Times Applaud

Akshay Shrivastav is an engineer from Uttar Pradesh who has launched a startup, called LCB Fertilisers. The company makes a biofertiliser that can help farmers boost their yield and substantially reduce water requirements. Growing up, Akshay Shrivastav saw his father, a farmer in UP's Kushinagar area, struggle with a slew of challenges, including insufficient irrigation infrastructure, rising production costs, fertiliser inefficiency, and so on. According to Akshay, over use of chemical fertilizers reduces agriculture output and promotes environmental damage. Because water retention capacity is diminished, soil quality deteriorates, resulting in increased demand. He says, "I chose chemical engineering to obtain a deeper grasp of the issue and to discover solutions for increasing agricultural productivity. My father's experiences on his farm inspired me to aid the community." For this, the 23-year-old has developed a biofertiliser that he claims can ...

Weather Risk Management Services provides a range of tech-driven input advisory services to farmers. By doing so the startup helps farmers boost yield, backing it with guaranteed purchase of their produce. With agriculture employing 54.6 percent of the workforce in India, many farmers rely on weather forecasts to make better agricultural decisions such as planting crops on time. Smallholder farmers, in particular, rely on precise weather information since unexpected downpour or other extreme weather conditions can lead to financial devastation. Weather Risk Management Services (WRMS), an agritech business established at IIT Kanpur, claims to be well-positioned to meet the demands of this market. The Gurugram-based firm, founded in 2004 by Sonu Agrawal, Anuj Kumbhat, and Ashish Agarwal, has fine-tuned its solutions for the Indian agriculture sector over the previous 18 years. It began by supplying weather forecasting services to insurance firms, which used it to create crop i...

Kumar Ranjan is the creator of eFeed, an agri-tech business that just featured on Shark Tank India to demonstrate their unique software for cow feeding programs. Lucknow-born Kumar Ranjan has always wished to pursue a job that would have some societal influence. He worked seven years in the automobile business, developing breakthrough technology and creating self-driving cars. He then briefly shifted to the electric car business. But neither could help him get to where he wanted to go: making a lasting effect with his art. During the early stages of COVID-19, he had the opportunity to have an influence when he visited with a few poultry producers to identify the deficiencies in the agriculture industry. Ranjan claims that his father works for a NABARD-funded organization that helps farmers and agricultural students launch their own businesses. Ranjan participated in it by giving lectures to students in 2018-19 to assist them become agri-entrepreneurs. With this insight, ...

Engineering graduates, Chandan Kagganapalli and Darshan Challuru, built a  startup , Ecofinix, to turn organic waste into fertile and nutrient-rich manure. The business clocks an annual turnover of Rs. 120 lac. Every year, over 40 million pilgrims visit Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam. The aggregate trash created by the enormous population is around 40 tonnes every day. Residents of the city, Chandan Kagganapalli and Darshan Challuru, were concerned about the rubbish stacking up at the dump yard. To solve the problem, these engineering grads opted to turn the organic waste into fertile and nutrient-rich manure. In 2020, Chandan founded Ecofinix and enlisted Dharsan, together with K Varun Kumar and M Praveen Kumar, to process tons of garbage from the temple town while also encouraging farmers to make the green transition by allowing them to practice chemical-free farming. Dharsan explains, "Chandan and I met in a startup community and quickly connected over our des...

Recognizing the contribution of farmers towards strengthening the entire ecosystem of organic farming, Organic India Private Limited (“ Organic India ”), in association with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival felicitated the top 5 organic farmers with Dharti Mitr Awards while celebrating the grandeur of Indian Cinema and commemorating 75 years of Independence (Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav). The Dharti Mitr awards instituted by ORGANIC INDIA in the year 2017 to honor and recognize the efforts of organic farmers across the country, not just in growing crops without chemical inputs but also in balancing the ecosystem and creating innovative self-sustaining models. The Dharti Mitr awards also provides a platform for organic farmers across the country to share their innovation and cross populate their learnings. The winner of the first Dharti Mitr award 2017 Mr. Bharat Bhushan Tyagi, was bestowed with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India in ...