Farming as a Gold Mine: Turning Indian Farmers into Millionaires

farming a gold m is this a myth or reality we have clusters in every state in India where you can find amazingly

Rich Farmers uh they will have cars that we can't even imagine sidhar deani co-founder at bat agre as he talks about

the company's mission of Bridging the Gap between technology and agriculture in India harat agre offers Farmers app

based platform for AI based Agronomy services with a vision to reach out to 140 million Indian

farmers what are these BMW and Mercedes owning farmers do right which is turning them into Millennials what would be my

approach to choosing the right crop a country like Australia which is not even an agrarian economy grows five times

more rice per unit acre of land as compared to India five times per unit acre yes because we tend to hear so many

news about the farmer suicide and farming not being viable and the farmer struggling Diwali time marold will be

like 200 rupes a kilo otherwise you'll get it for 5 rup it has to be the agriculture science plus a business

aspect of it when to go this farmer became a millionaire by growing tomato I have a lot of friends who have got 100

Acre farms and they still not rich this the reason [Music]

because hi guys good morning hi thank you so much for being here and like I just told you off record I very excited

to have you because my uncle has given me a lot of questions to ask you because he's extremely passionate about farming

he works in an IT company and my other Uncle works in the US and they both are so passionate that even in the US

backyard he tells me with a lot of Pride that you know what backyard and um so today I kind of

going to do a podcast on their behalf to try and understand the Market in India and if you tell my uncle in the US that

he could make decent money in India by doing farming I'm sure he will directly move okay to that extent they're

passionate and uh the other thing that I'm deeply curious to understand is this Market of farming in general because we

tend to hear so many news about the farmer suicide and farming not being viable and the farmer struggling um but

we also miss out on the bright side which is where farming is an extremely viable business and just like any other

business there are too many constraints but those constraints can be overcome to an extent where you can gain enough

control over the business and there's also a possibility of you doing insanely well in this business and because you

guys have been in this field for about half a decade we want to get a deeper understanding of how to treat farming as

a business and then grow sustainability to an extent where farmers can become millionaires in India if that's clear

shall we get started yes great guys let's start with the first question faring walk me through this is this a

myth or reality uh firstly it's true farming is a gold mine so farming is the oldest

profession that human beings have been involved in more than thousands of years and it wouldn't have survived this long

if it was not profitable to today as proof point we have clusters in every state in India where you can find

amazingly Rich Farmers uh they will have cars that we can't even imagine uh they will have land sizes they will have a

lifestyle that we would have never thought about uh that's because they have actually understood how to make

profits out of the farm these people use latest of the Technologies they import material to be used on Farm like

anything which you can imagine in a very professional Ally run business where there are consultants and then there is

a proper production like that level of management is there in such just to make this

more but generally we have seen it is very common for Farmers to have cars like Fortuner uh once they start seeing

regular good cash flow coming from the the farming profession so they want a powerful

car and the powerful car is actually useful also which can drive in rural areas to Fortuner is like very common um

it's very common for Farmers to use uh bulky SUVs in Mercedes and BMW range yeah in Mercedes and BMW mostly we see

SUVs over there not Sly using SUV BMW and Mercedes very fascinating now tell me what are these

BMW and Mercedes owning farmers do right which is turning them into millionaires got it so a couple of things and let's

go into detail uh which other Farmers or other entrepreneurs who want to get into farming themselves can replicate the

first and foremost is selecting the right crop like in manufacturing you figure out some Commodities value

Market CH you will turn out to be rich whereas if you are still manufacturing radio then the chances that you will

make money is less now identify and fortunately we are in Ana

where information is not a problem to spending a few hours or a few days doing deep research you can find out value for

example India is known for its spices so kind of right kind

ofic and domes value don't depend only on export

find domes value market got it Farmers Farm [Music]

spices the termeric black pepper cardum which you can grow sell in India as well as you can export okay then tea coffee

and tobacco farmers are good in terms of their economic condition Commodities then if you look at fruits

think of yourself as a consumer what fruits you eat regularly and are ready to pay a premium for that not

necessarily for banana right but you ready to do that for strawberry um a lot of it also for grapes mangoes and

pomegranate so there's a domestic Market which is proven people like these fruits and people are ready to pay a premium

for it at the same time there's an export value if you can figure out an export

market then your incomes will increase even further so what these rich Farmers have done they were not born rich but

they selected the right crop that was Point number one crops like strawberry grapes pomogranate or here some spices

now once you have selected the crop the next thing to do is grow it perfectly higher the

value difficult it is to grow that's the natural universal law for everything in life right if things were

easy everyone is doing it and then value goes down like for banana like banana banana is available so cheaply in the

market because it's relatively easy to grow so every farmer grows it Supply is high so even though demand is high the U

value is not that high but strawberry grapes extremely difficult to grow so very handful of farmers have figured out

how to grow it demand continues to remain high so value increases why is the export value High rest of the world

has not yet figured out how to grow grapes really yeah India is one of the top exporter of grapes okay because

grapes is very difficult and even in that if you the export value is for you know residue free grapes what do you

mean by residue free grapes so basically if if the grapes are there and if you test it if there is any uh top residue

of chemicals uh it's very difficult to grow which Indian Farmers have figured out so one

thing um and it would be good for the audience to understand that if you want to export any crop let's say even rice

wheat and grapes pomog it should be residue free what we mean by residue free is that when you're growing a crop

you spray some chemical fertilizers and pesticides and while testing a batch of export container the testing is done and

if any residue of any chemical is found and there are defined parameters everything is highly scientific and

highly objective so if a chemical is found Beyond a particular range then your export gets rejected right then and

there specifically EU came up with lot of regulations on this and eu's regulations are considered a standard

