न्यूज

The objective of this CoE is to create the holistic ecosystem for encouraging innovation, R&D and entrepreneurship in agritech domain and to address the problems of farmers in the region to increase their productivity and profitability in Akola-Vidarbha region

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has launched an open challenge program (OCP) 1.0 of FASAL (Fostering AgriTech Startups for Augmenting Livelihood), a Centre of Entrepreneurship (CoE) for IoT in Agriculture at Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (PDKV), Akola, Maharashtra in association with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The objective of this CoE is to create the holistic ecosystem for encouraging innovation, R&D and entrepreneurship in agritech domain and to address the problems of farmers in the region to increase their productivity and profitability.

While launching the OCP FASAL 1.0, Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, said, "All those who are participating in the challenge program should understand the agricultural challenges of the Akola and Vidarbha region to convert their ideas into innovative agritech products. You can see how Israel has addressed the agricultural challenges of the country by leveraging the innovations in the agricultural technologies and empowering the farmers to adopt the modern technologies to enhance yield. We have the similar kind of innovation ecosystem at FASAL. Our 20 CoEs are well integrated in terms of facilities, mentoring and labs. So, any startup being incubated in a CoE can access all the facilities that we provide to startups on pan-India scale."

Anand Deshpande, founder-CMD, Persistent Systems and Chief Mentor, FASAL, said, "We have to look at the agriculture sector as an industry. There is a tremendous opportunity for startups focused on agriculture to build smart agritech products to significantly improve productivity of farmers by enabling them to leverage smart agricultural technologies apropos farmers’ needs. FASAL will address these challenges in a more streamlined manner."

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