The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has announced an agri fund for Start-Ups & Rural Enterprises (Agri-SURE), with initial corpus of ₹750 crore to be managed by its wholly owned subsidiary Nabventures. While NABARD and the Ministry of Agriculture are contributing ₹250 crore each, the rest ₹250 crore is from other institutions.

The fund is structured to support about 85 agri start-ups with investment sizes of up to ₹25 crore each by the end of its term. The fund will provide support through investments in sector-specific, sector-agnostic, and debt alternative investment funds (AIFs), as well as direct equity support to start-ups.

“Agri-SURE’s focus areas include promoting innovative, technology-driven initiatives in agriculture, enhancing the farm produce value chain, creating new rural ecosystem linkages and infrastructure, generating employment, and supporting Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs),” NABARD said.

Additionally, the fund would encourage entrepreneurship through IT-based solutions and machinery rental services for farmers, driving sustainable growth and development in the agricultural sector.

A.K. Sahu, Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare said, “The broader objective of this initiative is to address the flailing issues for agri and rural sector. We need innovation and technology to ensure the last mile delivery of resources.”

“Most of our farmers hold a small piece of land. In this ecosystem, we need to focus on enhancing productivity, this is where technology can play a crucial role. We need to foster an ecosystem for systematic mechanisation in order to achieve our objectives. Agri-SURE is a big leap in that direction. With the help of this fund we aim to support start-ups to provide us innovative and sustainable solutions,” he added. “Digitalisation of agriculture is the call of the hour in order to enhance the agri value chain as the next wave of growth will come from innovation. Fintech innovation in agriculture is one of the important aspect for last-mile connectivity with minimum expenses,” NABARD Chairman Shaji K.V. said.

“Farmers are the foundation of the agri value and they need to be handled very closely and provided with solutions. Credit alone will not solve the problem in agriculture sector. Next level of growth will come from innovations that need to be co-partnered by public and private institutions. With this fund, we aim to support early stage innovators and help farmers with viable, sustainable and durable tech solutions,” he added.

NABARD has also announced AgriSURE Greenathon 2024, a hackathon which is aimed at addressing three key problem statements: “Smart Agriculture on a Budget,” “Turning Agri-Waste into Profitable Business Opportunities,” and “Tech Solutions Making Regenerative Agriculture Remunerative”.