High uh value regulations which then every other country also adopted started adopting got it so the first step is

choose the right crop second step is grow perfectly can we go a little deeper into this okay first let's define all

the steps and then we'll go deeper into each of these steps maybe we can go go into detail now itself okay so growing

perfectly is important let's figure that out what does that mean firstly given the weather conditions and let's take

grapes and strawberries as example they are very difficult crops to grow um a particular crop like grape will have

more than 20 Pest and disease attack during a season one season is generally 6 months

now we know how Seasons work in India um sometimes rainfall can be extreme sometimes it can be extreme in opposite

direction where there's no rainfall so this weather condition will affect a crop like grape significantly then

temperatures can be extreme um even though let's say November is supposed to be winter but sometimes the heat can be

Beyond a particular range or sometimes we expect July to be warm but sometimes it's very cold because of rain so the

weather is something that is not in your control but is extremely important wind speed can be extreme humidity can be

extreme so these parameters that is rainfall temperature humidity and wind speed they affect the growth of any crop

and even more for difficult crops like strawberry grapes and pomogranate and each change in weather condition can

impact what Pest and disease attack will happen which is same as human beings right more change in weather will lead

to some fever cuff or maybe some complicated diseases that's the same thing happens in crop but human Medical

Science has evolved today we are capable to either prevent that disease by maybe let's say staying indoor immunity Etc or

we can control quickly even when we catch the disease but agriculture science at the farmer level has not

evolved so much that they learn how to prevent it based on changing weather conditions or control it once the

disease happens as in there are methods but they not aware of it correct yeah correct got it but grapes farmers are

aware of it and that's why they are rich that's why they have a BMW yeah so they have figured out that if I want to grow

a good crop how do I increase the immunity so much that I'll prevent the pest and disease and in some cases The

Pest and disease attack will happen how do I control it and that's where bhat Agri comes into the picture got it

grapes is just an example but you grow any crop in India we have a portfolio of more than 40 crops

we will guide you how to prevent any pestor disease attack how to increase immunity how to control it and that to

based on changing climatic conditions perfect so let's go deeper into this first step which is how to choose the

right crop so can you help me understand let's take Maharashtra as an example if I choose

Maharashtra because I'm living in Maharashtra what should be my approach to choosing the right crop yeah so the

first and foremost is check how much is water water is available in your farm so once you have selected a farm you can

also select a farm based on how much water there is I think that's better yeah choosing a farm based on how much

water there is correct okay so if you are an entrepreneur who is starting with buying or renting a land then you have

the Liberty to do that but if you are a farmer who has a land from ancestors then you have water how much you have

you going change that now based on my choice of water levels what do you think is a sweet spot for or the water level

for a particular land so two factors first is ideally if your land is near a river or a canal canals which are built

by the government to bring in irrigation to every farm that is ideal uh river water is considered

better and try to have a perennial water supply peral water supply yeah if you are doing this for return on investment

you don't want that 2 to 3 months you are not doing farming at all because of extreme heat where there's no water at

all most of the farmers do that which is what makes farming for them less lucrative just imagine running a

business with 3 months there's no Revenue but your expenses will continue right you need to feed yourselves and

family but that happens with Farmers where in India Feb March and April is an proven fact that it's extreme heat no

rainfall and all your water storage dries up because August Monsoon ends then your water continues till Jan but

from Feb onwards that starts depleting right so now you have no water and you can't do farming so in Maharashtra can

you point out areas where I can get perennial water supply many many Western Maharashtra is famous for that and all

rich Farmers you will see majorly in Western Mahar Western Maharashtra yeah from nask till down solapur Kapur my

fiance's family actually grows grapes wow so now I'll ask her so you know now their money status I do not know that

she's rich now I'll go and talk to her yeah grape farmers are generally rich and I'm assuming they would be in

Western Maharashtra uh grapes are generally grown in Western Maharashtra mostly because of water and climate got

it can you name a few places in Western Maharashtra Sula is in nask Sula nasik and Sula is from a very like our

generation entrepreneur yeah maybe plus 10 years maybe but you know he actually went to us he studied there then he got

into wine production and then he came back and started Sula yeah and yeah so like nasik got famous because of Sula

but they are growing grapes for like last 20 30 years okay so nask is one yeah then uh grapes are also grown in

satara satara Pune District Pune sangi is another place solapur also you know uh Mercedes opened their first

showroom in Kapur really yeah like some many years back but it was started from Kapur because the Quantum of

people rich people was most in Maharashtra very interesting

gra are these locations ideal only for grapes or because they're ideal for grapes they can be ideal for anything

they can be ideal for many more crops so basically now there are secondary tertiary crops which all these grape

Farmers also grow because in agriculture crop rotation is also important you cannot just grow grapes for like 15

years there will be a threee patch you will go grow grapes then probably you will shift to pomogranate which is again

a high value crop will give you equivalent yields but the crop rotation scientifically is required got it so

you're supposed to choose a patch of land which has perennial water supply and if it has a river close by that is

ideal if not if there's a canal that the government has built that is ideal great so the first step water supply is done

any any measure measurement of the water levels that we supposed to make for ground level or ground water or

something like that so ground water is also important uh there are no numbers as such but through your primary

research you have to be confident that water is available here for 12 months 12 months there are a lot of places where

there's no groundw for 2 months but then after rainfall groundw get replenishes but that won't work for your business

you need to have it for 12 months any kilometer range that you can suggest for a place to be considered close to the

river generally we have seen that anything that is more than 1 kilm it doesn't work because you'll need a

pipeline that directly connects either the canal or the river to your farm and that pipeline you will have to build

