Director General of Hyderabad-based MANAGE(National Institute of Agricultural Extention Management), V Usha Rani today exhorted the management students to think differently and take risk to start new ventures in the form of agripreneurship.

Speaking after inaugurating a two-day National Level Agribusiness Management Meet Prabhandhaz 2016 at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University here, Usha Rani, said that Startup India Program provided lot of opportunities for agripreneurs.

Highlighting success stories of agripreneurs, she said that one Chinnaponnu,owner of an Agri clinics and Agri business centre, Madurai was serving about 1,000 farmers and employed many unemployed agri-graduates.

Other services like Agri consultancy, IT enabled farm advisory, Integrated service to farmers, Food processing, Promotion of FPO’s, Exports/Imports and Credit and Insurance services have lot of scopes, she said.

Stating that one can become agripreneurs with minimum investment and the ethics should be followed for long time sustainability,she said that every farmer needed correct information and the management students work hard to enter into new agri ventures by taking risk. In his address, the University Vice-Chancellor, K Ramasamy said that many IT professionals were quitting their jobs and were motivated to start new agri ventures.

Stating that India was fortunate to have vast cultivable land, lot of sunshine hours and needed rainfall, Ramasamy said that it was up to the younger generation to take these potentials towards opportunities and become successful entrepreneurs.

About 250 students from Gujarat, Maharastra, Kerala, Karnataka, Andra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are taking part in various events being organized in this meet.