R-ABI (RKVY-RAFTAAR)

Overview

RKVY-RAFTAAR Agri Business Incubator (R-ABI) is the agripreneurship arm of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare's flagship Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana — Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) scheme. The programme strengthens India's agribusiness incubation infrastructure by sanctioning R-ABIs at agricultural universities, ICAR institutes, IITs, and veterinary research centres across the country.

Network

R-ABI operates as a federated network of 50+ incubators spread across India — including IIT (BHU) Varanasi, Kerala Agricultural University, IGKV Raipur, ANGRAU, Anand Agricultural University, College of Horticulture and Forestry, IVRI Bareilly, and many others — each operating identical programme tracks under a common framework.

Programmes

Each R-ABI runs three standardised programmes per year:

• ANKURAN (Agri-Entrepreneurship Orientation) — 2-month residential orientation that introduces agripreneurs to ideation, customer discovery, business model design, and venture finance. Includes a monthly stipend of ₹10,000 per participant.
• PRASFUTAN (Seed-Stage Funding) — early-stage grants of up to ₹25 lakh per startup as a 90% grant + 10% founder contribution, for agri-startups with validated prototypes.
• SRIJAN (Student Entrepreneurship) — programme for agricultural university students to take ideas from classroom to commercialisation.

Sectors

Focus is exclusively on agriculture and allied sectors: farm-input innovation, post-harvest tech, food processing, dairy, fisheries, animal husbandry, agri-fintech, agri-supply chain, precision agriculture, agri-biotech, and rural livelihoods.

Eligibility

Indian citizens with an agri-business idea or early-stage agri-startup. Specific eligibility (incorporation status, prototype maturity, founder age) varies by programme — PRASFUTAN requires an incorporated entity with a working prototype, while ANKURAN and SRIJAN are open to idea-stage applicants.

Impact

Since inception in 2018-19, R-ABIs have collectively incubated 2,000+ agri-startups and disbursed over ₹150 crore in grants, with portfolio companies operating across all 28 states.

Who Should Apply

Founders building agri-tech, food-tech, or rural livelihood solutions who want non-dilutive grant capital plus institutional incubation through an agricultural university or research institute.