Business Opportunity for a new organic farm in Ahmedabad - a project by Gautam and Sandeep

       The project aims to analyze the entrepreneurial opportunity in organic farming in Ahmedabad. In the first phase of the project we plan to do the market analysis (SWOT) of the organic products in Ahmedabad. In the second phase we will create the operational and financial plan for the proposed organic farm. As part of operational plan we will analyze the location, land area, crops, and equipments and running expenses such as fertilizer, seed etc. For financial plan we will use capital investments, operational cost and revenues to assess the feasibility, profitability and risks of the business. For our analysis we plan to collect primary and secondary data from following data sources

Primary Data Sources:

Interviews with organic farmers

Secondary Data Sources:

· NABARD Reports

http://www.nabard.org/fileupload/DataBank/OccasionalPapers/OC%2038.pdf

· Agropedia Database

http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in/?q=content/welcome-agrowiki&page=6

· Department of Agriculture and Co-operation

http://agricoop.nic.in/

· Agricultural Finance Corporation

http://www.afcindia.org.in/services.html

Project on Business models for organic agriculture by Katharina and Jaime

Title:

     Analysis of existing business models for organic agriculture in developed as well as developing countries and identification of limitations and opportunities to promote markets for organic agriculture in Mexico and Russia

Idea:

    Sustainable agriculture is a worldwide growth industry and it can be a profitable, sustainable business. This can be observed in many developed Western countries such as US, Japan or countries of the EU where, in the context of steadily increasing demand for “healthy” organic products, many new businesses have emerged.

     Within the scope of this project, firstly, successful business models, such as Wal Mart’s contracting with local organic producers in the US or small retail chains like Bioland or Reformhaus in Germany shall be analyzed.

    Secondly, chances and obstacles for replicating these business models in developing countries, particularly in Mexico and Russia, shall be analysed.

     The focus will be put on compulsively organic farms in remote areas of the two specified countries (as opposed to voluntarily progressive organic farms as they can be found in many developed countries) where farmers, due to insufficient access to modern technologies, genetically modified seeds, pesticides, etc. are left with the only option of organic agricultural practices. Such areas typically lag behind in terms of well-functioning markets for organic products and efficiency of production whereas argo-diversity is remarkably high. In this context, the project’s target will be to identify opportunities and development strategies to support and enlarge markets for organic products in these areas.

Project on Organic Produce Supply by Harini Siram

• Find the demand for organic produce in the metros of India, built an e-commerce platform for the customers to place their orders online.

• Supply chain efficiency: Determine how best we can deliver the product of high quality, service and best price.

• The future prospective of how the business can be expanded.

• The approach is to first start from the consumers, identify the demand and then vertical integration to maximise the benefits.

Developing a web based portal to promote Greenhouse Agriculture in India - a project by Jalaj Desai

        Greenhouses are framed or inflated structures covered with transparent or translucent material large enough to grow crops under partial or fully controlled environmental conditions to get optimum growth and productivity.

Advantages of Greenhouses:

• The yield may be 10-12 times higher than that of outdoor cultivation depending upon the type of greenhouse, type of crop, environmental control facilities.
• Year round production of floricultural crops. Off-season production of vegetable and fruit crops.
• Water requirement of crops very limited and easy to control.
• Modern techniques of Hydroponic (Soil less culture), Aeroponics and Nutrient film techniques are possible only under greenhouse cultivation.

                    Greenhouses are being built in the Ladakh region for extending the growing season of vegetables from 3 to 8 months. In the North-East, greenhouses are being constructed essentially as rain shelters to permit off-season vegetable production. In the Northern plains, seedlings of vegetables and flowers are being raised in the greenhouses either for capturing the early markets or to improve the quality of the seedlings.

