Bengaluru, Jan 3 (KNN) C-CAMP's Centre of Excellence for Agri Innovation, with support from Ktech, has unveiled the Agriculture Grand Challenge-2, welcoming start-ups from across India.

Start-ups are invited to submit applications before January 31, with the promise of securing an investment ranging from ₹25-50 lakh.

“We are looking for startups that have strong potential to transform key aspects of Indian agriculture in a disruptive manner,” states C-CAMP.

These startups, C-CAMP added, should be able to address specific challenges by providing commercially viable and implementable solutions at the grassroots level, employing deep science innovations.

The challenges are categorised into two groups: agriculture and allied.

In the agriculture sector, the call focuses on developing technology to enhance shelf life and reduce post-harvest losses.

It also seeks innovations in plant pest and disease detection, monitoring, and mitigation, targeting specific crops such as tomato, pomegranate, cotton, and coffee.

Additionally, the challenge includes technology for on-site drying and grading of cash crops.

For the animal husbandry/allied group, the challenge seeks innovations in artificial insemination techniques for cattle, with a goal to enhance fertilisation rates.

It also calls for the development of cost-effective on-farm pregnancy detection kits for cattle, aimed at detecting PAB/AGA/other hormones.

Moreover, the challenge emphasises the need for affordable farmer-level mastitis detection and a rapid, accurate method for detecting contaminants in milk.

Eligible participants must ensure their start-ups meet specific criteria, including registration in India, being less than 10 years old, and having at least 51 per cent shareholding by Indian promoters.

The selected start-ups will undergo incubation at C-CAMP and are expected to develop and deploy a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) within 18 months.

For those meeting the criteria and seeking to contribute innovative solutions to the defined problem statements, applications can be submitted through the provided link:

http://tinyurl.com/ymruv4xs

The initiative, officially launched at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2023 on December 1, 2023, aims to foster innovation in the agricultural sector.

(KNN Bureau)