yourself so you'll have to invest that money okay and Beyond 1 kilomet then the pressure goes down so you'll have to

keep investing in more Motors to continue to build up the pressure then the ROI goes down so closer to the river

the better it is 1 km is a general rule of thumb okay a lot of it changes based on the Civil structure of the area but

that's the rule of thumb got it the water is done what is the next parameter that I'm supposed to consider second is

soil soil your soil should be fertile now what do you mean by fertile um for a Layman you would have seen that when you

touch a soil either it has to be thick and muddy or it is Sandy now anything that is Sandy is less fertile

it's uh it has low water holding capacity and low nutrient holding capacity so a lot of high value crops

cannot be grown there but when anything that is black heavy muddy it has its pren cons but generally it is considered

more fertile you can do some physical soil testing as well as chemical soil testing to understand the fertility of

the soil what what are these tests called so simple soil test but divided into two physical soil test and chemical

soil test got it and that's where again bhat agre comes into the picture as you can see that all of this is complicated

science right as complicated as that you have to do a blood test or you have to have a entire body test to figure out

can you be an athlete or not so that's the same thing that bhat agre is trying to do is trying to bring science into

agriculture you have a farm you want to figure out what crop can I grow just get soil testing done with bhat agre and

we'll guide you what crop is suitable beautiful and then once you have even selected the crop you know want to know

how to grow the crop and there again soil testing is important to understand so you can also have a look at the soil

test and tell me which crop to grow yeah perfect great so soil is the second parameter yeah I think third is climate

climate is again important yeah climate okay how am I supposed to gauge the climate one is rainfall mm second is

temperature any mm of rainfall that I would consider ideal it depends from crop to crop um right now I may not be

able to tell you the numbers but it can be figured out through some research got it there is specific range for

temperature as well as for rainfall which is suitable for growing high value crops high value crops so for example uh

grapes can be grown in this uh I we told you couple of districts in Maharashtra right other than that in Maharashtra it

can't be grown even if there is water Avail yeah which is what gives Su extraordinary advantage and then uh

similar weather is there uh in Western Karnataka also because it's the same stretch which gets carried over uh down

so there it can be grown but if you say you know if you want same if you want to grow uh let's say grape in carite can't

be grown because it goes more tropical we go more towards equator and the weather conditions are different so the

agroclimatic Zone decision is also important got it and generally where grap can be grown anything can be grown

like even if you want to grow something very low value like rice you can grow but vice versa is not possible got it

can you imagine some of the hottest regions in Maharashtra if you can name them

um is one yeah nagpur is one nagpur or a cola side there you can't unfortunately grow grapes but that becomes very hot in

some months most of the months yeah so a crop like grave will die there even if you have sufficient water so my family

farm it's next to River more than 100 acres uh so we have you know pipeline we have 12 month water supply soil quality

is really good but we can't grow grapes impossible because of the climate condition oh my God which is why I have

a lot of friends who have got 100 Acre farms and they're still not rich is this the reason yeah yeah because uh now this

100 Acre Farm there can be only certain set of crops which can be grown so the value of land is also not that high like

100 acres in Western Maharashtra will be like hundreds of crores but not that equivalent in eastern Maharashtra what

about solapur solapur is goodur is good is above average in percentile got it perfect there are few more factors we

add after climate Okay now one thing is to become ex just a second climate May rainfall C do we have any other major

temperature any temperature range that you would consider to be ideal temperature range 15 to 30 is considered

ideal this is all throughout the corre now um one thing is you want to

become extremely rich by growing grapes pomogranate strawberry and we know that large chunk of farmers cannot grow it

it's very difficult but still you want to be rich like you took an example you have some friends who have 100 acres of

farm you cannot recommend them to grow strawberry and grapes because one is climate and second is again it's

difficult M so what would you suggest to them which is where again batri comes into the picture there are some medium

segment crops which are below grapes and pomegranate for example all vegetables so vegetables like onion tomato even

potato chili merold bringel these are some vegetables that

can fetch good money to the farmer got it but it here it's not only about growing it's right time of growth also

like you must have seen tomato prices grow as high as 100 rupee a kilo and as low as 1 rupe a kilo right it's a demand

Supply equation same with Mar gold Diwali time Mari gold will be like 200 rupees a kilo otherwise we'll get it for

5 rupees so it has to be the agriculture science plus a business aspect of it when to grow this is primarily driven by

domestic Demand right yeah yeah vegetables generally would be domestic now export has also started picking up

for which particular veget vable like onion is generally exported yeah chili green chili and even red ch ch there is

a good export demand which is majorly India supplies to Middle East Middle East got it now um these vegetabl so if

an average farmer like we have seen the climate Soil and Water is very good in Punjab harana and even utar Pradesh but

because of the limited knowledge they generally depend on rice and wheat crops correct which fetches them less money

per acre okay uh they turn out to be rich because of the large pieces of land that they may have but per acre income

is very low so rather than recommending them as bhat agree rather than recommending them to jump to grapes and

pomogranate which we know is difficult we recommend them that on small pieces of land start growing vegetables got it

guys if can we put numbers to the per acre Revenue that these crops can generate so let's start with uh let's

start with grapes what would be the revenue that an acre of grape pump can generate and let's go to other crops so

that we understand what do we mean by value okay let's start with grapes a grape Farm can generate up to 5 to 7

lakh rupees of Revenue per acre got it second level is medium level is vegetables which can generate anywhere

between 2 to three lakh of Revenue per breaker what about strawberry strawberry will come in grapes range yeah grapes

will include strawberry grapes pomogranate vegetables will generate 2 to three lakhs per acre per what about

rice and wheat now the third and the lowest most is rice and wheat and now you'll be

