Tejraj Sahu, a farmer hailing from the Bargarh district of Odisha, remembers his greatest day ever to be in March 2023. It was the day the farmer trusted his paddy area with a brand new fertiliser. The tough scorching solar coupled with unseasonal rains and lowered water holding capability of the sphere had spelt bother for Sahu’s crops for a while. 

However simply when issues have been wanting bleak, he bought to find out about a brand new fertiliser ‘Navyakosh’ that was making waves within the farming group in Uttar Pradesh. 

Sahu instantly bought in contact with its creator Akshay Shrivastav from Kushinagar. He needed to know if the fertiliser lived as much as what it promised — rising yield by 20 % whereas chopping the price by 50 %. 

Akshay assured him it did. 

To realize Sahu’s belief, Akshay instructed him he can be transport him one tonne of the product (20 baggage of fertiliser) without cost. “You may strive it to imagine it,” he instructed Sahu, who was thrilled. 

Within the months that adopted, not solely did this “miracle” product assist Sahu’s paddy area tremendously, nevertheless it additionally elevated productiveness within the neighbouring fields the place it was used. In whole, 15 farmers have been witness to the wonders of the product. 

The distinction within the well being of the crop was seen. And passersby have been fast to note. Sahu would inform everybody who enquired {that a} fertiliser was chargeable for this drastic transformation. And shortly, many hopped onto the bandwagon of wanting to buy the product, compelling Sahu to start out an outlet the place he procured and bought LCB Fertilisers. 

“At the moment, his outlet promoting the Navyakosh fertiliser is successful!” Akshay shares with The Higher India. “He purchases it from us for Rs 600 per 50 kg and sells it for Rs 800.” 

We sat down with him to know the enterprise mannequin and the way his journey started.

How it began

For the 25-year-old chemical engineer, with the ability to construct a model that’s serving to farmers is a dream come true. Belonging to a farming household who lived off the land, Akshay is not any stranger to the woes of the group. 

He remembers watching with a breaking coronary heart as sudden rains would usually wash off their subsequent month’s meals. The 2 bighas of land (lower than one acre) the place the household grew wheat, mustard and sugarcane, have been their satisfaction. “I’ve watched my mother and father struggling to survive on agriculture. I’ve seen my father strive the whole lot to extend productiveness; from chemical fertilisers, natural fertilisers, cow dung, you identify it and he has used it.”

He remembers how they have been usually chided for devoting a lot of their energies to the sphere. 

“However our livelihood is farming. If our area didn’t do properly, what would we eat? We needed to concentrate on our area!” he argues. So, years later, when he was tasked with a undertaking within the third 12 months of his faculty, Akshay didn’t must ponder a lot on what this could be. The concept had been prepared since he was a bit of boy. 

The battle between chemical and natural 

Intent on creating an answer for farmers to extend their yield, Akshay explored the choices that lay earlier than him — both work on bettering the seed high quality or work on bettering the fertiliser high quality. 

He selected the second for its potential. 

“Everybody is aware of there are two sorts of fertilisers that exist. One is a chemical fertiliser, and the opposite is natural. One thing that I’ve by no means been in a position to perceive is why folks nonetheless use chemical fertilisers after they comprehend it’s dangerous results. Additionally, why haven’t natural fertilisers grow to be well-liked regardless of their advantages?” 

Within the pc lab of his faculty, Akshay started in search of the solutions. However the details he stumbled throughout solely added to his preliminary shock. A 2020 report by the BioMed Central (BMC) Public Well being Journal prompt round 385 million folks, significantly amongst farmers and agriculture employees, are poisoned by pesticides yearly. It additionally accounts for 11,000 deaths per 12 months. Among the many fatalities, practically 60 % or 6,600 deaths per 12 months, happen in India alone.

“Individuals are dying as a result of chemical fertilisers. However why are farmers nonetheless utilizing them?”

 The following few weeks noticed the persistent engineer chase down his faculty professors with this query. However nobody appeared to have the solutions. Ultimately, they agreed to assist him analysis the web for the alternate options that existed to chemical compounds. 

And that was when Akshay stumble on the thought of biofertilisers. At the moment, as he prides himself on helming his startup, he smiles at how he by no means meant for it to grow to be a enterprise. “LCB Fertilizers was only a faculty undertaking,” he says. At the moment, the corporate has made a Rs 1.3 crore turnover.

