Nagendra Naidu Dharmavarapu from Andhra Pradesh left his high-paying task and based Farmties India Personal Restricted. He used his ancestral circle of relatives land to domesticate Yellow Dates which is now incomes him income in lakhs. This is all about this uncommon superfood.
Whilst lots of the adolescence within the nation are heading in opposition to company jobs, just a few flip in opposition to farming. Suffering from quite a lot of components, particularly excessive possibility and coffee profitability, no farmer would wish his son to grow to be a farmer.
“I do know that there’s a sure standpoint in opposition to taking on farming. However I used to be very certain from the start of my profession that I might finally end up within the agriculture trade,” says engineer-turned-agriprenuer, Nagendra Naidu Dharmavarapu, the founding father of Farmties India Personal Restricted.
In step with Nagendra, it is very important to find one’s area of interest in farming to earn income. He discovered his area of interest in Yellow Dates, a really perfect meals, which is incomes him Rs 3.5 lakhs in keeping with acre.
Intrigued by way of the product and the way he discovered his marketplace, The Higher India had a dialog with Nagendra the place he remembers his preliminary days of brainstorming to make income.
Again to his roots
Born right into a circle of relatives of farmers, Nagendra grew up in shut proximity to the problems farmers confronted every day.
“I used to be in detail conversant in those demanding situations and had grown up considering attainable answers. In my thoughts, it was once transparent that I sought after to be an agripreneur,” he provides.
Even whilst Nagendra was once in an engineering faculty, he would continuously go back house and spend time at the farm.
“I had a robust affinity for the farms and was once very made up our minds that in the future I might additionally transition into the agriculture house,” he says.
After finishing his stage he pursued an MBA and got to work in a startup. “I later moved directly to corporations like Apple, Tracxn, and I-PAC, figuring out how high quality keep watch over and provide chain works,” he says.
He even bought a failing corporate and became it round right into a profit-making one in 2018. “Alternatively, I used to be all the time pondering of the way I may just input the agri house. I wished a cast plan — a excellent and area of interest product, the appropriate labour and a powerful provide chain,” he says.
Whilst he was once taking part in his paintings, his true hobby lay in farming. “It was once a possibility that I used to be taking as my jobs had been very excessive paying. Leaving all that and transferring into a well-recognized but unknown house was once a soar of religion for me,” he says.
By means of past due 2018, Nagendra was once already on the lookout for a possible product that he may just develop. “I didn’t have to appear any place for farms as my circle of relatives owned lands close to Anantapur which may be in proximity to Bengaluru,” he says. “The one factor was once water shortage.”
This factor too was once solved when a recognized motor corporate manufacturing unit opened only some kilometres away. “This introduced water to the world and likewise changed into a tipping level for me. I used to be now certain that I sought after to utilise this piece of land,” he says.
Discovering a marketplace for yellow dates
Sooner than transferring into agriculture, Nagendra did a large number of groundwork visiting quite a lot of villages.
“There have been a large number of culmination comparable to papaya, coconut, and mangoes that will develop smartly within the climatic stipulations however I didn’t need to input that house. I used to be conscious that the federal government provides a large number of subsidies to farmers to develop those. This makes it available to everybody who needs to get into the trade,” he says.
Nagendra was once on the lookout for a crop that was once area of interest and with fewer avid gamers available in the market. “I sought after a crop that calls for a minimum of 5 to six lakh rupees as funding in keeping with acre. This might get rid of the contest. Additionally, I sought after one thing that was once very region-specific.” he says.
He narrowed his seek all the way down to avocados, dragon fruit or dates.
“Out of those, I realised that climatically recent yellow dates could be new in India however would additionally develop rather well. Dried dates are slightly not unusual however recent dates are slightly unknown however extraordinarily nutritious,” he says.
Since Nagendra was once no longer certain how this number of dates would develop within the climatic stipulations, he began with simply 20 acres.
“I had grown up seeing wild dates rising within the area however no longer yellow dates. Whilst it would were an enormous leave out, fortunately it wasn’t, and the local weather fits completely to develop the plant,” he says.
“I needed to import the Yellow Dates seeds from in a foreign country as those don’t seem to be to be had in India,” he says. Alternatively, one chew of the fruit was once all it took to grasp its immense shopper enchantment and marketplace attainable within the nation.
“The style was once addicting and I knew as soon as the patrons to find out concerning the fruit, it’ll be a luck. I reached out to my pals from faculty and we raised some price range. In 2021, I had an excellent yield and we had been promoting in and round Anantpur,” he says.
With time he began to succeed in out to greater avid gamers like shops promoting natural meals, Swiggy, Giant Basket, Zepto, Nation Pride and many others. “We additionally began to succeed in out to company places of work of those marketplaces. The CEOs would style it and fall in love with the fruit. That is how we discovered a marketplace for it,” he says.
What began with simply 20 acres of farming land is now an empire of greater than 1,400 acres of cultivation.
“The cash in margin is 37 p.c and we make just about Rs 3.5 lakhs in keeping with acre thus far,” he says.
“Our primary center of attention is keeping up the standard of the dates. We segregate them consistent with the standard and ship the most productive ones out. I’m totally conscious that it’s the high quality and availability of the fruit that has created a excellent marketplace for us, and I need to give my very best to retain it,” he provides.
If you want to check out this superfood, you’ll achieve out to Nagendra at 91642 96999.
(Edited by way of Padmashree Pande; All Image Credit: Nagendra)