The Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) in Kozhikode is planning to launch a Business Planning and Development (BPD) unit on its campus aiming to promote entrepreneurship and technology commercialisation among farmers.
According to a release issued here on Tuesday, the unit, which is sanctioned under the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), is expected to start functioning shortly. The project is also expected to explore the possibilities of developing and marketing various value-added products from spices to help farmers increase their income.
The unit will help bring researchers, start-up entrepreneurs, and small and mid-sized processing companies closer with the objective of growing business incubation. It will also focus on enhanced production of high-quality seeds and planting materials.
The BPD unit will foster sustainable business development by providing an array of services such as research and development and access to processing units for market testing of products. Services such as technology/prototype development, communication facilities, advice on business plan, marketing, legal aid, and access to funding institutions will also be available to farmers, cooperatives, start-up entrepreneurs and also to small and mid-sized spice companies from the unit.
A workshop will be organised by the IISR on its campus prior to launching the BPD unit at Chelavoor on Saturday. It is intended to give an insight into the activities of IISR-BPD and similar such BPDs, said the release. NAIP National Coordinator P.S. Pandey, Spices Board chairman A. Jayathilak, and Cochin Special Economic Zone (CSEZ) Development Commissioner A.N. Safeena will attend the programme.
Entrepreneurs, farmers, researchers, and BPD advisory board members are expected to participate in the workshop. Those interested may contact the institute office at bpd.iisr@spices.res.in. Ph: 9745123483.
