Agri Entrepreneurship
Agri Entrepreneurship
Agri Entrepreneurship
And he loves it so much that he has transformed the methods of agriculture in the arid
region of Kutch. Today, he logs on to his computer in the morning, feeds in the data and
that’s it. The rest is taken care by the system—right from the irrigation to fertigation in
his farm.
After returning from Australia to his native village Ratual (near Bhuj), Gala aimed to
become an agri-entrepreneur. What helped in installing this technology was his degree in
horticulture from Queensland University in Australia. He exploited an untapped
opportunity and transformed the dynamics of methods of production.
Kumar Patel (GUJRAT)
With a hope to make south Gujarat (an NRI-belt) the rose hub of the country, Kumar Patel
returned to his village Kutched (25 kms from Valsad) after working with a few consulting firms in
the US. Now Patel, at 34, has just roped in 15 rose producing villagers and entered into a buy-back
arrangement with them to market their products under his popular brand—‘Best Roses’.
His Rs 15 crore rose company has already started exporting to Japan, Holland, Europe, Dubai and
the US with many more negotiations going on. Patel, who is also an MBA from San Francisco,
recently established a hydroponics plant (the first in India) in his rose garden.
“Most of the farmers are illiterate and belong to our community which has been, for some time,
baffled with conventional sugarcane and paddy production. Now, they are earning more than 40%
profits by growing quality roses,” says Patel.
He adds that the strength of his business lies in having more units from the region to compete in the
global market since labour is cheaper and his village is geographically well-placed to for timely
cargo movement. Best Roses produces nearly 10 million roses per annum at an average market
price of Rs 3.50 per stem, mostly imported from Kenya. It offers a range of roses—bugatti, aloha,
aqua, avalance, Bordeaux, among others.
Hemant Desai
Hemant Desai, agriculture is not just about growing fruits and
vegetables, but going beyond. Desai is the president of Pawas
Canning that exports canned mango pulp to Japan. Desai not only
grows and cans the best quality mango pulp but also markets it.
This season, Desai claims, many mango sellers are planning to sell
their mangoes and pulp—canned and uncanned— under a single
brand name.
So you may have Ratnagiri mangoes being sold as Pawas or
Ratpaw. The final branding is being discussed by the farmers at the
moment. “Many farmers have come forward to market their
products under one brand name, and if everything goes as we have
planned, we would be exporting branded mango pulp and
mangoes by next year,” says Desai.
CONTD..
Huge growth in rural workforce is corroborated by
almost a doubling in the number of agricultural
establishments to 6.07 million in 2005 from about 3.47
million in 1998. Though the number of non-
agricultural establishments grew just 33 per cent to
35.74 million during the period, they were higher at
19.83 million in rural areas compared with 15.92
million in the urban areas.
Generic Success Factors-
AGRI EXPORTS
Global market intelligence
Direct relationship with buyers
Clear product-market strategy for exports
Strong R & D skills
Access to technology
Moving up the global value chain
Clear export thrust
Need to imbibe such successful business practices in agri business
REFERENCES
http://www.ffa.org/documents/agent_lesson_1_1.pdf
Pratiyogita Darpan
Agriculture Today
The Economics Time
Thank u