Closure of 22 Agribusiness Incubators by Indian Council of Agricultural Research: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

Business Incubators help promote entrepreneurship worldwide. Business Incubation is not a new concept in India; however, Agribusiness Incubation is comparatively new in India. The first agribusiness incubator in India was at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) at Hyderabad. Around 2008-09, 10 Agribusiness Incubators were started by Indian Council of Agricultural Research through a world Bank funded National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP), five in ICAR Research Institutes and five in State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) with the name of Business Planning and Development (BPD) Units. Seeing the great success of these with respect to technology commercialization, promotion of agri entrepreneurship, facilitation of research scientists to private consultancy and innovations nurturing, ICAR started 12 more agri business incubators in later half of 2013. Inspite of the good work done by these agribusiness incubators, particularly the older ones, all were closed down on 30th June, 2014 with the closure of NAIP. This paper does a critical analysis of closure of these 22 agribusiness incubators as to how far it was justified.