surprised that they generate not more than 40,000 per acre what are you saying guys what about millets guys millets

will be same as rice SED any grains and pulses which is all pulses you grow soyab beans you grow T in in Rajasthan a

lot of sorso mustard is grown then rice wheat corn all millets they come in the same category they'll generate not more

than 40,000 per acre and that is why if you will visit a soyab bean Farm in an average soyab bean Farm in Maharashtra

in madhia Pradesh it will be like 10 20 ACR but they can't survive with one or two acres soyab Bean takes like 6 months

to grow h so in 6 months you are earning 40,000 okay so this 5 to 7 lakhs is per season yeah so grape takes one full year

okay vegetables will the good thing about vegetables is that they take only 3 to 4 months so you can grow vegetables

two times an year sometimes even three times an Year got it so if I grow vegetables two times a year then I can

kind of generate as much revenue as a grave farm right yes if things are ideal for you but you know that um if you

continue growing tomato because it worked well for you now you growing twice a year at least in one season the

prices will crash and then you will regret so what you do is you diversify that I'll grow tomato some bit chili

some bit onion some bit bringel and four out of one one out of four crops will crash every year so you have to yeah

vegetable is very very sensitive and it's non- perishable sorry it's perishable right so there is nothing

which a farmer can do after growing it got it so diversification is very important uh good thing about these

grapes and the first category which we told is there is very high export demand so the prices will be stable it's

difficult but stable perfect so high value medium value low value shall we come back to how to choose the right

piece of FL yeah so we uh considered weather water and soil correct now the fourth thing and one reason we wanted to

bring the topic of vegetable here was uh that market is important now if you are growing veg

vegetables or if you're growing highly perishable crops like strawberries highly perishable within 4 to 5 days

your produce will be spoiled so you have to sell it within four five days of harvest so the market that buys the

produce from you should be nearby um farmers who grow vegetables like onion not onion because onion is

semi- perishable it can survive for even 2 3 months if stored properly but tomato chili bringel cauliflower and strawberry

I'll consider here because it is perishable you need to sell within 24 hours of harvest because after selling

also it goes to the consumer and it takes 3 4 days can Cold Storage help over here it does uh we have seen lot of

Cold Storage capacities in uh Western Maharashtra unused unused yeah because it's cost the the appreciation from your

production to sales price is not enough to cover that cold storage and give a profit over there can you give me like a

number let's say selling something for 20 rupees a kilo now if I cold store it for about let's say 3 months and then I

sell it in the next season what would be the cost difference so your cold storage will increase your price by 5 to 6

rupees per kg okay but the bigger problem is that there's no predictability uncertainty makes it very

difficult for a farm unty of the price price yeah market price now you don't know after 6 months will you get 30

rupees or will it be 1 rupee again it can come down as well vegetables are highly unpredicted

the good thing is some vegetables have become predictable like potato highly grown in madhia Pradesh has become

predictable because it is purchased by these chip Chips companies like La PepsiCo and there are many local chips

companies like Balaji and all they have a fixed season when they purchase and they Define the price also a range now

let's say Farmer harvest the potato in February uh but chips companies based on their cycle they buy in June and the

price range is kind of defined so the farmer is confident that in the cold storage I'll store it from Feb to July

and I know some price that I will get so the math is then very simple that okay this is my investment this is my price

right now and that's when they will buy at this price so will it be profitable or not so with potato it is figured out

got it but with tomato chili no one knows and after 6 months what the price would be perfect so now I just want to

dwell deep into the tools to be able to understand all this data is there a method for me to be able to find an

appropriate price in my market appropriate price what do you mean by appr like let's say I'm growing

tomatoes and I know for a fact that I have to sell this at 20 rupees the nearest market is giving me only 15

rupees now I don't know if this Market is exploiting me or is it the fair price of the market so what are the tools that

I'm supposed to use to gauge if that's the appropriate price or not you see here you know it's a very difficult

demand Supply logic what happens every year every year you will see 2 months in a year tomato prices go beyond 100 right

that is a Time lot of farmers take decision let me grow it okay then lot of people grow it then after 6 months the

market is just flooded with tomatoes and that's when it comes to one room got it so appropriate is definitely you know

your cost of production then your cost of Transport margin that is an appropriate price but because of this

difficult demand Supply logic uh it can go like you know when it goes to one rupee we know why it is one

rupe because the market is just flooded there is no capacity there is not that much demand got it this is a very

important question um and these these are questions that farmers also ask so first thing like she mentioned is cost

of production which will guide you how much would be your investment and you can calculate it let's say per kg like

in onion it is very common and good thing is Farmers have been searching these things online on Google and

YouTube yeah um how much should be my cost of production on onion will be their question and you'll be surprised

that they search it on YouTube Google as well as on play store which on Play Store as yes okay um we recently did a

study for ourselves um if there is a pizza app let's say Domino's Pizza the bigger

search volume that they get on Google Play Store is find pizza near me or pizza now rather than searching Domino's

