APRIL 20209Looking at the demand for bio-inputs, companies are manufacturing effective result oriented bio-inputs based on advanced biotechnologyOrganic food, cultivated using organic farming techniques, is the produce that is grown with nil or minimal use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and in its processing no chemical, artificial colour, flavour or ad-ditive has been added. Often, they are produced using organic manures, bio fertilizers and bio pesticides. Or-ganic farming techniques keep a long term perspective on aspects like soil fertility, effective control of pests and diseases without hurting the environment, judi-cious utilization of the farmer's resourc-es to reduce the input cost and produc-ing the higher quantity of the quality crops to fetch higher returns. There are various Government of India authorised certification agencies that look at the cultivation practices before certifying any food as organic. However, since the green-revolution it has become a com-mon practice to use synthetic agricul-tural inputs like fertilizers, pesticides and growth enhancers and regulators to expedite the harvesting cycle at the same time increase the yield. The synthetic fertilizers, undoubtedly prove to be helpful in increasing the production per unit of land while chemical pesticides help contain infestation with-in hours of spraying and of course, synthetic growth regulators give us fruits in whatever size, texture and as and when we wish. But, in pursuit of the short term goals, long-term ill effects of such practices are not re-alised. These chemicals deplete the soil off its nutrients by destroying the natural microbial contents and they may remain in the residual form in the harvested crops that we may consume posing great health risk. The organic food cultivation practices eliminate the health risk linked to the residual effects of hazard-ous chemical. Apart from this, there is now increasing awareness with regard to health benefits of organic food, for instance, it contains higher antioxidant levels, it tastes better and it's environment friendly. Coupled with the rising disposable income, increasing number of consumers from Tier-I and Tier-II cities are now ready to pay premium price, about 20-25 percent higher, for the healthier organic food. This has translated in the significant increase in organic food demand in the do-mestic market, with 40 percent growth while the ex-ports grew between 25-30 percent (2015) on account of increase in the world-wide demand.Realizing the market potential, farmers also start-ed exploring the realm of organic farm-ing by eschewing the use of agrochem-icals. As a result of which, with about 650,000 organic producers (2013) and 720,000 Hectares of organic agriculture land (2014), more and more farmers are making use of bio-fertilizers, bio-pesti-cides and organic growth promoters to improve the quality and quantity of their agri-produce and significantly reduce their input cost. Looking at the demand for bio-in-puts, companies are manufacturing ef-fective result oriented bio-inputs based on advanced biotechnology. For exam-ple, bio-fertilizers like Biofit N/P/K, mi-cro organisms based fertilizers, can replace their chem-ical counterparts by 50 percent for similar productivity and reduce the input cost by almost 25 percent. In ad-dition, enterprises now have started testing the innova-tive ways, for example, the direct selling rout adopted by Netsurf, to reach to farmers and create awareness about the rising demand for organic food. We have been able to reach to four million farmers to offer our bio-products. However, as consumer de-mand will increase and more farmers will look for the alternative to agrochemicals, we aim at establishing ef-fective backward integration with farmers. We are also predicting the disruptive innovations in farm-to-fork model. This will ultimately benefit the end consumers by reducing the prices and wider sections of the society can opt for organic food as a way of life.The organic food market, thus, poses a win-win situ-ation for the farmers by offering a great market potential for their produce with handsome returns as well as the consumers by offering the healthy food option. Many venture capitalists have also been attracted towards the organic food segment considering the scale of opportu-nity and the margins offered. As estimated, the organ-ic food consumption in India is not even 0.1 percent of India's total annual food consumption of `300 billion; the Indian organic food stage is set to witness many more `organic agripreneurs' in the recent future. Sujit Jain
< Page 8 | Page 10 >