Grand Finale of FAEC 2015 held on March 6th, 2016 from 05:00 PM at ACI Centre, Dhaka. Present at the event were Dr. ShamsulAlam, Member (Senior Secretary), General Economic Division, Planning Commission, Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh; Md. Hamidur Rahman, Director General, Department of Agricultural Extension; Dr. Paul Fox, Bangladesh Representative, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
Future Agri Entrepreneur Contest (FAEC) 2015 is all about to involve the youth into Agribusiness first of its kind in Bangladesh by providing them a platform to share their ideas on a national level. This contest is a business case competition where students from different Agricultural Universities of Bangladesh have the opportunity to form a team in creating agri business plan of “live cases”.
ACI Agribusiness has been working to strengthen the future of agriculture and its development in Bangladesh.Their work is to find solution of farmers’ problems and provide services related to agriculture needs. With a vision to take this initiative further, ACI Agribusiness is planning to arrange the “Future Agri Entrepreneur Contest (FAEC) 2015”. FAEC will allow the students to work on issues confronting a real company or organization in real time.
The universities enrolled in this contest are:
- Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
- Bangladesh Agricultural University
- International University of Business Agriculture and Technology
- Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University
- Sylhet Agricultural University
- Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University
Katalyst is the associate partner and Consiglieri Private Limited (CPL) is the supporting partner in this campaign. Spellbound Communications Ltd. has been be working as the event management firm entirely.
After a long, arduous journey starting from the online application, followed by several intense rounds of fierce competition, five teams were chosen for the finals. The whole journey of FAEC 2015 has been designed into four (04) phases. The first phase was an essay competition started on 20th December 2015 and total 218 essays were submitted on different topics including University Industry Linkage, Public Private, Partnership, Evolution of Agriculture Development, ICT in Agriculture etc. After first phase 45 participants were selected out of 774 from 6 universities.
In second phase the students were divided into 15 groups of 3 members in each and there were Sector Analysis Workshop highlighting the following sectors Biotech Research, Seed or Fertilizer, Crop Protection, Agriculture Mechanization etc.At the end of this phase, 10 teams were selected for the next phase.
A workshop on Business Plan was organized for the selected 10 teams in the third phase and 5 teams has been selected for the final phase or Gala round. These five teams are Green Agri Dreamers from Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Shawpno Buzz from Bangladesh Agricultural University, Golden Seed from Bangladesh Agricultural University, Obstinate IUBATian from International University of Business Agriculture and Technology and Heterosis from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University.
Five finalist teams prepared their Business Plan Presentation for the gala event. The winning team Golden Seed received one lac taka prize money and prestigious employment offer at ACI while 1st and 2nd runner-up teams received 50,000 tk. and 25,000 tk. prize money respectively.
Popular media personality Mr. Zunayed Rabbani has lead the event as the Master of the Ceremony.
