Article contributed by Mr. SM Karuppanchetty, Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Agri-Business Incubator-ICRISAT.

The Sankalp 2010 Awards and Investment Forum is an annual Intellecap initiative committed to catalyzing entrepreneurship in the social enterprise space. Sankalp actively facilitates collaboration between established and budding entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders and sector stakeholders interested in contributing effectively towards this fledgling yet fast-growing industry.

Aakruthi Agricultural Associates of India (AAI), an incubatee of Agri Business Incubator-ICRISAT, received the emerging enterprise Sankalp 2010 Award in the Agriculture, Food & Rural Business category. AAI also won the special Villgro Innovation Award in the agribusiness space.

The Sankalp 2010 Awards were announced in a grand awards ceremony at Mumbai on May 5 by a jury of prominent investors, funders and experts. The awards ceremony was attended by over 500 delegates, including government representatives, venture capitalists, social business incubators, business leaders, experts and social entrepreneurs. Mr.Subbarao, Managing Director of AAI received the Sankalp 2010 Award along with a cash prize of one lakh rupees. At this juncture, he expressed a note of thankfulness to ICRISAT for supporting AAI it all its entrepreneurial endeavors and for being the reason for scaling up new heights in agribusiness. ICRISAT Director General Dr. William Dar congratulated Mr. Subbarao and his team for this achievement and assured them of technical support from ICRISAT to their similar future endeavors which support the resource poor farmers.

AAI received this award for their seed business venture initiative which is operated in partnership with ABI-ICRISAT in four districts of Rayalseema, Andhra Pradesh. AAI has supported 25 entrepreneurs through this venture and catered to seed production of prominent varieties of chickpea, pigeon pea, groundnut and paddy. The 2010 Sankalp Awards were conferred upon innovative, dynamic and sustainable social enterprises and recognize the level of impact being brought about by these change makers. It offers a unique recognition platform for businesses that have mastered the balancing act between the profit and social objectives.

AAI started its entrepreneurial journey through incubation support from ABI-ICRISAT in the year 2004 and works through agri-knowledge centers (AKC), transferring latest agricultural techniques, success stories, market news, demonstrations and new inventions through trained human resource. AKC handholds farmers from seed to seed. Also it made a mark in organic farming for sustainable development in these areas.

ABI-ICRISAT is extending its out-and-out support to promote these agri-knowledge centers and venture farming for the benefit of the farming community and for exploitation of the group strength commercially. As part of its overall mission to support agri-business entrepreneurs, ABI-ICRISAT facilitates and supports AAI in its innovations, agri-technology back stopping bringing in a total system development.

To learn more about this incubator, visit http://www.idisc.net or click here ICRISAT.