Mr. Vikas Anand Jamkhandi
CEO and Founder
SymGrow Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Famous American basketball Coach, John Wooden is said to have quoted “It is the little things that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
Mr. Vikas Anand Jamkhandi is a young agri-entrepreneur who chose to give attention to the fine details in agriculture and fine tune it for farmers. The intent is to cater to the safety of farmers, lower their production cost, and push up their profit levels.
“We are an agro-tech start up from Hubbali, Karnataka. We envision to make irrigation sustainable, safe and convenient for our farmers. We build certain electrical and electronic products which help farmers solve their irrigation-related issues. The major issue we see that farmers' irrigation motors getting burnt because of the high fluctuation of electricity in rural India. Each time an irrigation motor gets burnt, a farmer spends close to Rs 7,000 – 10,000 to repair it.
At a bird’s eye view, there are about 2 crore irrigation motors in India and 53% farmers are facing this issue. Collectively over 7-8 thousand crores of farmers' money is being spent on repairing burnt motors. Most importantly, in 2017 alone, over 1000 farmers died of electrical shock while operating their motors manually.”
Being the son of a farmer and an electrical engineer himself, Vikas began working on a solution to address this issue. This is genesis of the journey of Vikas's company and product.
“Today we have come up with a device similar to a stabilizer for agri-motors. It is an additional device for the existing motor set up. This one product keeps the motors from burning out and also automates the whole motor controlling part.
With this device installed on their farms, farmers do not have to operate their motors manually. Our product protects farmers' lives and saves them money in terms of periodically repairing his motors as well, which of course adds on to their profits.”
The cream on the cake is that in the last 1 year, their company has sold over 3000 items of their product, Smart Fault Preventer.
“I started working on this product since the last 2 years and we formed SymGrow Technologies in May of 2019. I founded this startup with the objective to make irrigation sustainable, safe and hassle-free for Indian farmers. Today, Symgrow offers a wide range of electrical, electronic and IOT products which help farmers tackle their irrigation related challenges. Farmers from 9 districts spread across Northern Karnataka and Maharashtra are using our products and they all seem to be benefiting from it really well.”
Is this a funded company or it is self -funded?
It is our own money.
Are there no other companies doing similar things or is yours a pioneer product?
Honestly, there are many companies and products that address the lack of automation. There are products in the market that help farmers switch their motors on and off by sending an SMS or via a phone app notification. But they are only addressing things at a surface level. They are only helping farmers get the convenience of remotely operating their motor.
Burning of motors, which is purely the outcome of electricity fluctuations, is a bigger issue altogether. The other products existing in the market do not address that part of the issue. When we say electric fluctuations, we mean voltage fluctuations, phase reversals, etc. Apart from this, there are other reasons like the bore well running out of water which starts pumping only air and that contributes towards burning motors. Whenever single phasing happens, farmers try putting capacitors or try to put hooks to the power supply fuses and play around with electrical appliances. When they do such things, they are endangering their motors and their own lives.
Our product ensures the smooth running of motors and keeps farmers from playing around with electrical things.
Is the Karnataka Electricity Board facilitating such things which can make things seamless for you?
We are trying to explore that space. We are having talks with the Irrigation and Electricity Boards of Karnataka. We aim at making it mandatory to deploy such a device on farms.
What were you into before venturing into this?
I completed my Bachelors in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2018 and just after college I got into this. I did my pilot project while I was in college.
What are some of the challenges you face as a young agriculture-based entrepreneur?
I come from an agri-family myself and so I have an understanding about the field like pulse of the farmer, the whole dynamics of the ecosystem, etc. We ourselves are in possession of quite a good number of motors etc. So, building the prototype and testing was not that big a hurdle.
The engineering complexities aside, I was blessed to have people who were willing to explore and use the device I built. One thing is that, in the last 2-3 years, farmers have started becoming open to idea of exploring things. They look towards new things in the market and to be honest, I found them to be more open than what I had expected.
This can be owing to the desperate need to increase their income, cut down their costs, the sheer willingness to explore new things or may be a combination of it all. This helped me a lot because whenever I approached a farmer and explained how the device works, how it helps and the number of people in my village using it, they open up to the idea. Getting the first hand of people to use my device wasn't an issue for me. That worked in my favour.
Tell us about the recognition that came your way.
In 2018 Startup India recognized us as the Number 1 agri-tech start-up in Karnataka during their Karnataka Yatra.
The Ministry of Information Technology & Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka has this Idea2PoC grant, wherein a startup can get a grant of up to 50lakhs. We won that too. We are among the 100 startups in the whole of Karnataka that managed to win it.
