Tuesday, 10 June 2025
In the heartlands of India, a quiet yet powerful revolution has been transforming the way the nation grows its fruits and vegetables. Since the economic liberalization of the 1990s, Indian agriculture has steadily shifted from traditional farming to more precise, sustainable, and profitable horticulture—driven not just by policy, but by farmers and agri entrepreneurs who dared to dream big.
This transformation is most visible in the numbers: in 2023–24, India produced over 112 million metric tons of fruits and vegetables, a milestone made possible by the adoption of precision inputs like FCO-grade soluble and liquid fertilizers. These innovations—introduced in the 1990s and formally regulated by 2002—have boosted yields, improved quality, and extended shelf life while reducing environmental harm & use of subsidised fertilisers.
Having talked about the statistics, this story belongs to people who have brought change in the farming sector. A new breed of agri entrepreneurs—engineers, technologists, policy experts and innovators—who have turned their focus to the soil.
Stanford-educated mechanical engineer Mahesh Damodare, based in Pune, left his corporate job in 2007 to launch an agri-tech venture with a mission to transform Indian farming. Under his guidance, farmers like Dinesh Bendre in Pune, Tushar Maruti Avohad, Brahma Jadhav in Shambhajinagar, and Vikas Prabhakar Zope in Jamner have successfully cultivated crops such as tomato, banana, ginger, chili, and other vegetables. For these farmers, the journey has been nothing short of life-changing — improving their farm incomes manifold and enabling self-sufficiency. They unanimously credit Damodare for the transformation in their livelihoods.
Similar success stories resonate across the country. In Kurnool, pomegranate grower Maheswar Reddy; in Sangli, Sarang Dad Mali; and in Coimbatore, Loknath Natarajan—all attribute their agricultural transformation to D.V. Ramaraju, an agri-entrepreneur from Hyderabad. With over 30 years of experience, Ramaraju’s deep knowledge of transformative agriculture has impacted the lives of thousands of farmers nationwide. Another pioneer, R.R. Shah, now 80, fondly recalls leaving a well-paid government job in Punjab decades ago to pursue agri-entrepreneurship. His journey took him across the globe in search of the most advanced farming techniques, which he later taught to Indian farmers, helping them transition from subsistence to profitable agriculture. Among the progressive thinkers of their generation, veteran agri-entrepreneurs like Jitendra Gami in Gujarat, Vinod Goyal in Uttar Pradesh, Dr. Swapnil Bachchav and Balasaheb Thombare in Maharashtra have devoted their lives to transforming Indian agriculture—empowering farmers, championing sustainable practices, and redefining the very meaning of rural prosperity.
A handful of highly motivated agri-entrepreneurs across India have quietly transformed millions of lives. Changing the deeply entrenched mindset of farmers—convincing them that using a Rs 135 per kilo water-soluble fertilizer could be more profitable than relying on Rs 5 per kilo urea—was only one of many challenges these pioneers faced. In a tightly controlled sector like fertilizers, even importing small quantities of high-value, next-generation nutrients meant braving accusations of smuggling and fighting long-drawn legal battles.
Despite the odds, they persevered—supported by a few, young, techno legal strategic thinkers who worked behind the scenes to engage with the Ministries of Fertilizers, Revenue, and Agriculture. Their efforts culminated in a landmark breakthrough: the inclusion of water-soluble fertilizers in the Fertilizer Control Order (FCO) in 2002 and their recognition as Open General License (OGL) items for import.
Rajib Chakraborty, who pioneered this movement by registering the first water-soluble fertilizer (19-19-19) in the FCO in 2002, recalls the uphill battle of policy reform in the early 2000s. His journey continued into 2023 with the successful development of indigenous technology for manufacturing soluble fertilizers in India. He credits not only his team’s perseverance but also visionary bureaucrats like Dharampal, retired Commissioner of INM (Ministry of Agriculture), who introduced ease-of-doing-business reforms in 2002, and V. L. Kantha Rao, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, for recognizing and supporting indigenous scientific advancements in 2024 that laid the foundation for self-sufficiency in water-soluble fertilizers.
Inspired by the vision and perseverance of early pioneers, a new generation of agri-entrepreneurs has emerged—now numbering over 10,000 across the country. These changemakers are equipped with the knowledge of soluble, organic, micronutrients, biologicals and stimulants are expanding their reach beyond horticulture to field crops, helping millions of farmers triple their incomes while steadily reducing their dependence on subsidized fertilizers. Their collective mission is bold and transformative: to build a residue-free, environmentally safe, high-profit farming model that is non-subsidized, independent of rainfall, and sustainable for the future.
