Recently, we have heard about the pathetic condition of farmers in India especially from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu region. Government is in no mood to look intothe matters.
At one side, farmers are being ignored on the other side there is someone who built a business out of agriculture and made the farmers beneficiary by giving them the profit share of the business.The man we are talking about is Sachin Kale, whose success story must be told to each one of us.
Let’s know more about this gentleman.
Sachin kale was born in a middle class family. He was deeply inspired by his grandfather Vasant Rao Kale who had been a government employee all his life and later adopted the profession of a farmer. His Grandfather used to tell and teach him a lot of things about farming and agriculture.
Education and Career
As far as sachin’s academics are concerned he had been a brilliant student throughout his school and college life.He completed his mechanical engineering course from REC, Nagpur in 2000. He went for Masters in Business administration after completing engineering. You would be surprised to know that he is a law graduate too. He kept on learning and ended up doing PhD in developmental economics in 2007.
He worked in a power plant and reached to its top position. Later he became a manager in Punj Lloyd earning the hefty salary of 24 Lakh per annum.
He wanted to be his own boss
The phase had entered in his life when he got this feeling that he should start something on his own like his own business where he will be the boss of his own company. Well, it wasn’t a piece of cake to leave your company like that and set up a new venture. So, he sat down and thought and after giving it much thought he realized that food industry is something that has a lot potential in the market. His grandfather once told him a person can survive without earning but not without food.
The Agripreneurs Approach
Finally, Sachin decided to come forward and leave his Gurgaon based job to shift in medhapur. Now all he had in his mind was growing food on agricultural land and sell it in the retail market.The whole idea was somewhat an inspiration from its grandfather.The idea was clear but the thing that was bothering him the most was he had no clue how farming is done. So, he started learning from the scratch and successfully gathered all the knowledge to need to carry out his business project.
Now all he needed was implementing his knowledge and farming experience into real business and that’s what he did. He may have the faced the inevitable challenges in the beginning but he succeeded at last.
According to his grandfather Agriculture is a risky and a hard business to do. The reason was labours, which are hard to find and even harder to get them work on the fields. If you want to get work done by them pay them well .so, sachin tried to figure out this matter and came up with a solution.
Win -Win situation for farmers
Sachin started his own company naming Innovative Agrilife Solutions Pvt. Ltd., which supported farmers with the contract farming model of farming.
Sachin wanted a fair share for the farmers so what he did for the farmers were remarkable. He introduced the contract farming model for the farmers which involved the buyer and seller concept. The buyer is the one who buys the food products from the farmers and the seller will be the farmer.the best thing about the contract farming model is that it ensures the security of payments for the farmers plus the portion of profit share earned by the product in the market.
He had another thing in mind about the paddy fields.Normally paddy fields are used to grow which is a 3 to 4 months job and for the remaining period the land is left unused. This is where sachin used his mind and suggested the farmers to use the land for the unused period by growing seasonal vegetables on the land. This idea was liked and promoted by the farmers as they can see the benefits of sachin’s idea.
After sowing the seed of struggle sachin has reaped the product of success. His agriculture based startup was a success and fortunately earning a profit. The annual turnover of his company was 2 crore per annum. Besides the profit margin, farmers are also getting benefitted by this business. Now theere are more than 150 farmers onboard who are living their life happily and proudly.
A family Man
Sachin was a family man from the beginning. He might have invested his 15 year provident fund in his business but he knew his family was dependant upon him so he had a back plan of returning to the corporate life only if he fails in his business which he didn’t.
His wife kalyani kale has always been a supporting wife to him. She may miss those days in cities but never regret her husband’s decision.She is a great admirer of the clean air and the healthy food of the village than urban city.
Future Plans
Sachin would love to see his company at the Mumbai stock exchange someday. He also wants more and more farmers to be an essential part for the Indian economy. He want farmers to be self reliant, educated and strong to fight for their right.
Sachin says:
“While thinking about options for entrepreneurship, I came to the conclusion that the food industry is the most important yet the most ignored one by us. That is when I recalled the lessons given by my grandfather about farming,”
“Everything was a challenge, as I had absolutely no clue about farming. I had to learn everything from tilling the land to sowing the seeds.”
“It was difficult in the initial two years as no one trusted a young urban man telling a 70-year-old farmer about farming. But when I discussed the financials on papers, they started taking interest,
“I don’t buy their land, that way they lose the ownership. I just buy their produce and directly sell it to the retailers, which give a very good margin. I also share a part of the profit with them,
“My grandfather would encourage me to take up farming but at the same time he would warn me that it was a risky business and the biggest problem was labor. ‘You won’t get labor unless you help them earn more than what they are already earning,’ he would say,” recalled Sachin, who lost his grandfather last month.