We are now looking forward to expanding across Karnataka in the next 6 months. Currently, the bigger challenge is that owing to my lack of business experience or business education, everything I do every day seems new and so there are high chances that we may go wrong due to the lack of basic understanding or information.
For us fine details like legal aspects, statutory laws, etc. seem like gigantic issues. So, scaling up will require lot of planning, structuring and caution.
How do you visualize scaling this up?
We have experimented with dealers as a channel to reach out to consumers and it has been working well for us. Right now, we plan on taking the next 20,000 products through the dealer network itself.
We are looking forward to having more number of dealers across Karnataka. For the next 6 months, we are sticking to dealers as our only channel to sell more units. Apart from that, we are trying to work with Jilla Panchayats too.
If that works out for us, our next big phase will be Jilla Panchayats purchasing from us. We are also trying to see how things shape up with the Maharashtra Government. If they are willing to collaborate with us, it will be great.
Have you safeguarded your technology?
We are working towards patents and we plan to file it. Our product is also going through a lot of refinement in terms of our algorithms. That is another reason why we are taking time to file for patents.
How do you go about manufacturing these devices?
It is manufactured in Hubbali, Karnataka.
Most of the spare parts come prefabricated - they are already available in the market. Rest of the electronic design is our own. So, we fabricate the control boards etc. from outside and assemble it in-house.
The whole product assembling happens in house and so does quality control, testing and dispatching to consumers.
What will the cost be to set up this system on an acre of land which hosts different crops?
The cost is not dependent on the size of the land. It depends on the number of pump sets on the field. It works on a 1:1 ratio - one device for each pump set.
The deployment of pump sets on the field depends on the source of water. If they have it sourced from their well or bore well, they won’t be requiring high end motors. But if they are drawing water from a river, etc., which is perhaps 6-7 kms away from their site, they would need perhaps 2 motors/pump sets.
The device comes in different models with a price range between Rs 400-Rs 8000. It is more beneficial than spending almost half the initial cost of a motor each time it gets burned out. It costs about Rs 7000-8000/- to repair a motor, the initial cost of which would have been Rs 18000-20000/-.
Does the device work with the motors deployed for both types of water sources?
Yes, it does. It is suitable for all kinds of pump sets being used for agriculture, today.
Other than the automatic switching on and off of the motor, are there anymore automation in place that this device offers?
All kinds of fluctuations in electricity and single phasing can either burn out the motor or lead to automation machines switching off the motor. In that case also the farmer still got to go to the site and take care of whatever that has happened.
Our product disconnects the motor, saving the fuse from getting burnt, whenever there is a fluctuation. Initially, the motor which was running on three phase changes to two phase. Our product disconnects the motor and once the power gets back to normal condition, it senses it and switches on the motor. This way, the motor won’t run under overloading conditions which keeps hazardous situations at bay.
What about the maintenance, upkeep repairs etc. especially for farmlands in remote areas?
It is of low probability that our device gets burnt because of the way in which it is designed. We have provided a warranty period of 6 months in the event that our product gets burnt, under unforeseen circumstances.
At each Taluk level or bigger town, we train a mechanic who can repair our burnt device. Either the dealer selling our product or a person under him will be trained or one of the motor repairing mechanics will be picked from each town and trained to repair our device.
It will be a simple 2-hour training course after which they will be able to repair our device.
Did any of your buyers receive any subsidy for buying your product?
No, they didn't. The product isn't subsidized.
Based on your 1 year stint, what would your advice be to a student who may opt for getting into agri-entrepreneurship?
I think it is the perfect time to enter this space. Everyone in the country is being made aware of what happens in the agricultural sector and government organisations are recognizing great ideas. I am a living example of that.
It is highly encouraging to be in this sector. Banks and many other organisations are all in support of uplifting the agricultural sector. I don't think this was the case about 5 years ago. Also, 5 years down the line perhaps this space will get too crowded. So, now is the ideal time.
Mr. Vikas found a host of possibilities and opportunities in the burning of motors. When people looked at it as a small thing, he saw big dangers that caused huge costs. Looking into finer details got him to do big things and harvest big profits for himself and the farming community. We wish him all the best and encourage the youth of the country to take their ideas forward, fearlessly.