Creating the miracle product 

It was throughout his internship years on the Indian Institute of Know-how (BHU) Varanasi, (IITBHU) that Akshay’s thought bought scale. The technical internship in 2019 launched him to sides of integrating tech into enterprise and commercialising an thought for social impression. 

Following this, Akshay was chosen for the Ministry of Agriculture’s RKVY-RAFTAAR Scheme, which focuses on the improvement of agriculture and allied sectors. Whereas the thought of biofertilisers had taken root in his thoughts, he hadn’t but delved into the manufacturing course of. However while at IITBHU, he remembers a seminar that helped him together with his eureka second. 

“I noticed that the processes of creating biofuel and biofertiliser have been very related. Each contain agricultural biomass being handled with microbes.” Thus started the journey of Akshay and his mentor testing completely different sorts of microbes throughout farming lands for his or her traits in a bid to see which might work greatest when added to fertilisers. 

In the direction of 2020, Akshay had managed to give you a set of biofertilisers that have been all performing properly. That very same 12 months, he formally launched LCB Fertilizers Pvt Ltd. However simply when issues have been wanting up, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 

“We had ready microbe mixes within the laboratory and have been within the strategy of testing the mixes on vegetation to verify their effectivity. I needed to return dwelling with no thought of once I may get again to the lab. Within the time that I used to be away, the microbe mixes had dried up and have been now ineffective. I used to be again to sq. one — no lab, no cash and no hope for what’s subsequent.” 

Disappointment at having been so near the dream, and having to surrender, clouded Akshay’s thoughts. Throughout this time he was additionally supplied a job, however a intestine feeling instructed him he shouldn’t surrender on his dream simply but. 

And so, the subsequent day, with a Rs 10,000 funding, Akshay determined to show his shed outdoors his dwelling into his lab. “I bought a pump from Amazon, a temperature sensor and I arrange a bioreactor in my home. I had the know-how to arrange the fertiliser. I made a decision to do it at dwelling.”

By way of the weeks that adopted, Akshay went round gathering previous wooden, and soil from several types of environments — from harsh climates, marshy areas to loamy soil and cow dung. The primary batch of fertiliser he ready weighed 3 kg. 

Akshay then proceeded to divide a 12 sq ft space outdoors the house into completely different parts. He planted seeds of carrots, spinach and radish in every portion however the selection of fertiliser was completely different — one batch was grown with a chemical fertiliser, one was grown with cow dung, one was grown with LCB fertiliser and the final with no fertiliser in any respect. 

And you’ll guess which one thrived! As soon as the lockdown eased in 2021, Akshay approached IIT Kanpur the place he met Dr Amitabha Bandopadhyay who helped him entry labs, workplace area, and extra. 

Along with this, a NIDHI Prayas Grant from the Division of Science and Know-how, together with monetary help of round Rs 8 lakh, additionally boosted the product’s improvement. 

What’s so particular about this fertiliser? 

Elaborating on why crops appear to be loving the LCB fertiliser, Akshay says it’s as a result of it offers them with the whole lot they have been lacking in different chemical and natural fertilisers.  

“Merely put, the fertiliser has 4 parts. The primary is a mix of microbes — nitrogen-fixing, potassium-mobilising, phosphorus-solubilising, and Trichoderma. This set helps the plant entry the vitamins that it must develop properly,” he says. 

The second element is agricultural biomass. This includes seven sorts of biomass resembling bagasse, cow dung, and so forth. The third element is the nanoparticles which improve the resistance of the microbes and assist them survive in areas the place it’s scorching. “It makes them thermophilic in order that the microbes can survive at temperatures as excessive as 70 levels celsius,” he says. 

“The fourth element is a polymer which holds 260 occasions its weight in water and helps vegetation in drought-prone areas,” Akshay provides. “The LCB fertiliser helps scale back the price for a farmer (from Rs 6600 for one acre to Rs 4000 for an acre) whereas making the method hassle-free. Due to the polymer, farmers solely must irrigate the land as soon as in 25 days in distinction to as soon as in 15 days.”

At the moment, Akshay claims that over 35,000 farmers have benefitted from the product. As increasingly farmers are adopting this new piece of surprise, Akshay says he feels it’s a private win. “I’ve grown up watching what farmers must endure due to merchandise that don’t carry out properly. I’m comfortable that I will help,” he says.

Edited by Padmashree Pande