Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), India’s largest fertilizer company, has announced the launch of a Rs 10 cr (US$1.5 million) venture capital fund established to invest in innovative startups within the agriculture sector, reports the Times of India. The decision to launch the fund comes days before the Indian government is scheduled to announce its strategic plan, “Start-up India, Stand-up India” on January 16 – an initiative designed to spark greater entrepreneurship and financing of venture start-ups within the country’s business sectors.

 

Moving forward, if demand is strong, IFFCO will consider increasing the corpus of the fund, with IFFCO managing director US Awasthi commenting, “….money could be increased… what we need is good and feasible ideas or concepts for start-ups which can deliver.”

 

IFFCO has both domestic and overseas operations, including five plants in India and three offshore manufacturing sites, with an annual urea production capacity of 4.2 million tons, and an annual complex fertilizer (NPK) production capacity of 4.6 tons.

 

In October 2015, IFFCO also entered into an agri-chemical joint venture with Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. forming IFFCO-MC. The new venture has a target turnover of Rs 130 cr (US$19.5 million) by March 2017, according to the Economic Times.