Deadline: 31 January 2024
Applications are now open for the Agriculture Grand Challenges Program to identify promising innovations to address problem areas and gaps in Indian agriculture, identified through the Agri Immersion Program.
These innovations will have strong potential to transform key aspects of Indian agriculture in a disruptive manner. The challenge is a unique opportunity for Agri-tech start-ups with a commercially viable solution to solve defined problems at the grassroots level through deep-science innovations.
Agriculture Grand Challenges II is officially launched by the Hon’ble Minister for IT, BT and Rural Development, Shri Priyank Kharge at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2023.
In this call the problem statements have been classified into two groups of Agriculture & Allied.
- Agriculture:
- Technology to increase shelf life and minimize post-harvest losses
- Technologies for plant pest and disease detection, monitoring and mitigation. Target Crops: Tomato, Pomegranate, Cotton & Coffee
- Technology for on-site drying and grading of cash crops
- Animal Husbandry/Allied:
- Novel artificial insemination techniques for cattle (for enhanced fertilization rates)
- Cost-effective on-farm pregnancy detection kits for cattle to detect PAB/AGA/other hormones
- Affordable farmer-level mastitis detection
- Fast and accurate method for detection of contaminants in milk
Scope of Support
- Outlined below is the scope of support for various categories of startups selected under this scheme:
- Mentorship and hand-holding by Indian and International agri experts
- Networking opportunities with Govt. of Karnataka and Agri stakeholders
- Support with field trials through collaborations with Agriculture Universities and Organizations
- Funding opportunities:
- For startups incorporated in Karnataka: Investment of 25-50 L from GoK Funds
- For other Indian start-ups: Investment of up to 50 L through other C-CAMP schemes (lateral entry)
- For International start-ups: Connects with VCs and Angel Investors
Eligibility Criteria
For Indian Startups:
- Start-up registered in India.
- Start-up must be <10 yrs. Old.
- The shareholding by Indian promoters in the beneficiary start up should be at least 51%.
- Start-up must develop deep-tech/deep-science solutions limited to the above defined problem statement(s).
- Selected start-up should develop MVP within 18 months of time.
For more information, visit Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP).
