Tell us about your background and how you got interested in farming.
I am born and brought up in Kolkata, and after completing my B. Tech in 2012, I joined PWC. I bought my two consultant firms in 2016. Basically, while I was working with PWC, I started questioning what I see myself doing 10-15 years down the line. After a few months of thinking about it, I took a break from my work and I went to a village in West Bengal and I met a few farmers over there. I spent a week with the farmers and was trying to understand their problem. Actually they do paddy thrice a year and over the course of the last few years what they have noticed is that opportunity has gone down. No matter how many fertilizers they give, productivity is not improving. The pesticides that worked last year, did not work this year and they had to go to the shop and look for a different pesticide. When they got the first pesticide, it did not work, second one didn’t work either. It was the third or the fourth pesticide which worked. So, this is the situation, and they eventually sell it up at the minimum support price. Over the years, they hardly make Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 60,000 in a year, per acre and that has been diminishing. Average land holding was somewhere around 1.5 acres, not more than that. So, I questioned them as to what are they planning to do now and what are their kids going to do? So, they are trying to get their kids educated and said that there is no way they are getting into farming. So, that is when it struck me that what is happening is that 50% of the population of India is involved in agriculture and they are contributing about 15% to the GDP, and every year we have more than 1,00,000 farmers who are quitting farming. If you look at the suicide numbers that is around 12,000 to 15,000 every year in India. If we don’t put a stop to this migration of farmers from farming to daily wage workers we will end up becoming like America, wherein there are handful of farmers who own a few pieces of land. This is not right, and something needs to be done. It is then that I realized that maybe I have to take this up, figure out various challenges and find solutions. That is when I decided to quit my job. This was in 2014 May or June, and it was in December 2014 that I quit my job. After that, 2015 onwards, the first one and a half year was spent mostly on traveling, going through trainings, working on farms. From harvesting to sowing seeds, running behind the tractors ensuring seeds are properly places, I have done everything. After going through these trainings I would visit farms where the followers of such practices are there and to see how they are doing it. It has been four and a half years doing that now. Almost every month, I travel to different parts of the country to understand the farming methodology and how they have converted their farming into a successful venture. While I was doing all of this, I also got a project which spanned eight months. It was funded by the HRD Ministry to build model farming and we were doing a fairly good job. But the problem was there was usage of chemicals, and personally that is something which I am against. After meeting all these farmers whether it’s Punjab, Haryana or Tamil Nadu or Karnataka and I realized that something has to be created through organic approach when it comes to farming, along with an optimized supply chain. These are the two things that require attention to solve the agricultural problems we have. This is how my journey began. Because of the process of IIT Kharagpur, where they were using a lot of chemicals, I quit after the first 7-8 months. When I was working there, I saw the focus of the farmers was paddy, and I started suggesting them what other crops that would require lesser effort could benefit them. After a few days of debate they asked me ‘what’s your credibility, have you done hands on farming’? I think they had a very valid question. So, that is when I decided to start my own farm. I built a farm by myself, and eventually in 2016 June I started running it. It is a 3.3 acre farm near Kolkata and while I was looking for land I would have rejected at least 40-50 plots in a month. So, I used to get 40-50 calls every week from people who wanted to get into farming, and a lot of them didn’t own land. So, the first question was how I was going to select land. Just one month of experience when I was looking for land and it takes a lot, because there is no water, there is no soil. On the tribal land there is no road access. There is a dam nearby and there is absolute flooding for four months, I had to face all of this, before I realized that, ok, this piece of land is not right for me. Then I found this one near Kolkata and it was quite appropriate for farming that happened in June 2016.
Right now are you looking at this farm as economically viable in a self sustaining way?
In the first year I harvested somewhere 30-35 varieties of vegetables, cereals, pulses and a little bit of oil seeds as well. And after this first year of experience I thought okay this is fine, I got the experience, but the idea was to always work with farmers and help them out. Then I came across two people in Kolkata who were into organic vegetables from an NGO in Sundarbans. And they were sending organic vegetables to Kolkata. I told them that I want to work with these farmers; I want to observe their productivity and have a better production of crops with the customers. But this NGO from Sundarbans told me that they don’t even have a stable market. So, for the next 7-8 months I helped them with the sorting, packaging, online ordering system and home delivery system. Then I got a few associate directors from big MNC on board, and we created an entire business management around it, so that we could raise some funding and start marketing, and then expand. The idea was to meet people who were traveling and take care of sales and marketing. Now I shifted to Sundarbans to work with the farmers. But things didn’t work out the way we planned, and the NGO said we don’t want you people on board. They wanted me to just handle the marketing and would give me a commission. So, I told them that I wasn’t a commission agent or a sales person; I am someone who can work on the field and can help you with the field work but not this sort of work. So, after a year, I had to quit that and that is when I started wondering what I should do next. That is when I came up with a new idea. There have been high networking individuals who had been calling me from a few years. They asked me to develop a farm for them. I planned to develop a good big model farm and then approach the farmers in the vicinity to come and copy the same thing. I have met a lot of these organic farmers, entrepreneurs and I have come across a lot of experts. One thing what I do is I try to learn from what they have done, and try it on my farm. If you look at my farm now I have 40 varieties of perennials growing there and then we also grow aloe vera, mint, and oyster mushroom all on my farm.