Pizza on play store which is very surprising right we use that on Google but people are using that on Play Store

because they trust Play Store that based on my keywords it will show me the best app so farmers will also search this on

all the three platforms Play Store Google and YouTube um what should be my cost of production

for onion that is question number one question number two uh what is the right now selling price of onion in my nearest

market they will also try to search can I find a far away Market where the price may be different yeah that's what I was

wondering is there like an app or a website which can tell me that so bhat agre plays a very important role in

understanding cost of production where firstly we'll help you understand for any crop that you are growing based on

your geography or profile Etc what would be your investment in growing that crop okay now bhat agre does not have that

but there are other apps available in the market that will tell you the price of what is the current price in nearby

market and government also has a portal so government has a structure where every Market has to report what is the

today's price and the historical price are these apmc Market yes apmc okay so there is a apmc dog.in uh one website

okay where you will get all today's prices across all markets in India and as well as historically I think they

have fire dump over there perfect now the caveat here is that sometimes they are not accurate yeah it's like weather

right uh ideally it should have been solved by now but finally it's human dependent information flow where there's

someone there in the market who is feeding information to the server which is then being transmitted through these

apps and any error at at any place and prices are always fluctuating yeah um even though that person were truthfully

told that today onion price is 20 rupees but within half a day a lot of Supply came and the prices fell down so uh

those information may not be very accurate so generally Farmers try to have uh some contacts with Traders all

the time where they'll call that my onion is going to be harvested in 3 days what is the price range so the trader

will also be careful in just telling the range because the trader knows that the price can change but answering

your question cost of production bhat agre um has a very beautiful system on the bhat agre app where you can find

cost of production for the crop that you want to grow there are other sources like apmc websites where you can find

the prices of produce that you can sell at in different markets so you can even choose the market that okay some other

Market is offering Better Price this is a need of the hour which is the thir third thing uh and this is

not something that exists in the market can you predict the price that let's say I have a crop and I have the capability

to store it for a few weeks or a few months can someone help me predict what would be the price at after 1 month or

after 2 month is not yet a solved problem worldwide because we know that it's extremely variable and difficult

but if that is there then like you asked about coold storage then farmer can choose that okay I will store it in cold

storage because then I will sell it in future but that does not exist right now but again the beauty of prediction is

that if the prediction says that you will get 30 rupees in an expired season then everybody will keep storing it and

when the actual season comes there will be too much Supply very less demand and eventually the prediction is bound to go

wrong correct simply because so lot of companies and lot of you know good companies have tried to build this

prediction algorithm but it is not yet out so that might be the reason of it that you know when they triy to do the

fact Che with their uh algorithm data it must be not accurate beautiful so we've got water soil climate Market in market

we've got which Market to sell what should be your cost of production eventually helping you determine the

selling price and when it comes to the apmc website it will tell you what is the cost what is the price that is being

given out in the nearest apmc market and the market close by by which you can decide when to sell or which Market to

sell in do we have any other parameters guys within this just try to find the land near to the market that near to the

market any kilometer is that you would recommend wherever you can reach within a um within let's say few hours few

hours because once I'm giving an example let's say you have harvested strawberry or tomatoes chilies now you harvest you

don't have a cold storage truck yourself we are talking about a general farmer So within few hours if you don't sell it

then the quality of the produce will start going going down so your Market should be nearby so that you call them

ask them what is the rate today you are comfortable with the rate harvested and within few hours just reach there and

sell them the produce can we take the range to be 4 to six hours yeah yeah so uh I'll give you one example uh Pune has

India's biggest tomato Market any tomato you eat in Delhi also is supplied from Pune okay it comes from Whole of Western

Maharashtra to Pune and in Pune like every day there will be trucks uh loading and going to all AC all across

India so that's why whenever tomato crisis happens it happens in Western Maharashtra and whenever tomato prices

go really high the Western Maharashtra farmers are the most happy Farmers interesting great so the next parameter

is sorted which is Market do we have another parameter to gauge one last uh is labor availability labor ability how

do you gauge that um there is no parameter to do that labor or mechan ization availability in vegetables

mechanization is difficult even in grapes mechanization is possible but not for every activity so labor is needed

now we have some farmers in Central and Eastern Maharashtra they have large pieces of land they have money they have

the energy and thought to uh mindset to grow high value crops but because they don't get labor at the right time they

are hesistant to invest money into their land which is a big problem again a white space that can be solved for yeah

yeah got it so if I were to summarize this the first parameter is water and see if you can get water supply 12

months a year then we've got soil if it is thick and muddy the possibility of it being fertile is very high if it is

black and heavy again possibility of being fertile is very high if it is Sandy and dry the possibility of it

being fertile is very less then in order to be able to gauge that we can get done physical and chemical test for the soil

through bhat Agri by which we can gauge which crop must be grown what is the soil quality and what are the by the way

one more question that I forgot to ask is can we treat the soil to make it more fertile yeah yeah it takes time and

efforts okay and money but yes you can do that so that is where chemical test comes into picture when you are doing a

chemical test it comes with the report of what activities do you need to do to make it fertile got it so you guys help

out with the treat treatment procedure also treatment recommendation also perfect then we come to climate again

rainfall is very important temperature range is 15 to 30 which is all throughout the year and then we've got

market and um if your Market is 4 to 6 hours away from your land that is ideal you can check your prices through apmc

website the cost is being given by bhat AG website itself and you need to look for labor availability as of now there

is a white space where labor availability is not being aggregated so white space and there is no way to

figure out it's just that you'll have to go to that particular land and see if you're getting enough labors to work for

you I think in labor you can add mechanization as well mechanization yeah so some bit of mechanization is possible

in every crop okay how do you gauge this mechanization so uh you need to prepare the land before you um start sewing the

crop even for sprays so let's go back 10 years almost all of these activities were done through Labor and naturally

the human cost of doing anything keeps on growing with inflation and supply and demand so nowadays a lot of Machinery is

available in the market that can eliminate the need of Labor and can uh make the entire activity efficient and

economic for you uh something like you know there are multiple implements to tractor so earlier tractor was only to

plow the land right now there are multiple implements where you can even s seeds through it so you don't need like

you know hundreds of labors who are sewing seeds it's an Implement which is available definitely a capex but that

makes the whole process much more efficient you don't need labors for you know 10 days anymore do you guys also

help out in the understanding of mechanization yeah we even help them select the right machine that they can

buy we don't sell those machines but we connect them to suppliers lab mechanization has been a

big success stories for large farm where grapes is an example even mango banana papaya so these are generally large

