Sabour Agri Incubators (SABAGRIs)

Pick the component that matches your stage

If you have an idea but no prototype, the orientation programme is the entry point. If you already hold a minimum viable product and are an incubated startup, the seed-stage programme is the one to ask about. Idea-stage funding comes after the orientation, not before it.

Confirm the call is open

The page shows no current call, batch or deadline, and its notice section is empty. Ask the Directorate of Research at Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, for the current call and the Annexure V application format before you prepare anything.

Get your entity in order early

The seed-stage programme requires a registered legal entity in India and at least two months of residency at the incubator. The idea-stage grant requires a company to be registered before release. Start the incorporation and the residency conversation before the call opens.

Declare other grants

The page asks applicants to declare any grant they already receive for the same activity from another central ministry. For the seed-stage programme, startups already receiving grant support from another source are not eligible under the scheme. For idea-stage funding that question is decided case by case by the committee. Be ready to answer it honestly.

Sabour Agri Incubators, known as SABAGRIs, is the agri-business incubator run by Bihar Agricultural University at Sabour, Bhagalpur. It is one of the RKVY-RAFTAAR Agri Business Incubators sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and the page describes it as a project sanctioned in the financial year 2019-20. The university's Directorate of Research is the nodal office, and the Vice-Chancellor is the implementing authority.

The incubator exists to build an agripreneurship pipeline in agriculture and allied sectors. Its stated aims include skill development, rural youth employment, technology acquisition and commercial transfer, and a network linking the university with financial institutions and industry. Its support covers technical, legal, financial, intellectual property and regulatory services for agripreneurs, as the page sets out.

Three components are described on the page, and a founder should work out which one fits before applying.

The first is the Agripreneurship Orientation Programme, called SABUMANG on the page. It is aimed at students and young people who have one workable idea in agriculture or an allied sector and who will pursue it full time. It runs for two months and combines training with a hands-on internship alongside other startups at the incubator. Interns receive a monthly stipend for those two months. The incubation committee selects a batch of 30, and applicants use a prescribed format that the page calls Annexure V. The incubator announces the call at state or local level, so the call itself, not a year-round form, is the entry point.

The second is idea or pre-seed stage funding, which follows the orientation. Interns who finish the two months and convert their idea into a prototype or product can apply for a grant for that stage. Up to 20 idea-stage startups per incubator are supported. A grantee must stay registered with the incubator for the whole period and must register a company before the grant is released, or already be an Indian start-up under the DIPP notification. The grant is paid in two instalments, and the final one depends on committee recommendation and on how the earlier money was used.

The third is the Startup Agri Incubation Programme, labelled SAIP and described as prototype to minimum viable product. It is a seed-stage grant-in-aid for incubated startups that have an MVP in agriculture or an allied sector. The startup must be a registered legal entity in India, must have completed at least two months of residency at the incubator, and must be an Indian start-up, which excludes Indian subsidiaries of foreign companies. A startup that has received this support once cannot apply for the next round at any incubator under the scheme. Support is released in three instalments, and the incubator signs an agreement with the startup before the first one.

The incubator's own committee evaluates progress and makes recommendations. A national selection and monitoring committee, chaired from the Ministry's nodal division, meets at least once every quarter, and the nodal division gives final approval.

What the page does not say matters as much. It gives no current call, batch dates or deadline. Its circular and notice section reads 'coming soon', and the footer copyright is 2017, so the page may not be updated often. It gives no count of startups supported to date, and this listing does not publish one. Ask the Directorate of Research at Bihar Agricultural University before you plan around any of these components.