Are you able to generate enough revenue that covers your cost?
If you look at the current scenario in manufacturing in any industry, if every farmer starts thinking that I want to grow my own stuff and take it to the home of the consumers directly, it’s not going to happen. There are various challenges in that. I have come across farmers wherein I told him I want 100 kgs, they said it is not possible. They said that all the seed that you see on my farm has already been sold at 55 per kg, it’s a crisis. Now, when it came to what I did and how I took it, one advantage that I have is that my farm is close to the city and somewhere around ten years ago; the doctors had told my father that he has a few weeks left, if you are lucky a few months. He had a terminal disease and there was no solution in terms of western medicine. My mother thought that if we could use it then maybe it will add on a few years to his life. We started giving him ayurvedic juices, I don’t want to name any company and it did not help and he was hospitalized four to five times in four months. There was an ayurvedic doctor in Kolkata and he told us that if you get him wheat craft, aloe vera, tulsi and if you prepare a juice, he will be fine. And he has been absolutely fine; it has been more than ten years. So, when I came into farming this was the first thing I did to ensure that I grow it organically and send it home. So, my parents, friends, and relatives they all started asking for it. There was this farmer who asked for it and he lived around 60 kms away from the farm. I told him fine and sent the stuff. Later on I realized that he was a doctor and he started recommending all his patients to start taking this special juice and the volumes shot up like anything. Now every Friday we broadcast a WhatsApp message giving them the list of the products that they can order and every Saturday and Sunday, we deliver across the entire city. Why I am talking about specifically such products in detail is that if you realize, some of the products that don’t need a lot of space and each quantity can be done in a smaller space. I can grow them throughout the year. I will give you an example – aloe vera, some people use it in their juice. A lot of my clients have actually replaced their soap, shampoos and conditioner and shaving gel with aloe vera gel. What they do is they just take out the pulp from inside, blend it in a mixture and store it in their refrigerator, so this was again another advantage. None of them have taken a voluminous space. So, if I have to home deliver it, then it could be easily delivered on a two wheeler. These are some of the factors that I considered when I started selling my products, and that is how I started my farm. Now let’s say I do fish water aqua culture, what I did was I realized that the demand of fish is high in October when we have the Durga Puja and when we have the Bengali new year. Every fresh water aqua culture, what they do is, in October, November, December they clear all their thorns. Fish does not do very well in the winters, so by the time winters come, everyone is out of fish and the demand is very high. I took in all my fishing skills. I take that risk wherein I have to sustain the winter month. That is when they are more prone to fungal infection, but if you are a little bit careful it’s not a very big challenge. So, we make good profit every year. So, all of this is the analysis that one has to do, and I realized what the products were which suited for their face.
Tell us about your experience in marketing.
I never took the direct marketing path for that, I always streamlined the process. Like every Saturday people will come and start taking the vegetables. I just said let’s make things more convenient, let’s start the home delivery process that was the single most helpful tact. After that we started taking feedback, but it wasn’t done properly. So, once a friend told me that she had gotten all the vegetables but it was a big plastic and everything was mixed, so we started getting those net baskets. Then we realized that packing of all the stuff is taking a lot of time at the shop. So, we said start getting packages of 250g, 500g and 1 kg. These were some of the things introduced. I started making sure that proper sorting was done. We never lost a client.
What about supply chain?
There are a lot of startups coming up to optimize the supply chain and depending on the commodity if there is a process wherein the farmer is close to 40%-45% or up to 50% of the base price, this is a sustainable liking of supply chain which you can work with. Now you have to engage people in the urban areas, who can do the last mile delivery, while the farmer keeps half of the supply chain. This is how it has to happen in the future.