Farms large trees mango is a large tree earlier all the activities of even harvesting the mango or spraying

something on the mango was manual so you need labor like um mango will become ripen during March April and you know

that that is when you get good price also so everyone needs labor to harvest mango in that region and then you pay

more because if you harvest now you get better price ring so nowadays there is mechanization available where you can

attach something to the Tractor and spray with just one human being to the entire Farm or you can Harvest with some

Pluckers you know I have visited Some Farms in California uh 2,000 acre ranch okay managed by five

people nobody was there on Farm wow there were like some five remote tractors going and we were sitting in a

office like this okay it was a very nice glass office we were able to see all those tractors moving and some two

people were controlling those tractors two people were just sitting and chilling with me so you're seeing that

machines are available yeah a the farmers are not educated about it B very expensive also it's very expensive are

they expensive because they're expensive or are they expensive because of the import Duty no no they are expensive so

the government has waved off import Duty on most of these equipments a lot of them are even manufactured in we one of

the biggest manufacturer of tractors India exports tractors fancy remote tractors those are also

like we know like lot of brands in India they export automated tractors and everything it's just that India doesn't

have that big land land holding to justify the cost of tractor do you think that can be solved through shared

resources yes yeah uh something you were talking about uh this uh infrastructure thing right uh where you have know one

CR investment then you go to Embassy group and do something like that re so yeah re so some if India had I don't

think India has anywhere a 2,000 Acre Farm at a stretch available at such but if bigger land sizes are possible the

mechanization can because it's already existing like all other countries are using it it can be implemented that's

not a issue but it's a very social economic problem yeah if you go to Western Maharashtra every individual

will own like half acre half acre versus 2,000 acre it's a huge gap to fill beautiful

so the first part is done which is how to choose the right crop this is the study that you need to do and if you do

the study you can go to any firm in fact you can come to bhat Agri and understand which is the best crop to grow now let's

go into the next step which is growing it perfectly like it's so easy to say and I know that it's so difficult to

execute so let's dwell deeper into it residue free is something that I understood properly which is if you were

to define a well-grown crop which needs to be export quality it has to be residue free and then we also defined

what is residue free now let's get into the other parameters what do we mean by growing a crop

perfectly so there are four factors to it okay first is nutrient management nutrient management yeah this is very

similar to human nutrient management we have been studying balanced diet since our childhood that we should have

protein we should have vitamins minerals carbohydrates that's the same thing for a

crop imagine if you never did formal education yourself would you have been able to define a good diet for yourself

no no you would be just doing guess work ke my grandparents used to eat three chapati I'll also eat three chapatis and

they generally eat chapati with some green vegetables and in India commonly potato and onion with green vegetables

so I'll also do that in many families at night they eat Dal rice so I'll also eat Dal rice which is guess work which even

today happens in most places my mom is afraid of protein shake also yeah because my grandmother did not have

protein shake no true true protein bar is considered a taboo true literally when I discuss protein bar in my family

they say why are you eating chocolate why are you eating processed food but they are fine eating Samosa kachori

because that's what they have been doing now imagine the same thing happening in agriculture where none of the farmers

did formal education that's the truth it's a harsh truth about our country that none of the farmers most of the

farmers did not do formal education about agriculture which is BC agree MSC agree Etc so what do they do my crop

needs nutrients like human being needs nutrients so whatever my parents have been doing I'll add the same fertilizers

whatever my nearby farmer is doing I'll do the same thing the third the third source of information is that there's a

local retailer the retailer says this is a new fertilizer in the market use that I use that now you know that as a human

being would you survive without good protein or without good uh nutrient heavy diet you will not you will you

know that your energy will get impacted if you want to do good in career related to Athletics or gymnastics you will fail

for brain uh you will not be able to focus so but the same thing farmers are doing they are for nutrient management

they are using information that their grandparents were doing now in agriculture the nutrients are even more

important because you are using it for commercial purposes can kohi afford to be lenient in diet no because his diet

is commercial yeah his energy defines whether country will win or not correct so each percentage of his diet is used

for commercial purposes so it's super important you me can still be lenient I have a cheat Sunday I have a cheat

Saturday I'll do whatever but he cannot now every farmer is growing a crop to sell for commercial purposes if he

doesn't sell his family will not earn money that season so every decision that he takes related to nutrient management

is super important he cannot be lenient but he has done no education average crop needs 15

different nutrients to grow okay right now a crop grows for let's say 4 months zerth month zeroth day to 120th day 4

months now every 20 days a different nutrient is needed you used to consume a lot of

calcium during first 3 4 years through milk through CD Etc do you consume as much today no now you are shifted from

calcium to protein now a crop also during initial phases needs let's say more nitrogen but during Harvest it

needs more potassium and in midphase it needs more phosphorus and there are 15 such nutrients I have just named three

right now it's a complicated science and every crop has a different such cycle because you'll see like some crops are

fruits some are vegetables some are cereals so every stage so it's a very complicated science where not just the

time but a particular crop then it's very different varieties so it's a very uh difficult metrics you can assume

until this point as per my imagination it's just that you sew the seeds you water them you put in some fertilizer

and then eventually after 3 months you harvest it and then you sell it so this is the education that I a multi uh this

is the education that farmers also have that is terrible that is terrible and that's why you'll be

surprised the most common crop that is grown in India is rice wheat these are the common crops a country like

