Madurai Agri Business Incubation Forum

Check that you fit the incubator's focus

MABIF works with the agriculture and allied sectors, so the first thing a reviewer looks for is an agriculture-based concept or idea, ideally one that draws on TNAU or ICAR technologies. Applicants range from individual farmers and FPOs through to startups, SMEs, NGOs and larger companies, so be clear which of these you are and what you want from the incubator.

How applications work

The route in is an enrollment form, which you can complete online or offline. MABIF staff review the form first, and shortlisted applicants are then invited to a discussion with the selection committee before an offer is made.

What reviewers look for

• A clear agriculture or allied-sector idea, with some novelty to it.
• Commercial feasibility and a business model that can be sustained.
• A genuine fit between your proposal and the support the incubator offers.
• Evidence that you are serious about building the venture.

FPOs and the cluster programme

If you are a Farmer Producer Organization, MABIF's cluster work runs through NABARD under the central-sector scheme rather than through the incubator's open enrollment form, so the onboarding route is different from the one a startup would use.

Madurai Agribusiness Incubation Forum (MABIF) is an agribusiness incubator based at the Agricultural College & Research Institute on the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) campus at Y. Othakadai, Madurai. It was incorporated on 9 May 2018 as a Section 8 company under the Companies Act, 2013, and is jointly promoted by NABARD, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, and TNAU. It works with agribusiness ventures, Farmer Producer Organizations and individual farmers across Tamil Nadu.

What they support

MABIF is open to a wide range of applicants in the agriculture and allied sectors: entrepreneurs, startups, SMEs, NGOs, individual farmers, FPOs and larger corporations. Its stated interest is in people who want to work with TNAU and ICAR technologies and who already have an agriculture-based concept or idea. When it assesses an applicant it looks at the commercial feasibility and sustainability of the business model, the novelty of the idea, the fit between what the incubator offers and the proposal, and the applicant's own inclination towards entrepreneurship.

Programmes

MABIF's core offering is a membership-based incubation programme that takes a venture through three stages: a pre-incubation phase of up to four months, an incubation phase of up to ten months, and a path to graduation. Clients can be based on-site in the incubator's own facility, or work offsite and virtually from their own premises while paying an annual membership to use the incubator's business development, technical and networking support. Membership is organised in categories, with FPOs and individual farmers, startups and SMEs and NGOs, and larger companies each in their own band.

Separately, MABIF is recognised by NABARD as a Cluster Based Business Organisation (CBBO). Under that recognition it supports a network of Farmer Producer Organizations across eleven districts of Tamil Nadu as part of the central scheme to form and promote FPOs, giving them help with infrastructure, regulatory matters, financial management, access to finance and market linkages. FPOs are onboarded through the scheme via NABARD rather than through an open public call.

Facilities and support

MABIF runs a food testing laboratory that is accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) to the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard, offering nutritional, chemical and microbiology analysis so that a startup can test a food product against FSSAI requirements in one place. It also runs an Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre that helps startups, FPOs and research students with patents, trademarks, geographical indication tags and plant varieties.

Alongside these, MABIF offers agribusiness founders a set of facilitation services: FSSAI licensing, Importer-Exporter code registration, patent filing, GI tagging, Startup India registration, UDYAM registration, support for taking part in expos and stalls, women entrepreneur programmes, and training and mentorship.

Track record

MABIF reports that it has incubated 487 enterprises and enrolled 550 Farmer Producer Organizations across the state, and that it is currently handholding 25 FPOs under the central-sector scheme through NABARD. Its own pages do not fully agree on the venture count: the homepage counters give higher figures than the about page, so these are best read as orders of magnitude rather than exact totals. On the intellectual-property side it reports facilitating the filing of 139 trademarks, 20 patents and 65 geographical indications, and it has been entrusted by the Tamil Nadu State Agricultural Marketing Board with registering 40 agricultural GI products, of which seven have so far been certified. For its cluster work the region has been divided into 23 micro clusters.

How to apply

To join the incubator, a prospective member fills an enrollment form, which is available both online and offline. MABIF staff carry out an initial evaluation of the form, there is a discussion with the selection committee, and accepted applicants are then notified and complete their membership. The incubator can be reached at info@mabif.com for enquiries about membership, the food testing laboratory, IP support and its other services.