Contact-
Abhishek Singhania
Naturista
Street 157, Vinoba Bhave Road,
Prantik Residency, Flat 1C
Kolkata – 700038
West Bengal
Phone: 8583973978
E-Mail: singhania.iit@gmail.com
I am born and brought up in Kolkata, and after completing my B. Tech in 2012, I joined PWC. I bought my two consultant firms in 2016. Basically, while I was working with PWC, I started questioning what I see myself doing 10-15 years down the line. After a few months of thinking about it, I took a break from my work and I went to a village in West Bengal and I met a few farmers over there. I spent a week with the farmers and was trying to understand their problem. Actually they do paddy thrice a year and over the course of the last few years what they have noticed is that opportunity has gone down. No matter how many fertilizers they give, productivity is not improving. The pesticides that worked last year, did not work this year and they had to go to the shop and look for a different pesticide. When they got the first pesticide, it did not work, second one didn’t work either. It was the third or the fourth pesticide which worked. So, this is the situation, and they eventually sell it up at the minimum support price. Over the years, they hardly make Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 60,000 in a year, per acre and that has been diminishing. Average land holding was somewhere around 1.5 acres, not more than that. So, I questioned them as to what are they planning to do now and what are their kids going to do? So, they are trying to get their kids educated and said that there is no way they are getting into farming. So, that is when it struck me that what is happening is that 50% of the population of India is involved in agriculture and they are contributing about 15% to the GDP, and every year we have more than 1,00,000 farmers who are quitting farming. If you look at the suicide numbers that is around 12,000 to 15,000 every year in India. If we don’t put a stop to this migration of farmers from farming to daily wage workers we will end up becoming like America, wherein there are handful of farmers who own a few pieces of land. This is not right, and something needs to be done. It is then that I realized that maybe I have to take this up, figure out various challenges and find solutions. That is when I decided to quit my job. This was in 2014 May or June, and it was in December 2014 that I quit my job. After that, 2015 onwards, the first one and a half year was spent mostly on traveling, going through trainings, working on farms. From harvesting to sowing seeds, running behind the tractors ensuring seeds are properly places, I have done everything. After going through these trainings I would visit farms where the followers of such practices are there and to see how they are doing it. It has been four and a half years doing that now. Almost every month, I travel to different parts of the country to understand the farming methodology and how they have converted their farming into a successful venture. While I was doing all of this, I also got a project which spanned eight months. It was funded by the HRD Ministry to build model farming and we were doing a fairly good job. But the problem was there was usage of chemicals, and personally that is something which I am against. After meeting all these farmers whether it’s Punjab, Haryana or Tamil Nadu or Karnataka and I realized that something has to be created through organic approach when it comes to farming, along with an optimized supply chain. These are the two things that require attention to solve the agricultural problems we have. This is how my journey began. Because of the process of IIT Kharagpur, where they were using a lot of chemicals, I quit after the first 7-8 months. When I was working there, I saw the focus of the farmers was paddy, and I started suggesting them what other crops that would require lesser effort could benefit them. After a few days of debate they asked me ‘what’s your credibility, have you done hands on farming’? I think they had a very valid question. So, that is when I decided to start my own farm. I built a farm by myself, and eventually in 2016 June I started running it. It is a 3.3 acre farm near Kolkata and while I was looking for land I would have rejected at least 40-50 plots in a month. So, I used to get 40-50 calls every week from people who wanted to get into farming, and a lot of them didn’t own land. So, the first question was how I was going to select land. Just one month of experience when I was looking for land and it takes a lot, because there is no water, there is no soil. On the tribal land there is no road access. There is a dam nearby and there is absolute flooding for four months, I had to face all of this, before I realized that, ok, this piece of land is not right for me. Then I found this one near Kolkata and it was quite appropriate for farming that happened in June 2016.
Right now are you looking at this farm as economically viable in a self sustaining way?
In the first year I harvested somewhere 30-35 varieties of vegetables, cereals, pulses and a little bit of oil seeds as well. And after this first year of experience I thought okay this is fine, I got the experience, but the idea was to always work with farmers and help them out. Then I came across two people in Kolkata who were into organic vegetables from an NGO in Sundarbans. And they were sending organic vegetables to Kolkata. I told them that I want to work with these farmers; I want to observe their productivity and have a better production of crops with the customers. But this NGO from Sundarbans told me that they don’t even have a stable market. So, for the next 7-8 months I helped them with the sorting, packaging, online ordering system and home delivery system. Then I got a few associate directors from big MNC on board, and we created an entire business management around it, so that we could raise some funding and start marketing, and then expand. The idea was to meet people who were traveling and take care of sales and marketing. Now I shifted to Sundarbans to work with the farmers. But things didn’t work out the way we planned, and the NGO said we don’t want you people on board. They wanted me to just handle the marketing and would give me a commission. So, I told them that I wasn’t a commission agent or a sales person; I am someone who can work on the field and can help you with the field work but not this sort of work. So, after a year, I had to quit that and that is when I started wondering what I should do next. That is when I came up with a new idea. There have been high networking individuals who had been calling me from a few years. They asked me to develop a farm for them. I planned to develop a good big model farm and then approach the farmers in the vicinity to come and copy the same thing. I have met a lot of these organic farmers, entrepreneurs and I have come across a lot of experts. One thing what I do is I try to learn from what they have done, and try it on my farm. If you look at my farm now I have 40 varieties of perennials growing there and then we also grow aloe vera, mint, and oyster mushroom all on my farm.