Australia which is not even an agrarian economy grows five times more rice per unit acre of land as compared to India

five times per unit acre yes five times which means in the same piece of land an Australian farmer is able to grow five

times more rise as compared to an Indian farmer yes why and that is why it's cheaper also it's not just the

mechanization the productivity is also higher that's because we are not following scientific techniques oh my

God let me in Olympics an average US athlete is two times more powerful than an Indian average that's why they have

more gold medal because they followed the right diet from their school days protein is a concept in India that came

2 three years back they have been doing it since last 30 years the right diet right gym routine whatever lifestyle so

they become more fitter and they use it in sports which is what is in agriculture

as well and I want to emphasize on the fact that India has one of the India is blessed with the best land and best

agroclimatic Zone Australia if you consider it has know some part has very harsh climate soil is not good know

geographically it is at a very different place most of the countries take Russia or Ukraine because we were talking they

can grow wheat only in one season other season it's like super cold over there ice but that one season they use best of

whatever they can India is blessed with a 12month agriculture best of Water Resources best of climate but we are not

utilizing it to the potential which it has incredible yeah now um the good thing is farmers are learning this now

smartphones are available everywhere so farmers know that um there's some information that exists and I growing

let's say tomato how will I get good price for my tomato one is if I have more Tomatoes if generally I'm growing

let's say one crate of tomato if I'm able to grow two crates three crates naturally I'll earn more money then my

tomato should be the reddest tomato in the market and there are some more features that it should be shiny and it

should not be soft and Squishy it should be hard during the sales time so farmers are nowadays searching

online how to increase my tomato production um video is something that becomes viral

if it is catchy uh you will get success stories in India as well where let's say the average production is one crate in

Australia it is five crate but in India one farmer has achieved four crate right so farmer that video will become viral

that this farmer became a millionaire by growing tomato so now an average farmer would be like what is he doing how can I

grow more tomatoes from the same piece of land and they'll search and that's where then bhat agre comes

into the picture we have to be available on YouTube Google and Play Store kind of platforms where if a farmer searches

anything about the crop we should be available and then our app which is available on Play Store will guide them

how to improve your tomato production how to improve tomato quality because you want the redest Tomato hard and

shiny and quantity is another thing which is simple math so through your app everything can be found out yes through

your app can you also help me out with nutrient management yes yes okay so you help me grow the crop perfectly is that

nutrient management is one aspect where we guide you what nutrient to add at what point of time now nutrient in

example is let's say protein but if I just tell you that eat 20 G protein your question would be

how like do I eat paneer do I eat soy bean or do I eat rice your question will be there so first we tell nutrient then

we tell which fertilizer will supply that nutrient so now we have come to fertilizer so we tell them how much

fertilizer to add when to add and how to add which one to add also and all these fertilizers are available in your

website yes so we are a multi-brand website uh Marketplace so all the biggest brand multinational National

Regional brands are listed so you can choose from which particular brand you have more trust or we can suggest which

is a good bread they can purchase so nutrient management is the first step to Growing the crop perfectly yeah so this

is the first parameter the second parameter is second is pest and disease management okay now in human beings once

you have crack nutrient management you would want to ensure that if you are Virat kohle you should not fall sick all

12 months because you have a busy schedule you are representing the country you have tournaments you have

World Cups you have IPL so like you and me can afford to fall sick once here you can take a break but a person who is

using his talent commercially cannot afford to fall sick so what will be the first goal of vat Koh that I prevent the

Pent the diseases that I may face I should be immune enough so that I don't suffer a disease at the same time I know

that during extreme Monsoon High chances of me falling sick so during monsoon I take extra steps to build up my immunity

that's Point number two point number three that even then there are chances I will fall sick because I'm traveling so

much consuming random food water that if I fall sick I should recover quickly that is the goal of a person who

is using their talent commercially now every crop is grown commercially so the first thing is build up immunity of the

crop that the disease or pest attack does not happen which we guide the farmer with how to build immunity we

have an exit calendar calendar is like a step by step activity that the farmer should do and

if they do that the immunity will be good enough like how a Gym trainer gives a calendar that you follow this calendar

follow this diet follow this schedule you will turn out to be a better athlete that's what we do with the farmer bhat

agre gives them a calendar which will build immunity the second thing is when we predict that weather changes are

going to happen we ask the farmer to take additional steps to prevent a pest or disease attack

and the third if a pesto disease attack happens there's a two-way communication where farmer alerts us shares photos

shares text and we guide them how to control that peston disease immediately perfect the second step is pest and

disease management yeah what is the third parameter the third parameter is irrigation management water is a food

for plant now farmer needs to now every crop has a different water requirement and it changes based on weather

conditions so we guide farmer with water intake as well when to give water when not to give and how much to give then

the fourth aspect is weed management so every crop sees some unwanted grass that grows along with the crop in the same

soil and that grass ends up taking the nutrients from the soil so less nutrient is available to the crop so farmers need

to First is prevent the growth of these grasses which in agriculture language is called weed and if it is grown it needs

to be removed through either manual activities or through some sprays now this also we have uh basically

parameterized this where we know for which crop which weed has high probability to grow and how can we

prevent it with through some sprays or how can we control it once it has grown so even that is a part of our calendar

got it which we include so that in a single calendar farmer sees nutrient management pest disease management

irrigation management and weed management so that they don't have to search each of these things individually

got it and a lot of this has been built because we have seen Farmers search this on Google and YouTube got it they will

search uh in Hindi and that grass has the power to destroy sugar cane yeah because it will

take up all the nutrients and sugar cane will be left with no no nutrients and it also attracts more Pest and diseases got

it so it clicked to us that this problem should be a part of our calendar and the solution should be a part of our

calendar so even if there is no grass in the calendar we will recommend a farmer some spray on the soil and farmers will

