What if William Shakespeare is alive and writes a play today. The genre is drama and the name is “Farm to Fork”. The same theme in Munshi Premachand’s word’s “Khel Kheti ka”. Yes, it is funny because what is happening in India these days is actually funny. Professionals like Engineers and doctors are becoming entrepreneurs and MBA are jobless. Then suddenly a boom comes with an innovative word “AGRO-TECH”.
I am a very optimistic person and
I believe in research and innovations but what if people are wasting their and
other’s time and money and running an industry named “Start-up”. Same ideas
with different theme and color of Pitch-deck fooling investors around.
A person from IT background or
MBA wants to change the agriculture. How?
Sitting in a corporate office,
recruiting MBA in marketing, advertising on FB, Twitter and Instagram and by
creating a mobile application where he will tell farmers the different mandi
rates which they already know. He wants to connect farmers with traders because
he doesn’t know that a farmer has more traders in contact then his data base.
And if he is thinking a farmer from Potichetipatti in Tamilnadu will sell the
material to a trader in Jaipur Mohana mandi then he is demonstrated fool.
India has always been a country
of limitless opportunities and possibilities. Agriculture is the soul of India.
Not only in our history but also in the present and future. Here are some recent
proven facts:
·
In 2017-18 we had around 312 Mn tonnes of
horticulture produce.
·
In 2017-18 we produced aprrox. 177 Mn tones of
Milk.
·
Egg production was around 95.2 Bn in 2017-18.
·
Fish production was 12.6 Mn tonnes.
· Food Retail market is majorly dominated by
Food Grocery (growing at CAGR 25%) and Food Services (growing at CAGR 15%)
segments.
We have sanctioned 42 mega food
parks in India, 17 of which are operational, 21 in progress and 2 are in
principle. By 2020, Indian food and retail market is projected to touch $828.92
Bn. The Indian dairy industry is expected to double to $140 Bn. By 2024,the
food processing industry will potentially attract $ 33 Bn investments.
We have huge numbers guys, but
still farmer is committing suicide. A farmer cannot send his kids for higher
education on the basis of current agriculture scenario and most interesting
part – they don’t get education loan also because Indian banks don’t consider
agriculture land as collateral security.
And then this young, dynamic and
innovative start-up lobby, thinks “Coding” will solve all farmer’s problems, Grow
up guys.
Let me make it easy – A farmer’s every
day and basic problems are locked somewhere and you need to find out the key to
open it and then solve it. Here comes the interesting part, the problem is not
that you are unable to find that key but the problem is you are finding it at a
wrong place.
We can learn this from cricket,
there is always a different squad for different formats and against different
teams. The same rule applies here, you cannot every time hire MBAs and IT
professionals and make your start-up successful (Specifically in Agro-tech). I
know a coder can do a lot but only on computer, you have to move to fields. You
will have to understand their basic problem which are very basic. Don’t offer
them what they already have. They know how to grow bananas, they know it because
they are practically doing it since birth. Growing bananas is not their
problem, neither selling it. The problem is how to survive until the crop
comes, how to reduce its cost, what to do with waste of it, how to beat the
climate changes, how to compete with a company like “Dole” who is decades ahead
then them in terms of quality, how manage post-harvest, how to understand logistical
part, how to manage labor crisis, how to select inputs etc. This whole will
only be solved by intense experience and concerned educational background.
Youth can change the fate of any
society but misguided, greedy for money, success and only numbers will not make
any difference. You might get “Angel Investor” for your next start-up but this
way the start-up will not make any difference.
Think wisely what you choose. Don’t
build business, build team first and that team will make business for you which
will actually make some difference.
