Now, agri-food start-ups to get govt support

THE NETWORK AIMS TO ACT AS A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR STARTUPS IN FOOD PROCESSING

CHANDIGARH: With nearly 20% of India’s wheat and 12% of rice production to its credit, Punjab is indeed a leader in primary agriculture. With over 53 mega food processing projects and over 20,000 micro and small agrifood industrial units, the last decade has seen the state march towards secondary agriculture.

To boost this sector, the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology (PSCST) in association with Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) has launched a first of its kind “Secondary Agriculture/Food Processing Entrepreneurial Network” in Punjab.

The formal launch took place in Chandigarh on Friday.

“With Mohali home to some of the leading research and development institutes in the country like National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI) and Centre of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB), we wanted to connect them to the stakeholders in the secondary agriculture industry. We have got full support from department of biotechnology in the ministry of science of technology and BIRAC,” said Jatinder Kaur Arora, executive director, Punjab State Council for Science and Technology.

This new network will see PSCST as a ‘lead institute’ and NABI, CIAB and the BioNEST at Panjab University as the partner institutions.

To get things underway, BIRAC has sanctioned Phase-1 of the project comprising two years.

“We would be focusing on two sectors initially – fruit and vegetable processing and cereal and grain processing,” said Arora.

FIVE START-UPS TO BE SUPPORTED

With start-ups being the buzzword everywhere, this entrepreneurial network aims to act as a support system for start-ups in the secondary agriculture/food processing sector too.

BIRAC will support five startups to start with a financial aid of ₹50 lakh per start-up.

Renu Swarup, secretary, department of biotechnology, ministry of science and technology, BIRAC, has been supporting start-ups nationwide but it was for the first time under this project that a state-specific call has been given for supporting start-ups in secondary agriculture domain.

“We had a successful run with a similar project in healthcare and in the backdrop of the national nutrition mission, such a network is a step in the right direction,” she said.

TR Sharma, executive director, NABI & CEO, CIAB, says, “At the CIAB, we have been focusing on value-addition to food and have filed 35 patents. Five patents have already been commercialised.”

The network launch also saw Karan Avtar Singh, chief secretary, Punjab, in attendance.