be surprised spr but if they do that following bhat calendar then the grass will not come at all and they'll be

surprised why is my production higher than other Farmers because you took all these small steps that we suggested you

amazing so nutrient management Pest and disease management irrigation management and weed management all of this again I

can find in your website um one question that I had is do you have case studies on your website where people have used

bat AG's calendar the nutrient management profile and everything else to be able to increase their yield yeah

yeah we have multiple case studies multiple success stories uh one thing that is important in this industry is

trust now um I'll give you a counter example there are companies who are manufacturing some pesticides and

fertilizers uh they have huge team on the ground they'll keep meeting the farmer spray this fertilizer and all

your problems will be solved and it's just what a 500 rupees a pack so farmer will be like not a big investment I'll

do it so farmer is always bombarded with such marketing content by people on the ground to spray something magical which

will solve the problem now we tell them and tell go and tell them something similar right that use bhat agre

calendar and solve your problems and they'll be like why why should we trust you so to build that trust even when

today you open bhat agre application you will see multiple success stories on our homepage itself most of them in video

format where an individual farmer is telling that yes I used your services which is both e-commerce and consultancy

and I saw good results on my farm and your services are free yes now let's come to the next part which is sales how

should a farmer approach and this is also problem that I encountered when we were about to make an investment into an

organic farm where the biggest question was okay we know how to grow the crop let's trust the expertise of the farmer

but how do we sell it what are the parameters or what is the approach that I'm supposed to have to be able to sell

my product at the right time at the right price so if you are a new farmer who is deciding to now buy a land and

grow a crop divide your crops into two categories first is perishable and second is non-perishable now non-

perishable is everything that you can store for around 6 months or more so all your grains and pulses um some

vegetables like onion all your spices like turmeric ginger cardamum some um strong or sturdy fruits will also come

in non- perishable or semi- perishable category now since you are doing this as a business figure out some

infrastructure where you can store these crops there are high chances that whenever you harvest that crop the

prices will be low because everyone around you has harvested around the same time because that is more weather

dependent so when um let's take potato is an example we took so everyone harvest the potato at the same time

which is seasonal but if you are a smart farmer you have figured out that the prices of potato are higher in this

month now build or rent the INF infrastructure to store that crop this is possible for all rice wheat soyab

Bean maze sweet corn all pulses all spices um sugar cane cotton except for perishable vegetables and fruits this is

possible for all the crops even in perishable fruits it is Affordable to do a crop uh Cold Storage so somebody like

since we were talking about grapes grapes farmers do use cold storage because it is Affordable just in a

specific vegetable segment it I think uh anybody who is trying to do should do a cost analysis and then only go for it

got it so it becomes unviable after a certain point right what is the good margin guys let's say my cost of

production is 20 rupees what's a healthy price to sell it at 50% is considered average in agriculture so 30 Rupees is

what you should so 50% would be your margin net net okay so 30 rupes you should sell it anywhere above 30 rupees

if your cost of production is 20 now but here one mistake which we see Farmers doing is they don't consider their own

labor generally the whole family will be involved in agriculture in some of other means so that labor generally goes

unnoticed so whenever we suggest anything we consider you know as per labor laborers you know consider it as a

manufacturing everything has to be counted and on top of that the profit margin should be kept the swaminathan

commission report equation yeah is that correct yes yes so would you suggest Farmers to use the swan commission

report to evaluate the price at which they're supposed to sell no use the parameters okay so like a report will

consider even cost of water that you have used cost of electricity cost of Labor and you use your own family

members and yourself to do some activities on the farm so include that cost so don't take the number from the

report because number would be changing from state to state but use that parameter and use your own number got it

yeah so something like skill labor is different so for uh all activities on a grave Farm the labor will be expensive

because the activities will need some skills versus if you take a labor on a rice Farm you if you consider the same

pricing for everything then it will not be good it will not be right got it anything else guys for if it is non

perishable figure out a way to store it and build a network around you to find out when to sell which is more again

information knowledge and building some relationship with the buyers one success story that I'll share here is again from

Maharashtra like Maharashtra is a good state for onion now onion is semi- perishable if you don't store it well

within 15 20 days it's bad but if you store it well you can store for 3 4 months now you can build infrastructure

at your own farm at a cost of as less as just 1 lakh Rupees to store your entire onion produce for 6 months and

government is further subsidizing it by 50% that you invest 50% government will give you 50% and build that

infrastructure so a good chunk of farmers have figured that out in Maharashtra they know that when I

harvest onion I may not get good price but I am uh lucky enough to not have cash flow issues right now so I'm fine

if I get money 6 months later so I'll store it and then 6 months later I may get double or triple price

and New farmers who are listening to this and are trying to enter into agriculture should have such a thought

process that I should be good enough with cash flow so that I store and get more profit in future got it U I want to

add to this uh there are companies uh who do commodity financing so these are generally warehousing companies so let's

say if you have wheat produce and today we prices because everybody is harvesting it's low so you can store at

their warehouses and then they will give you loan against that commodity so after 6 months because cash flow is a issue

with every farmer so after 6 months when the prices are high and you want to sell so you can sell it and then it will get

adjusted with your loan which is taken and then additional whatever amount you want to take when it comes to

infrastructure because when I as my uncle he said IND he made a list of all the equipments

that he thought is necessary through YouTube videos and then he said you know let's just order these equipments from

India mark another who come and inst it for you and I think that's risky because the investment amount is pretty high so

what do you think should be the right way to approach this infrastructure building um by infrastructure you mean

some Warehouse in the farm anything for that matter even if there is a warehouse that needs to be built um in my case if

I'm not wrong it was about building that Greenhouse okay so there was a vendor that he searched for on on um indiia M