When Arun Viswanathan of Ganache for Da Chocoholics met P.M.S.G. Jegathesan, a Dhalaivapuram-based farmer growing bananas, the consequence was a banana filling for one of his range of chocolates. Jegathesan is also the director of the Tamil Nadu Banana Producer Company who has found buyers for his other products like mixed fruits with banana, dehydrated bananas and ones coated with honey. “Bananas are rich in Pottasium and they sharpen your memory,” smiles the 72-year-old man. Arun says he was thrilled when he heard about using honey as a preservative and is all admiration for Jegathesan’s enthusiasm and wisdom.
A young graduate of the London School of Economics, Vikram Sankaranarayanan works closely with the Farmer Producer Companies , where the farmers are shareholders. “The idea is to circumvent the trader. This has happened in an agrarian state like Maharashtra. The farmer there sells his product at a premium price in Mumbai rather than cheaply at a mandi. As a result, the social mobility of the average farmer there has risen.”
Thanks to the efforts of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University that set up the Directorate of Agri-Business Development (ABD) in 2007, young entrepreneurs like Arun have been able to network with experienced farmers such as Jegathesan and reap mutual benefits. ABD was set up to help farmers, entrepreneurs and researchers come together to add value to farm produce.
Further explaining its role, ABD’s Director R. Murugesan says, “It walks the stakeholders through every stage—right from branding the idea to getting the product certified and marketed. The main intention is to cut the middlemen so that farmers get profit for their produce and learn ways to preserve their perishable goods.”
ABD has also enabled farmers to practise agriculture without harmful chemicals and fertilisers. Pazhaniswamy, a farmer from Thudiyalur side, once used fertilizers without a second thought. “ The shops would sell off old stock, completely unconcerned about the damage it could do to our soil. By the time, we realised that it was harming our harvest, it was too late.” He switched to organic farming after intervention from Dhivya.V, from Agro Green Biolife, a lifeline for Innovative Agripreneurs (farmers turned entrepreneurs). Dhivya guided him on the right manure to use, and now he regularly updates her about the crops.
ABD helps farmers reach out to companies and institutions outside Tamil Nadu as well. K.Radhakrishnan from Erode makes eco-friendly natural dyes out of flowers and supplies them to textile companies such as Co-optex. A student of Gandhigram University, Radhakrishnan comes from a family of weavers. He says, “There has been an increase in demand for my product, thanks to a change in the thinking process that prefers eco-friendly products.” Troubled by wild boars and porcupines, customers from the mills of Uttar Pradesh and fields of Kashmir reached out to G.V. Sudarshan, a young third generation farmer, for his animal repellent and crop growth promoter.
ABD has many such success stories of farmers and entrepreneurs benefiting hugely from this networking. TNAU throws its doors open for people who want to innovate and explore new technologies. Says M.N. Varadarajan a corporate executive-turned-farmer, who now makes non-thermally treated coconut water, “ I am not a scientific or research and development person. It was the technological assistance of ABD that helped me.” Similarly S. Rajarathnam, nursery owner in Mettupalayam, utilised the campus’s lab and technology to invent a unique form of propagation through leaves. “Do you have a rare species of a guava plant in your grandfather’s farm and wants to cultivate hundred more of the same tree? Just pluck a leaf from the tree and give it to me,” he smiles. “This much more yielding and cost effective.” Many medicinal companies have approached Rajarathnam to propagate rare species of medicinal plants using this technique.
ABD also facilitates loans for its members. The members with innovative ideas can also apply for a grant of Rs. 6.25 lakhs provided by Micro Small and Medium Level Enterprises Ministry, as part of a Central Government scheme. Rajarathinam is one of its beneficiaries. He says, banks would usually turn away small scale farmers.
These farmers request that more such mega agri business incubators like ABD be instituted.
“There was a time when agriculture was so bad that we had to sell our lands. Many of us were forced to switch to daily-wage labour. We do not want that to happen again,” says Pazhaniswamy.
