Accelerating Entrepreneurship Development in Fisheries Sector through Agribusiness Incubation

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Date
2020
Authors
A, Razia Mohamed
Samuel, Manoj P
Ninan, George
C N, Ravishankar
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Indian Farming
Abstract
The Indian agriculture sector has witnessed a sustained growth both in terms of investment and technology during the past several years, with a disruptive rise of start-ups providing innovative solutions to the challenges faced by the farming community. As innovation and networking are being increasingly recognized as the crucial factors to enhance the business competitiveness and gain success in the global market, the private sector players are increasingly coming forward to collaborate with public funded R&D Institutes for developing novel technologies with commercial prospects. This is particularly significant in case of agricultural technologies, as most of the research in the domain is carried out by public R&D institutions. Agribusiness incubation centres act as a platform for the speedy commercialization of the technologies and reinforcing of public private partnerships, through an interfacing and networking mechanism between R&D institutes, industries and financial institutions, thereby contributing to a knowledge-based economy. This paper portrays the experience of Zonal Technology Management and Agribusiness Incubation Centre operational at ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology as an innovative developmental instrument for supporting the growth of competitive enterprises in the fisheries sector by advancing innovation in products, processes, and business models. This entrepreneurial support system handholds entrepreneurs to shift their economic resources through strong technical and advisory support, into new ventures that yield higher productivity and returns. Innovative concepts of Technology Readiness Level (TRL), de-risking and empanelling of manufacturing firms etc. were also introduced and practiced by the centre.
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Keywords
Agribusiness Incubation, Fisheries, Technology Readiness level
Citation
Indian Farming 70(01): 03–07; January