Methodology:

• The portal would be a one stop destination for all information regarding Green Houses: Types of greenhouse, how to construct a green house, Crops/Fruits/Flowers that can be grown in a greenhouse etc
• It would also have success stories of farmers who have implemented greenhouse farming for cultivation of vegetables and fruits
• The website would also have a list of experts from Academia and practioners with their contact details who could help the user in solving problems regarding building a Greenhouse.
• Other feature of the portal would be to link all Government agriculture schemes related to sustainable agriculture and specifically green houses so that users know of the assistance provided by government in promoting Greenhouses
• Another section of the portal would be dedicated to reporting any recent research and developments in this particular field.
• Information about the markets to sell the greenhouse produce could also be uploaded on the website
• I feel that building a website would help students, farmers, researchers and people having entrepreneurial ambitions in this field gain access to all information that is needed to be successfully practice greenhouse cultivation.

The contribution of Integrated Pest Management to sustainable agriculture - a project by Deblina Saha and Ramkesh Meena

Scope: 

         IPM is a sustainable approach to managing pests by combining biological, cultural, mechanical and chemical tools in a way that minimizes economic, health and environmental risks. It reduces the amount of chemical pesticides by using three possible approaches:
1. Mechanical: Limits the pest's access to food, water and harborage sites.
2. Biological: Introduction of a natural enemy of the pest.
3. Chemical: Pesticide applications that have minimal risks associated with their use, or application in exact quantities.

        The extent of damage caused by the pests to agricultural crops varies from crop to crop. It can be as low as 8% or as high as 70% as in case of fruit and shoot borer of brinjal plant.

        IPM usage has the following benefits for sustainable agriculture:
1) Does away with the harmful effects of pesticides on environment
2) Freedom from adverse effects of pesticide on the health of the farmers practising IPM
3) Cost reduction, increase in profitability
4) Reduction of bio-magnification
5) Enhances Soil Productivity
6) Reduction in number of pesticide resistant pests

Methodology:

         We plan to review the IPM practices being followed in India currently and compare them with the practices followed abroad and also analysis the existing gap and suggest methods of bridging the gaps.
Further, for a project pilot we plan to coordinate with the Entomology department of Anand Agricultural University, and encourage the following of IPM practices in a certain region of Anand. We would then compare the results obtained as a result of IPM practices being followed with that of past practices, as to whether there has been any leap taken towards sustainable agriculture by following IPM.

Designing of a Hi-Tech organic farm - a project by Prateek Shah and Prashast Srivastava

      Our project would be on the design of a hi-tech organic farm that can be implemented even on a small scale. Minimizing the size necessary for economic viability will be one of the objectives of our project, so that we can implement the design even for small land-owners. The farm will be targeted towards a certain region over which environmental conditions do not vary significantly. 

Key factors to be looked at are:

1. Appropriate crops for that soil, climate and market demand
2. Crop rotation and diversity to ensure fertility and nutrient replenishment: complete schedule of crop planting in 5-year cycle
3. Water sources - rainfall, irrigation, underground water
4. Efficient and precise use of inputs: water, soil, seeds, pesticides, fertilizers
5. Maximum use of sustainable technology to reduce costs/increase productivity
6. Look into feasibility of greenhouse technologies used in China on Indian farms
7. Economic viability in terms of pure financial costs as well as when considering environmental costs (will govt subsidize the latter - something along line of RECs?)
8. Using downward integration through small-scale technology to increase appropriability to farmers (along the lines of Decentralized Cotton Yarn initiative)

Design of supply chain and retail interface for organic food- a project by Maalika Mallela and Aparna Gangadharan

Aim:

          The project aims to design a sustainable model of supply chain management and suitable retail interface for organic fruits, vegetables and food grains.

Methodology:

         The methodology involves study of current supply chain practices and modes of retail for food – both regular and organic and then proposing models from the key learnings. Study would involve both secondary and primary research. The primary research for supply chain management would involve interaction with people in the field to understand the best practices and limitations. Primary research for retail interface would majorly focus on gaining consumer insights with regards to the assortment, communication and outlet design.