Are you able to generate enough revenue that covers your cost?
If you look at the current scenario in manufacturing in any industry, if every farmer starts thinking that I want to grow my own stuff and take it to the home of the consumers directly, it’s not going to happen. There are various challenges in that. I have come across farmers wherein I told him I want 100 kgs, they said it is not possible. They said that all the seed that you see on my farm has already been sold at 55 per kg, it’s a crisis. Now, when it came to what I did and how I took it, one advantage that I have is that my farm is close to the city and somewhere around ten years ago; the doctors had told my father that he has a few weeks left, if you are lucky a few months. He had a terminal disease and there was no solution in terms of western medicine. My mother thought that if we could use it then maybe it will add on a few years to his life. We started giving him ayurvedic juices, I don’t want to name any company and it did not help and he was hospitalized four to five times in four months. There was an ayurvedic doctor in Kolkata and he told us that if you get him wheat craft, aloe vera, tulsi and if you prepare a juice, he will be fine. And he has been absolutely fine; it has been more than ten years. So, when I came into farming this was the first thing I did to ensure that I grow it organically and send it home. So, my parents, friends, and relatives they all started asking for it. There was this farmer who asked for it and he lived around 60 kms away from the farm. I told him fine and sent the stuff. Later on I realized that he was a doctor and he started recommending all his patients to start taking this special juice and the volumes shot up like anything. Now every Friday we broadcast a WhatsApp message giving them the list of the products that they can order and every Saturday and Sunday, we deliver across the entire city. Why I am talking about specifically such products in detail is that if you realize, some of the products that don’t need a lot of space and each quantity can be done in a smaller space. I can grow them throughout the year. I will give you an example – aloe vera, some people use it in their juice. A lot of my clients have actually replaced their soap, shampoos and conditioner and shaving gel with aloe vera gel. What they do is they just take out the pulp from inside, blend it in a mixture and store it in their refrigerator, so this was again another advantage. None of them have taken a voluminous space. So, if I have to home deliver it, then it could be easily delivered on a two wheeler. These are some of the factors that I considered when I started selling my products, and that is how I started my farm. Now let’s say I do fish water aqua culture, what I did was I realized that the demand of fish is high in October when we have the Durga Puja and when we have the Bengali new year. Every fresh water aqua culture, what they do is, in October, November, December they clear all their thorns. Fish does not do very well in the winters, so by the time winters come, everyone is out of fish and the demand is very high. I took in all my fishing skills. I take that risk wherein I have to sustain the winter month. That is when they are more prone to fungal infection, but if you are a little bit careful it’s not a very big challenge. So, we make good profit every year. So, all of this is the analysis that one has to do, and I realized what the products were which suited for their face.
Tell us about your experience in marketing.
I never took the direct marketing path for that, I always streamlined the process. Like every Saturday people will come and start taking the vegetables. I just said let’s make things more convenient, let’s start the home delivery process that was the single most helpful tact. After that we started taking feedback, but it wasn’t done properly. So, once a friend told me that she had gotten all the vegetables but it was a big plastic and everything was mixed, so we started getting those net baskets. Then we realized that packing of all the stuff is taking a lot of time at the shop. So, we said start getting packages of 250g, 500g and 1 kg. These were some of the things introduced. I started making sure that proper sorting was done. We never lost a client.
What about supply chain?
There are a lot of startups coming up to optimize the supply chain and depending on the commodity if there is a process wherein the farmer is close to 40%-45% or up to 50% of the base price, this is a sustainable liking of supply chain which you can work with. Now you have to engage people in the urban areas, who can do the last mile delivery, while the farmer keeps half of the supply chain. This is how it has to happen in the future.
Contact-
Abhishek Singhania
Naturista
Street 157, Vinoba Bhave Road,
Prantik Residency, Flat 1C
Kolkata – 700038
West Bengal
Phone: 8583973978
E-Mail: singhania.iit@gmail.com
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