Contact
Vikas Anand Jamkhandi
Company Symgrow Technologies Pvt Ltd
Street Gokul road
City Hubballi
Zip Code 580030
State Karnataka
Country India
Phone-9481732756
Email- vikas.jamkhandi@gmail.com
CEO and Founder
SymGrow Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Famous American basketball Coach, John Wooden is said to have quoted “It is the little things that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
Mr. Vikas Anand Jamkhandi is a young agri-entrepreneur who chose to give attention to the fine details in agriculture and fine tune it for farmers. The intent is to cater to the safety of farmers, lower their production cost, and push up their profit levels.
“We are an agro-tech start up from Hubbali, Karnataka. We envision to make irrigation sustainable, safe and convenient for our farmers. We build certain electrical and electronic products which help farmers solve their irrigation-related issues. The major issue we see that farmers' irrigation motors getting burnt because of the high fluctuation of electricity in rural India. Each time an irrigation motor gets burnt, a farmer spends close to Rs 7,000 – 10,000 to repair it.
At a bird’s eye view, there are about 2 crore irrigation motors in India and 53% farmers are facing this issue. Collectively over 7-8 thousand crores of farmers' money is being spent on repairing burnt motors. Most importantly, in 2017 alone, over 1000 farmers died of electrical shock while operating their motors manually.”
Being the son of a farmer and an electrical engineer himself, Vikas began working on a solution to address this issue. This is genesis of the journey of Vikas's company and product.
“Today we have come up with a device similar to a stabilizer for agri-motors. It is an additional device for the existing motor set up. This one product keeps the motors from burning out and also automates the whole motor controlling part.
With this device installed on their farms, farmers do not have to operate their motors manually. Our product protects farmers' lives and saves them money in terms of periodically repairing his motors as well, which of course adds on to their profits.”
The cream on the cake is that in the last 1 year, their company has sold over 3000 items of their product, Smart Fault Preventer.
“I started working on this product since the last 2 years and we formed SymGrow Technologies in May of 2019. I founded this startup with the objective to make irrigation sustainable, safe and hassle-free for Indian farmers. Today, Symgrow offers a wide range of electrical, electronic and IOT products which help farmers tackle their irrigation related challenges. Farmers from 9 districts spread across Northern Karnataka and Maharashtra are using our products and they all seem to be benefiting from it really well.”
Is this a funded company or it is self -funded?
It is our own money.
Are there no other companies doing similar things or is yours a pioneer product?
Honestly, there are many companies and products that address the lack of automation. There are products in the market that help farmers switch their motors on and off by sending an SMS or via a phone app notification. But they are only addressing things at a surface level. They are only helping farmers get the convenience of remotely operating their motor.
Burning of motors, which is purely the outcome of electricity fluctuations, is a bigger issue altogether. The other products existing in the market do not address that part of the issue. When we say electric fluctuations, we mean voltage fluctuations, phase reversals, etc. Apart from this, there are other reasons like the bore well running out of water which starts pumping only air and that contributes towards burning motors. Whenever single phasing happens, farmers try putting capacitors or try to put hooks to the power supply fuses and play around with electrical appliances. When they do such things, they are endangering their motors and their own lives.
Our product ensures the smooth running of motors and keeps farmers from playing around with electrical things.
Is the Karnataka Electricity Board facilitating such things which can make things seamless for you?
We are trying to explore that space. We are having talks with the Irrigation and Electricity Boards of Karnataka. We aim at making it mandatory to deploy such a device on farms.
What were you into before venturing into this?
I completed my Bachelors in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2018 and just after college I got into this. I did my pilot project while I was in college.
What are some of the challenges you face as a young agriculture-based entrepreneur?
I come from an agri-family myself and so I have an understanding about the field like pulse of the farmer, the whole dynamics of the ecosystem, etc. We ourselves are in possession of quite a good number of motors etc. So, building the prototype and testing was not that big a hurdle.
The engineering complexities aside, I was blessed to have people who were willing to explore and use the device I built. One thing is that, in the last 2-3 years, farmers have started becoming open to idea of exploring things. They look towards new things in the market and to be honest, I found them to be more open than what I had expected.
This can be owing to the desperate need to increase their income, cut down their costs, the sheer willingness to explore new things or may be a combination of it all. This helped me a lot because whenever I approached a farmer and explained how the device works, how it helps and the number of people in my village using it, they open up to the idea. Getting the first hand of people to use my device wasn't an issue for me. That worked in my favour.
Tell us about the recognition that came your way.
In 2018 Startup India recognized us as the Number 1 agri-tech start-up in Karnataka during their Karnataka Yatra.
The Ministry of Information Technology & Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka has this Idea2PoC grant, wherein a startup can get a grant of up to 50lakhs. We won that too. We are among the 100 startups in the whole of Karnataka that managed to win it.
