IEF of CCSNIAM

Pick the programme that matches your stage

• Student Orientation Programme if you are a student with an innovation and want exposure to the startup ecosystem.
• Agripreneurship Orientation Programme if you are an aspiring agripreneur with an idea, a prototype or a proof of concept you still need to turn into a product.
• Startup Agri-Business Incubation Programme if you are already an early-stage startup with a scalable business model and want to reach the market.

All three run the same one-month first phase, so if your stage is borderline, pick the one your evidence supports rather than the one with the larger grant.

Check whether you should be applying elsewhere

IEF is the Knowledge Partner for four RKVY-RAFTAAR Agri-Business Incubators covering Rajasthan, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal. If you are based near Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University in Jobner, Bihar Agricultural University in Sabour, the National Rice Research Institute in Cuttack or IIT Kharagpur, look at that incubator's own call as well.

How applications work

• One online application form serves all three programmes; the link sits on each programme page and on the cohort advertisement.
• Intakes are cohort-wise, not rolling. Recent cohorts closed at the end of August 2026, in September 2025, in May 2025 and in September 2024, so a call roughly every six to twelve months is a reasonable expectation.
• The site does not publish detailed eligibility criteria beyond the stage descriptions. Ask before you assume: write to the incubator inbox, nabi@ccsniam.ac.in, or call the helpline number on the contact page.
• Watch the homepage announcement strip and the programme pages for the next cohort. The site does not run a notice feed.

How selection works

The published sequence is the same for each programme: registrations open, applications close, results of the application round are announced, the cohort is announced, and the one-month online mentoring programme starts. At the end of that month you pitch to a panel of experts. Grant-in-aid is decided after that by a Selection and Investment Committee, and it is released against milestones in three tranches, so a plan with defensible milestones matters more than a single big ask.

What to have ready

• A clear statement of which of the fifteen agriculture and allied focus areas you sit in.
• A prototype, proof of concept or product that can survive technical validation, business assessment and an IP check.
• A milestone plan for the commercial launch, since the second phase pays against milestones.
• For seed stage, evidence that the business model scales, not just that the technology works.

If you want a desk at the Jaipur campus

Co-working is a separate application with its own form and policy document. You must be a DPIIT-recognised startup; priority goes to agriculture and allied sectors and to startups CCS NIAM has funded or incubated. Seats are first come, first served, allotted for at least six months, with an 11-month agreement, a six-month lock-in and a refundable deposit.

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Federation (IEF) of CCS NIAM is the agri-business incubator attached to the CCS National Institute of Agricultural Marketing in Jaipur, Rajasthan. CCS NIAM is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, and IEF is registered as its own not-for-profit company, with its CIN printed on every page of its site. It runs incubation programmes for students, aspiring agripreneurs and early-stage agri-startups, and it has also traded as NIAM Agri-Business Incubator, or NABI, which is still the name most of its incubatees use.

What it supports

IEF works only in agriculture and allied sectors. Its focus list covers farm mechanisation, precision agriculture, supply chain and agriculture logistics, post-harvest, food technology and value addition, waste to wealth and green energy, agri fintech, agricultural inputs and biotechnology, natural resource management, and agriculture extension and education. The homepage adds five more areas the programme pages leave out: agri clinics and farm health services, agriculture engineering, animal husbandry and dairying, IoT, ICT and AI in agriculture, and organic farming.

The three programmes map to three stages. Students with an innovation start at the Student Orientation Programme. Youth and aspiring agripreneurs with an idea to turn into a venture go to the Agripreneurship Orientation Programme, which IEF calls its pre-seed stage. Early-stage startups that already have a scalable business model and want to reach the market apply to the Startup Agri-Business Incubation Programme, the seed stage.

How the programmes work

All three run to the same two-phase shape. Phase one is a one-month incubation programme, delivered as online mentoring. Participants work with technical experts and business leaders, and get access to the incubator's network of founders. Their prototype goes through technical validation, business assessment and IP checks, and the phase ends with a pitch to a panel of experts.

Phase two is the longer incubation. For the Student Orientation Programme and the Agripreneurship Orientation Programme it runs a year; for the Startup Agri-Business Incubation Programme the page says a year and a half. In this phase selected participants receive mentoring and grant-in-aid released against milestones, in three tranches, to launch commercially. Startups are mentored on running and sustaining the business, growing market linkages and planning to scale, and they get field trials and pilot opportunities alongside. Final funding decisions rest with a Selection and Investment Committee.

Knowledge Partner for RKVY-RAFTAAR

IEF is the Knowledge Partner for the innovation and agri-entrepreneurship programme under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana - Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation, run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. Recent material also calls the scheme PM-RKVY-RAFTAAR.

That role goes beyond running its own cohorts. IEF mentors four RKVY-RAFTAAR Agri-Business Incubators, known as R-ABIs, through capacity building and sustained mentorship, and it advises on startup funding decisions. The four are Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University at Jobner near Jaipur, Bihar Agricultural University at Sabour, the National Rice Research Institute at Cuttack, and IIT Kharagpur. Together they cover Rajasthan, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal. A founder in one of those states may be routed to the nearer R-ABI rather than to Jaipur.

Facilities and support

CCS NIAM runs a co-working space at its Agri Innovation and Incubation Centre on the Jaipur campus, with 40 plug-and-play workstations with desktop computers, high-speed internet, air-conditioning, power back-up, a conference room, a display arena for startups' products, 24-hour security, parking, drinking water and a reception area. Seats go first come, first served for a minimum of six months; the agreement runs 11 months with a six-month lock-in and is signed as an MoU. Seats are charged monthly with a refundable security deposit, and applicants must be DPIIT-recognised startups, with priority to agriculture and allied sectors and to CCS NIAM's own incubatees.

The incubation support IEF lists is branding and PR, business and financial model development, business coaching, training and mentoring, funding, infrastructure, intellectual property development, networking and investor connect, pitch deck preparation, and technology commercialisation and pilot support. It also publishes recorded webinars and workshops on ONDC, investor connect and reverse pitching, startup valuation, scaling up and investment readiness.

Track record

IEF's portfolio page names 38 seed-stage and 35 pre-seed-stage companies, among them EF Polymer, Aumsat Technologies, Jovaki Agrofood, Agri-Jawan Innovations, Himalayan Hemp Industries and Crophunt Agritech. Its own headline counts should be read with care: the homepage and the agri-incubation page give different figures for startups incubated, startups recommended for grant-in-aid, intellectual property generated and products commercialised, and neither set is dated. The homepage also claims farmers benefited and jobs created, with no second source on the site.

Who runs it

The Director General of CCS NIAM, Anoop Khinchi, IAS, chairs the board. Ravi Kumar Goyal is COO and Director of IEF, and R. C. Meena is the Principal Investigator for RKVY. The board also includes Vilas Vishnu Shinde, founder of Sahyadri Farms, Ajit Pandurang Rangnekar, Director General of RICH and a former Dean of the Indian School of Business, and Hemendra Mathur, co-founder of ThinkAg and chair of FICCI's taskforce for agritech startups. The day-to-day team is small, with managers for innovation management and for finance and ICT, plus two business executives. IEF lists open roles on a vacancies page and posts visit reports and webinars on its events page.

How to apply

Intakes are cohort-wise and all three programmes open together, applied for through one online form linked from each programme page. The most recently advertised intake was Cohort 14, with a last date at the end of August 2026; earlier cohorts closed in September 2025, May 2025 and September 2024. Co-working seats are applied for separately, on a rolling basis, using the form and policy document on the site.