Organic farming startup

The demand for organic vegetables and foods has increased in the last few years. Many people are adopting organic foods, but the biggest problem is about its availability. Chemicals are mixed in most of the products available in the market. There are very few platforms where organic products are available. Such platforms are difficult to identify and access. To overcome this problem, Akshay Gupta of Kanpur has taken a unique initiative.

He has launched an organic farming startup where customers can eat vegetables of their choice throughout the year on a subscription model. Not only this, customers can also monitor how the vegetables of their choice are being grown and mixed with them. At present, 90 such customers are associated with Akshay.

Leave a good job and enter the farming sector

Akshay Gupta, 30, lives in Kanpur. He has done B.Tech in Computer Science. He also worked for a few years. In a conversation with Dainik Bhaskar, Akshay says that once I got a chance to go to the UP Investors Summit in connection with work. There I met people associated with the agriculture sector. After talking to him, my interest in agriculture grew. Then I came to know that how many chemicals are found in the vegetables that we use as our food, how many negative effects it has on our health.

Akshay Gupta, 30, has studied software engineering.  He also worked for a few years.  Now people are also praising his new work.

After this, it often started coming in Akshay's mind that he should do some such work so that he himself can eat organic products and can also provide it to others. After gathering information for a few years here and there, he decided that he would go into the farming sector and quit his job.

Had no prior farming background

Akshay says that he has not had a far-reaching attachment to farming. His father is from business background. While Akshay remained focused on his studies from the very beginning, he had to face many problems when he entered the farming sector. He had no understanding of the land nor any knowledge about crops. Initially he took one acre of land on lease and cultivated organic vegetables. However, nothing special happened to him. Most vegetables did not grow or there was very little production.

Even after this he did not change his mind. He started gathering information about farming. Chandrashekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology helped him a lot in this work. The directors of the institute, Dr. HG Prakash and Dr. Khaleel Khan explained to them the nuances of farming. This also benefited him and the next time there was a good production.

Akshay says that we do completely organic farming.  No chemicals are added to it.  If the customer wants, he can also come and see the form.

Akshay says that initially I grew vegetables for my own use, when the production was good, then made it available to the people around. People liked our vegetables very much. After this I felt that this work can be taken forward at the professional level and in the year 2019 started an agri startup named 'My Farm'. Initially, they used to send their products to the market, but they were not earning as compared to the cost. Sometimes they had to sell their products even at very low prices.

Started a new business model after a year, but did not succeed

Akshay says that when there was no good response from the market, then I set a target to reach the customers directly. I created a business model in which we used to deliver vegetables to people at their doorstep after monthly one-time payment. We used to deliver vegetables to them in a fixed ratio. For this we used to charge 31.25$ every month. This model of ours ran for a few days, but later problems started, because many times the production was not done as much as they had to give to the customers, due to which the customers had to face displeasure. Then we stopped this model and started planning for the new idea.

Home delivery of vegetables is done at the doorstep of the customers twice a week.  For this, Akshay has hired some boys.

They say that most of the people in cities set up their own kitchen garden on the vacant land or terrace in front or behind their house. In which they grow vegetables of their choice and usually production is done according to their needs. Then we thought whether we can create a platform where the customer has a kitchen garden of his own, in which the vegetables are of his choice and whatever is produced in a few weeks or months, that is his.

Subscription model i.e. each customer's own kitchen garden

In the beginning of the year 2020, Akshay started working on this model. He talked to people around him and developed a model based on monthly subscription. In which every customer has his own kitchen garden in a fixed area. Where vegetables of their choice are grown. Vegetables are delivered two days a week according to the production at the customer's doorstep. Instead, a customer has to make a monthly payment of 13.75$. There is no fixed amount in this that every week or month so much product has to be given to the customer. There is a simple concept that whatever production will happen on that land, it will be of that customer.

Akshay says that customers have to provide one-time monthly payment and a list of vegetables of their choice. After that they have no role. That is, from farming to production, monitoring and then the delivery of vegetables to the customers' homes, Akshay's team does the work.

Akshay explains that according to the season, the customers provide us with a list of vegetables of their choice, according to that we do the farming of those vegetables.

Every customer can monitor his/her kitchen garden

Akshay says that any customer can come to the farm and monitor his kitchen garden. He can also see what vegetables are in his garden and in what condition. How are they being taken care of and how they are being grown. Along with this, soon they are also going to launch an app, with the help of which customers will be able to monitor their garden sitting at home. They say that we have completed the pilot project of this model. CCTV has also been installed on its land so that customers can see their garden live from their home. This platform of ours will be launched in the coming few months.

How do you do marketing, what is the method of subscription?

Akshay says that we are focusing completely on social media and online marketing. We have also developed our own website. Through which we also do our promotion and also engage the customers. If any customer wants to take our service, then he has to inquire by visiting the website. He can also call us if he wants. After that our team will have a complete conversation and explain the process of subscription.

Along with vegetables, Akshay's team also does mushroom farming on the demand of customers.  They have set up for this.

Akshay is currently cultivating 20 bighas of land. He has taken this land on lease. 90 customers are associated with them from Kanpur and Lucknow. Soon they are going to start this project in other cities as well. His team is planning for this. There are 3-4 people in the core team with him. Whereas according to the work, they keep on hiring laborers. Regarding earnings, they say that they are making good profits from this model. Right now he is earning 8,750$ annually.

What is a subscription model business, how can you start it? Read this special story

Darjeeling tea is very special. Its colour, taste and fragrance are all wonderful. This is the reason why it is in great demand in Indian market as well as abroad market. Many brands market themselves as Darjeeling tea demand Mostly. Mostly people go somewhere to buy tea darjeeling at a mall or street shop and big market, so do not forget to see the label of Darjeeling tea name.

So Just imagine, how will it be if fresh tea and coffee products delivery From the tea gardens of Darjeeling reaches your home on a subscription throughout the year? Isn't it a unique model Two youths from Kolkata city have recently started a startup. Through which they are delivering fresh Darjeeling tea and coffee across the country on a subscription model.