I am PhD in life sciences and wish to venture into production of biofertilizers and biopesticides, could anybody advice onto 1) capital investment for medium scale production facility 2) market trends 3) risks 4) land requirement 5) Available market
I would like to consult a person who is already into this business kindly write to me
Dear Mr. Akshay and Bansodeab,
Editorial team of spoke two newly established bio-fertilizer manufacturers to get the answers to your queries. Here are their views -
Minimum capital investment for establishing manufacturing unit of Bio-fertilizer production
Organic fertilizer has different qualities. It can be organically composed or machine processed. So the investment depends on the technique of production involved. If the person makes organic fertilizer and starts from natural fertilizer, then he can even start the work with Rs 15,000 to 20,000. If he wants to make a big factory, he can do it with Rs 40 lakh to 50 lakh as well.
Shares -
The minimum capital investment depends on the portfolio on what is required for starting the business if our first step is to start only with the fertilizer which we call as nutrients. This may not be a large investment minimum 3 to 5 lakhs is more than enough to make the cultures of our own. Provided we should have a good location of farm land and if we want to go for fungus and other multipurpose things then definitely we need some more labs and cultures so it depends on the people’s willing to choose the area concerned.
Quoted by-
Mr. Abdul Kadhar, Chief Operating Officer
SAFS Organic Enterprises
Return on Investment
It depends on the market. It can be a year, two years or one and a half years. It depends on the amount invested and marketing tactics. Production is simple, but taking it to the market is the difficult task. It depends on the marketing strategy of the seller.
Shares -
Mr. Radhey Shyam Tenguria, MD
Dropdi Herbals
It completely depends on the market. Of course the bio fertilizer, bio products and the organic farming is going to be the future that is known to everybody and it depends on the effort practiced to get the result. From our understanding and our experience what we see is we need minimum 2-3 years with 100% of the effort.
Quoted by-
Mr. Abdul Kadhar, Chief Operating Officer
SAFS Organic Enterprises
Production and Marketing Challenges
There are problems regarding labour and procurement of raw material. We have to ensure that we identify and purchase the right raw material for the quality of product. Sometimes, power cuts cause problems in packaging. Actually, some problems arise in every business.
The only problem regarding marketing is that we have to make sure that our product reaches the customers in the correct condition. There should be a good dealers, distributor network. Then there won't be a problem. If you don't have a good network, you will definitely have problems. You have to invest, market, promote and reach out to the customers to sell your product.
Shares -
Mr. Radhey Shyam Tenguria, MD
Dropdi Herbals
Looking at our company - I don’t have much worry on the production because we have a couple of scientists and we have a good R & D lab and good many people and we have come up with good parent company. Our production capability is around1000 litres’ in Liquids and we can produce 5 metric tonnes per day. This is the production capability of our company and also if we look at the marketing challenges definitely that was the one of the main things we have got with.
We have so many people coming up with bio fertilizer, people are not able to distinguish but they are smart and of course they will find out and once they succeed and when the quality and the results are fine. They are getting things we will be able to produce and prove that our product is very clean. There are many customers for many years and they will never go for others because they know about our concentrated cultures and that the products are very clean and of high quality. But definitely we have some marketing challenges.
Quoted by-
Mr. Abdul Kadhar, Chief Operating Officer
SAFS Organic Enterprises
Many people think that there is a huge potential for bio and organic fertilizer in India, but the manufacturers have not explored it enough. Your opinions?
Everything becomes a habit and it takes time to quit it. Indian farmers have the habit of using chemical fertilizers. It will only decrease with time. This has become our culture and is no longer limited to farmers. The soil has become addicted to it and we will have to stay in touch with the farmers continuously.
We have heard from ICRA that the 60% of damage to the fertility of the soil is because of chemical fertilizers. The ingredients present in the soil like calcium, iron, phosphorus and zinc are sucked out by DAP to the extent that until the farmers put DAP in the soil, they are not activated. The recycling value gets destroyed. Organic fertilizer doesn't affect the recycle value as the bacteria get absorbed in the environment. As a result, there are no bad effects and slowly the damage starts repairing and the farmer gets good production.
Shares -
Mr. Radhey Shyam Tenguria, MD
Dropdi Herbals
There are some companies which could not make profit but we are very strong in the quality with good knowledge and among all companies Ram Vijay our parent company is very pioneer on Organic. We understand the domain, we understand the product, we apply right things to the right people so if you have a right quality and going to give exact result then definitely any one can make the profit. We are very confident on this and we have a very good experience on that. There are companies which are not able to attain desired results hence they are obviously losing in the market.
Quoted by-
Regards,