Innovators making their presence felt

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Deepender Deswal

YOUNG farmers are venturing into the hitherto unexplored arena of agricultural entrepreneurship in Haryana. With farming no longer ensuring desired returns to the farmers, enterprising youths are testing the waters in agro-industry by launching agriculture start-ups.

From bee-box manufacturing to flavoured sugarcane juice and biofertiliser, farmers are keen to tap the potential for growth. These farmers say their start-ups are still in their infancy, but are confident that they will taste success soon.

A farmer of Ramyan village in Hisar, Satish Sehrawat, launched his start-up to prepare biofertiliser, biomix and organic manure in association with Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (HAU). His firm, Habitat Genome Improvement Primary Producer Company Limited, is a farmer producer organisation; around 7,000 farmers across the state are its customers.

Sehrawat has been preparing the biofertiliser in the form of liquid bacteria which costs a farmer Rs 200 per litre. “Half a litre biofertiliser is sufficient per acre of a wheat field. It is coated on the seed and also mixed in water during irrigation. Though we have sold the product worth Rs 50 lakh in one-and-a-half years, there is hardly any saving so far. But this occupation has potential and I hope to get good returns when the sales touch Rs 1 crore a year,” he says. He is using the reactors set up by the HAU on its campus. He is paying the rent of the building, besides 10 per cent of every sale of the product, to the university.

Sehrawat says the equipment, including three reactors set up by the HAU, has the capacity to produce 600 litres of biofertiliser a day. Apart from using the infrastructure of the university, he has also invested about Rs 25 lakh in the project, which has a recurring expense of Rs 2.5 lakh per month. “The farmers are realising the importance and utility of this product. I hope that farmers in Haryana and other states will turn to the biofertiliser, which is beneficial for the crops and also improves the fertility of the soil,” he adds.

A graduate from a Hisar college, Sehrawat is keen on organic farming. “I have been harvesting black wheat on 24 acres in the village. Its yield is almost half of that of the normal wheat — around 11.5 quintals per acre — but the trend is picking up. I have been selling black wheat as seed to other farmers at the rate of Rs 50 per kg.”

Ambala-based Vipan Sarin has conceptualised a sugarcane outlet having four ranges of juice — fruit cane, veggie cane, herbi cane and shot cane — all in organic form and without any preservatives or chemical flavours. Fruit cane is a mixture of fresh juice of sugarcane with pomegranate, orange, grapes, apple; veggie cane is a mixture of cane and veggies like carrot, beetroot, capsicum, bitter gourd, bottle gourd; the shot cane variety includes coffee, tea and chocolate; the ice cream is made of cane juice iced with gur and imli chutni. “These are 30 varieties of juices and their products. We are also introducing the fusion range of the cane juice which combines various varieties of cane juices and ice creams.”

Sarin, who has long experience as a design engineer in the electronics industry, says he decided to dabble in the agri-business with his start-up last year after the demise of his brother in a road mishap. “My brother was into organic farming. I decided to carry forward his occupation and add value to it. While organic vegetables and other farming products have little market availability which can ensure good returns, I got attracted to sugarcane, which is available at comparative lower rates. It has all healthy ingredients. I decided to offer organic sugarcane juice in a new format by ensuring hygienic, tasty and value-added product,” he says, adding that he will review the response next summer.

He took training for the start-up at the Agri Business Incubation Centre (ABIC) of HAU. “I have invested about Rs 40 lakh in setting up the outlet in a rented accommodation, besides installing crushing machines and other infrastructure. I have also laid out a plan to diversify my agri-business by tying up with farmers and consumers. We are in talks with farmers who are producing organic products. We will then get them connected to our household customers who wish to consume organic products. We will also ensure home delivery of the fruits, vegetables and other agri products via our e-karts.”

Sarin says he is trying to promote sugarcane as part of a healthy diet. “I hope children will also get attracted to having cane and its juice. I plan to prepare small pieces of cane which can be given to children in school lunch boxes,” he says, adding that he booked three acres of organic sugarcane with a farmer in Ambala for this season.

Satvik Singh, a resident of Shahpur who is residing in Hisar town, says he is manufacturing bee-boxes which are used by beekeepers. “The HAU provides key help in testing, validation and standardisation of the products. We have earning of Rs 6 lakh in a year. We have many beekeepers who need these boxes. With technical assistance and funding by government agencies, we see a huge scope in this field. Presently, the firm has an order of 15,000 boxes from the farmers. “We save Rs 200 per box, which costs about Rs 2,000 to the beekeeper,” he says.

Vishal Bhandari is involved in automated farming. Under the brand name of ‘Autopilot farming’, he has designed a low-cost machine which automates farming activities such as motor scheduling, individual bed controlling for irrigation, and soil moisture sensors. “These field activities can be managed by using Android application from anywhere in the world,” he claims, adding that the cost to automate a farm for the starting model for farmers is Rs 5,000. “Our initial trials are going on and very soon we will launch our final product in the market. We feel that this product will bring about a revolution in the farm technology market,” he says, expecting to start exporting this product to the European countries by 2021, besides supporting 100 farmers here.

These efforts are getting the ABIC’s support. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)-aided ABIC is providing single-window access for all agri-business activities to agriculture entrepreneurs and progressive farmers. NABARD has set up an office on the HAU campus at a cost of Rs 11.74 crore. HAU Vice Chancellor Dr KP Singh says the ABIC is proving its worth as a platform to provide infrastructure and technical assistance in commercialisation and to incubate start-up companies in establishing businesses through consultancy and training.

“The focus areas for the start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators are mushroom and biopesticide production, production and protection of crops, development of new varieties, organic farming, farm management, floriculture, apiculture, artificial intelligence in agriculture, processing and value addition, agri-waste management, quality assistance, certification and branding, nursery-raising, tissue culture, biogas/bio-fertiliser production and marketing,” says Vikram Sindhu, manager, APIC, adding that they welcome innovative ideas from new-age agri-entrepreneurs.