Agri-Food Techathon @ IIT Kharagpur to promote agri-tech innovations

The Agri Business Incubation Centre (ABIC), IIT Kharagpur, in association with its Agricultural & Food Engineering Department, Centre for Rural Development & Innovative Sustainable Technologies and Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship, is organizing Agri-Food Techathon (AFT 2021), a national level online technical fest during January to March 2021. This is an event open to university/college students, entrepreneurs and rural youths to exhibit and depict their creativity, problem-solving, and prototyping-skills in the different domain of Agri-Food sector. The event will provide orientation and exposure to innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities in the Agriculture and Food Technology sector, to the aspiring entrepreneurs, through a series of expert lectures and guest talks by successful Agritech Startups.

The AFT-2021 will include a competitive B-plan submission for the participants. Business and technology experts from key domains of Agriculture and Food Technology will be involved as panelists and mentors. After screening and the first round of B-plan presentation, selected teams will be assigned expert mentors as per their domain area for providing guidance on product and business development. The final presentation will be used to select high potential teams for formal association with ABIC IIT Kharagpur. They will be offered assistance in the form of Technology and Business Development Mentorship, R&D support, Laboratory / Workshop / Pilot Plant access and Funding Opportunities through potential Investors / Accelerators.

Interested participants can register for the event free on or before January 07, 2021. Click Here to Register

About ABIC

The Agricultural and Food Engineering (AgFE) Department of the IIT Kharagpur – the only department of its kind in the country’s IIT system is hosting the NABARD-funded Agri-Business Incubation Centre (ABIC) for promotion of agri-business. Since its inception in 1952, the AgFE Department has been contributing to the profession through high-standard research and development, teaching and outreach. The Department is adequately experienced in the creation and dissemination of appropriate agri-food technologies. Having the ABIC in place, the relevant innovations could potentially be incubated and disseminated to complement the Centre’s overall objective of promoting Agri-preneurship in the region. 

The ABIC, being registered as a Section-8 Company within IIT Kharagpur,  is mandated to incubate innovative ideas in agriculture and food technology domain for creating Agri-preneures. It develops, demonstrates and transfers low-cost technologies for sustainable development of agricultural and rural communities. The Centre expects to conduct hands-on training, workshops, and seminars for capacity building of farmers and rural youth. It is expected that the region’s agriculture will get a boost through action-oriented research including climate change impact assessment and adaptation, value addition, market-linkage, and risk management. 

The ABIC, managed by Professor H N Mishra of the Agricultural & Food Engineering Department as its  Professor In-charge & Nodal Officer,  has started its work with the objective of developing, demonstrate and transfer low-cost technologies for sustainable development of agricultural and rural communities. Specific efforts will be given to promote climate-resilient agriculture in vulnerable districts, agricultural value chains, promote farmers’ collectives including training and capacity building, supporting expert advisory services, policy advocacy including building up of human capital in rural areas among others. The activities of the ABIC, IIT Kharagpur has started in four specific segments in the form of conducting Hands-on training, Workshops, Agri-Food Techethon, and Webinars for capacity building and to support Agri-preneurship.

The Centre offers training, incubation support and mentorship to the important agricultural domains, namely, farm mechanization, soil technology and testing, food processing and packaging, agricultural biotechnology, irrigation, and water management. The Centre strives to promote technical and management excellence for incubating novel ideas in the field of agriculture and rural development.