The Indian government is preparing to launch the 'Agri Fund for StartUps & Rural Enterprises' (AgriSURE) to support agritech startups and agripreneurs.

The fund, established by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, will have an initial corpus of 750 crore.

The initiative aims to promote innovation and sustainability in India's agricultural sector through both equity and debt investments.

AgriSURE will be managed by NABVENTURES, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NABARD. The fund is structured with equal contributions of Rs 250 crore each from the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and NABARD, along with an additional Rs 250 crore raised from financial institutions.

The fund will support around 85 agribusiness startups with investments of up to Rs 25 crore each, focusing on high-risk, high-impact activities within the agriculture value chain.

AgriSURE aims to strengthen the farming value chain by providing direct equity support and investing in sector-specific, sector-agnostic, and debt Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs).

The fund is designed to foster innovative, technology-driven initiatives in the agricultural sector. By improving the farm produce value chain and establishing new linkages and infrastructure in rural ecosystems, AgriSURE aims to revitalize these communities. Additionally, the initiative seeks to create employment opportunities and support Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs).

Another key objective is to promote the adoption of IT-based solutions and machinery rental services, offering farmers modern tools and technologies to enhance productivity and sustainability.

In addition to the fund, NABARD has launched AgriSURE Greenathon 2024, an innovative hackathon designed to address three key challenges in the agricultural sector.

The first challenge, "Smart Agriculture on a Budget," focuses on finding solutions to the high costs of advanced agricultural technologies that often exclude small and marginal farmers.

The second challenge in the pathh of progress is "Turning Agri-Waste into Profitable Business Opportunities," which fosters the process of transformation of agricultural byproducts into viable and profitable ventures.

Last but not the least, "Tech Solutions Making Regenerative Agriculture Remunerative" is transforming agricultural byproducts into viable and profitable ventures and focusing on to find different ways to uplift the process of regenerative agriculture practices which strikes towards overcoming the financial barriers that which is hindering the wider adoption of newly launched technologies. This initiative is targeting at seeking to harness creative and technological solutions to advance sustainable farming practices across the board.

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