We are now looking forward to expanding across Karnataka in the next 6 months. Currently, the bigger challenge is that owing to my lack of business experience or business education, everything I do every day seems new and so there are high chances that we may go wrong due to the lack of basic understanding or information.
For us fine details like legal aspects, statutory laws, etc. seem like gigantic issues. So, scaling up will require lot of planning, structuring and caution.
How do you visualize scaling this up?
We have experimented with dealers as a channel to reach out to consumers and it has been working well for us. Right now, we plan on taking the next 20,000 products through the dealer network itself.
We are looking forward to having more number of dealers across Karnataka. For the next 6 months, we are sticking to dealers as our only channel to sell more units. Apart from that, we are trying to work with Jilla Panchayats too.
If that works out for us, our next big phase will be Jilla Panchayats purchasing from us. We are also trying to see how things shape up with the Maharashtra Government. If they are willing to collaborate with us, it will be great.
Have you safeguarded your technology?
We are working towards patents and we plan to file it. Our product is also going through a lot of refinement in terms of our algorithms. That is another reason why we are taking time to file for patents.
How do you go about manufacturing these devices?
It is manufactured in Hubbali, Karnataka.
Most of the spare parts come prefabricated - they are already available in the market. Rest of the electronic design is our own. So, we fabricate the control boards etc. from outside and assemble it in-house.
The whole product assembling happens in house and so does quality control, testing and dispatching to consumers.
What will the cost be to set up this system on an acre of land which hosts different crops?
The cost is not dependent on the size of the land. It depends on the number of pump sets on the field. It works on a 1:1 ratio - one device for each pump set.
The deployment of pump sets on the field depends on the source of water. If they have it sourced from their well or bore well, they won’t be requiring high end motors. But if they are drawing water from a river, etc., which is perhaps 6-7 kms away from their site, they would need perhaps 2 motors/pump sets.
The device comes in different models with a price range between Rs 400-Rs 8000. It is more beneficial than spending almost half the initial cost of a motor each time it gets burned out. It costs about Rs 7000-8000/- to repair a motor, the initial cost of which would have been Rs 18000-20000/-.
Does the device work with the motors deployed for both types of water sources?
Yes, it does. It is suitable for all kinds of pump sets being used for agriculture, today.
Other than the automatic switching on and off of the motor, are there anymore automation in place that this device offers?
All kinds of fluctuations in electricity and single phasing can either burn out the motor or lead to automation machines switching off the motor. In that case also the farmer still got to go to the site and take care of whatever that has happened.
Our product disconnects the motor, saving the fuse from getting burnt, whenever there is a fluctuation. Initially, the motor which was running on three phase changes to two phase. Our product disconnects the motor and once the power gets back to normal condition, it senses it and switches on the motor. This way, the motor won’t run under overloading conditions which keeps hazardous situations at bay.
What about the maintenance, upkeep repairs etc. especially for farmlands in remote areas?
It is of low probability that our device gets burnt because of the way in which it is designed. We have provided a warranty period of 6 months in the event that our product gets burnt, under unforeseen circumstances.
At each Taluk level or bigger town, we train a mechanic who can repair our burnt device. Either the dealer selling our product or a person under him will be trained or one of the motor repairing mechanics will be picked from each town and trained to repair our device.
It will be a simple 2-hour training course after which they will be able to repair our device.
Did any of your buyers receive any subsidy for buying your product?
No, they didn't. The product isn't subsidized.
Based on your 1 year stint, what would your advice be to a student who may opt for getting into agri-entrepreneurship?
I think it is the perfect time to enter this space. Everyone in the country is being made aware of what happens in the agricultural sector and government organisations are recognizing great ideas. I am a living example of that.
It is highly encouraging to be in this sector. Banks and many other organisations are all in support of uplifting the agricultural sector. I don't think this was the case about 5 years ago. Also, 5 years down the line perhaps this space will get too crowded. So, now is the ideal time.
Mr. Vikas found a host of possibilities and opportunities in the burning of motors. When people looked at it as a small thing, he saw big dangers that caused huge costs. Looking into finer details got him to do big things and harvest big profits for himself and the farming community. We wish him all the best and encourage the youth of the country to take their ideas forward, fearlessly.
Contact
Vikas Anand Jamkhandi
Company Symgrow Technologies Pvt Ltd
Street Gokul road
City Hubballi
Zip Code 580030
State Karnataka
Country India
Phone-9481732756
Email- vikas.jamkhandi@gmail.com
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