Introduction
The RKVY – Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Programme, formerly known as Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation (RAFTAAR) was launched by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India, during 2018–19. The programme aims to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and agribusiness development in agriculture and allied sectors by providing financial and technical support to agripreneurs and student innovators, with the goal of strengthening India’s agri-startup ecosystem and enhancing farmer’s income through technology-driven, market-oriented and scalable solutions.

Under the programme, grant-in-aid support is provided as follows:

• • Up to ₹4 lakh for Student Startups
  • Up to ₹5 lakh for Pre-Seed / Idea Stage Startups
  • Up to ₹25 lakh for Seed Stage Startups

Selected startups receive incubation support, mentoring, business guidance, technical advisory services and market linkage facilitation as per the guidelines.

The programme is operationalized through 5 Knowledge Partners (KPs) and 24 RKVY Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) across the country. UAS Dharwad is one of the Knowledge Partner(KP) with four partner RABIs.These centres support startups across domains such as:

• • Farm Mechanization
  • Precision Agriculture including applications of sensors, WSN, ICT, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & Drone
  • Supply Chain & Agriculture Logistics
  • Post-Harvest, Food Technology & Value Addition
  • Waste to Wealth & Green Energy
  • Agriculture Allied Sectors (Animal Husbandry & Dairying/Fisheries/Sericulture / Forestry/Environment, etc.)
  • Agri Fintech
  • Agricultural Inputs & Biotechnology
  • Natural Resource Management
  • Agriculture Extension & Education

Objectives

• To promote innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture and allied sectors
• To support skill development, capacity building, and technology scale-up
• To facilitate commercialization of agri-innovations
• To build strong linkages among academia, industry and financial institutions
• To create a vibrant and sustainable agri-startup ecosystem