Working in an IT environment year after year takes one to boredom. V Ravikumar, B K Ravishankar, Gratian Perez and R Ramamurthi, all of us thought that we should do something different that can help us contribute to the society that has made us what we are today. We could have chosen any industry at that point of time. But all of us are nature lovers and have enormous zeal and passion for agriculture.
We thought that if our country has to really grow, we need to promote agriculture not just as an industry that provides food security but as a propeller that will take us great heights. Thus agriculture became our choice. Having chosen Agriculture, we want to do it differently. Hence we spent our initial days in planning as to how we can move forward. We identified the challenges that this industry is facing. In our opinion, the key challenges the industry is facing are as follows:
1) Operational efficiency and viability of the business as such and 2) Infrastructure and supply chain bottlenecks
On our research we found that if we need to increase the efficiency and the viability of the business, we can do that only when we can reduce the input cost in a price sensitive market, where the product's output value is beyond our control. Thus we came to a conclusion that organic and integrated farming is the only viable way where we can make this business more viable. It not only helps sustain but also provides good revenue opportunities over a long term.
To address the second challenge, we found that we had adopted a unique business model that helps us reach the end customers (with practically no middle men). Hence we put in efforts to identify a market segment that can provide us high margin without any supply bottlenecks.
We concluded that if we need to sell our products with a good margin, we should reach out to the customers directly. Hence our research of the challenges that the industry is facing helped us design a business model that addresses them in a unique and better manner.
Hence, in 2007 February, our company Lake Forest Farmtech was established. All the four partners have equal stake in the firm and actively participate in pursuing our goals. As of date we have so far acquired around 65 acres of land in Sikkanapalli Village, Berikai town, Shoolagiri Taluk, Krishnagiri district.
We all are managing our profession and passion in parallel.
As shared by-
Mr. Ravikumar.V, Managing Partner
Lake Forest Farmtech
