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION:

The above overall findings show that agribusiness capacity development programs helps in generating well trained and skilled human resources for agribusiness sector. Skill oriented human resources were developed in seed and biofertilizer business, management of agribusiness of farmers producer companies, agri-service providers, establishment of agri-clinic and agribusiness centers, insect-pest management for quality seed production, post harvest and storage management of seed, organic farming and agricultural skills.

Commercialization of technologies developed by the university is promoted through showcasing of technologies through organizing different events. The technologies commercialized so far helps the farming community to enhance their income and many new agri-entrepreneurs developed their agribusinesses.

CONCLUSION:

This Unit is functioning for development of agribusiness activities and commercialization of technologies through incubation services, development of market demand driven human resources and showcasing of technologies. In current scenario there is dire need of such Institution for the fulfillment of doubling the farmers income by 2022 campaign along with the states priority of ‘Farm as Enterprises’ promotion

LIMITATIONS:

This study is descriptive and qualitative in nature and the outcome/interpretation of this study is personal views and information of the author. It reflects the author’s present recollections of experiences over time spent with objects concerned (whether living or not). Therefore quantitative statistical analysis on impact of unit on development of agribusiness is not assessed.

SUGGESTIONS:

On the basis of information gained by the unit, following suggestions are made for development of agribusiness activities in the country on large scale:

· Involvement of regular cadre for skill set development related to agriculture under the University level for betterment of coordination between field to lab.

· On the line of All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRPs) on crop improvement and natural resource management, the AICRP on Agribusiness Management (AICRP on ABM) may be initiated by the ICAR, New Delhi.

· Centralization of such programme under an umbrella at country level for the goodness of ToT.

REFERENCES:

1. Word combination of Global and Local.

2. Farmer Producer Organization

3. Phases nomenclature may be vary from Institute to Institute.

4. Agripreneur(s)’s product or services

Received on 14.04.2020 Modified on 21.04.2020

Res. J. Pharmacognosy and Phytochem. 2020; 12(3):135-140.

DOI: 10.5958/0975-4385.2020.00022.9