Tejraj Sahu, a farmer hailing from the Bargarh district of Odisha, recollects his best possible day ever to be in March 2023. It used to be the day the farmer relied on his paddy box with a brand new fertiliser. The cruel sizzling solar coupled with unseasonal rains and lowered water preserving capability of the sector had spelt bother for Sahu’s plants for a while.
However simply when issues have been taking a look bleak, he were given to learn about a brand new fertiliser ‘Navyakosh’ that used to be making waves within the farming neighborhood in Uttar Pradesh.
Sahu straight away were given involved with its author Akshay Shrivastav from Kushinagar. He sought after to grasp if the fertiliser lived as much as what it promised — expanding yield via 20 % whilst slicing the fee via 50 %.
Akshay confident him it did.
To achieve Sahu’s agree with, Akshay instructed him he can be transport him one tonne of the product (20 luggage of fertiliser) at no cost. “You’ll take a look at it to consider it,” he instructed Sahu, who used to be extremely joyful.
Within the months that adopted, now not handiest did this “miracle” product lend a hand Sahu’s paddy box greatly, but it surely additionally greater productiveness within the neighbouring fields the place it used to be used. In overall, 15 farmers have been witness to the wonders of the product.
The variation within the well being of the crop used to be visual. And passersby have been fast to note. Sahu would inform everybody who enquired {that a} fertiliser used to be chargeable for this drastic transformation. And shortly, many hopped onto the bandwagon of in need of to buy the product, compelling Sahu to begin an outlet the place he procured and offered LCB Fertilisers.
“Nowadays, his outlet promoting the Navyakosh fertiliser is a success!” Akshay stocks with The Higher India. “He purchases it from us for Rs 600 according to 50 kg and sells it for Rs 800.”
We sat down with him to grasp the industry style and the way his adventure started.
How it began
For the 25-year-old chemical engineer, having the ability to construct a logo this is serving to farmers is a dream come true. Belonging to a farming circle of relatives who lived off the land, Akshay isn’t any stranger to the woes of the neighborhood.
He recollects observing with a breaking middle as surprising rains would steadily wash off their subsequent month’s meals. The 2 bighas of land (not up to one acre) the place the circle of relatives grew wheat, mustard and sugarcane, have been their delight. “I’ve watched my folks suffering to live to tell the tale on agriculture. I’ve noticed my father take a look at the whole thing to extend productiveness; from chemical fertilisers, natural fertilisers, cow dung, you identify it and he has used it.”
He recollects how they have been steadily chided for devoting such a lot in their energies to the sector.
“However our livelihood is farming. If our box didn’t do neatly, what would we devour? We had to concentrate on our box!” he argues. So, years later, when he used to be tasked with a challenge within the 3rd yr of his faculty, Akshay didn’t must contemplate a lot on what this could be. The speculation have been able since he used to be slightly boy.
The combat between chemical and natural
Intent on growing an answer for farmers to extend their yield, Akshay explored the choices that lay earlier than him — both paintings on bettering the seed high quality or paintings on bettering the fertiliser high quality.
He selected the second one for its possible.
“We all know there are two forms of fertilisers that exist. One is a chemical fertiliser, and the opposite is natural. One thing that I’ve by no means been ready to grasp is why other folks nonetheless use chemical fertilisers once they understand it’s destructive results. Additionally, why haven’t natural fertilisers change into standard despite their advantages?”
Within the pc lab of his faculty, Akshay started searching for the solutions. However the details he stumbled throughout handiest added to his preliminary surprise. A 2020 record via the BioMed Central (BMC) Public Well being Magazine instructed round 385 million other folks, in particular amongst farmers and agriculture staff, are poisoned via insecticides yearly. It additionally accounts for 11,000 deaths according to yr. A number of the fatalities, just about 60 % or 6,600 deaths according to yr, happen in India on my own.
“Persons are death because of chemical fertilisers. However why are farmers nonetheless the use of them?”
The following couple of weeks noticed the continual engineer chase down his faculty professors with this query. However nobody appeared to have the solutions. Ultimately, they agreed to lend a hand him analysis the web for the choices that existed to chemical compounds.
And that used to be when Akshay stumble on the theory of biofertilisers. Nowadays, as he prides himself on helming his startup, he smiles at how he by no means supposed for it to change into a industry. “LCB Fertilizers used to be only a faculty challenge,” he says. Nowadays, the corporate has made a Rs 1.3 crore turnover.
Creating the miracle product
It used to be all through his internship years on the Indian Institute of Era (BHU) Varanasi, (IITBHU) that Akshay’s thought were given scale. The technical internship in 2019 presented him to sides of integrating tech into industry and commercialising an concept for social affect.
Following this, Akshay used to be decided on for the Ministry of Agriculture’s RKVY-RAFTAAR Scheme, which makes a speciality of the building of agriculture and allied sectors. Whilst the theory of biofertilisers had taken root in his thoughts, he hadn’t but delved into the producing procedure. However while at IITBHU, he recollects a seminar that helped him together with his eureka second.
“I seen that the processes of creating biofuel and biofertiliser have been very identical. Each contain agricultural biomass being handled with microbes.” Thus started the adventure of Akshay and his mentor checking out other forms of microbes throughout farming lands for his or her traits in a bid to peer which might paintings best possible when added to fertilisers.
Against 2020, Akshay had controlled to get a hold of a collection of biofertilisers that have been all appearing neatly. That very same yr, he officially introduced LCB Fertilizers Pvt Ltd. However simply when issues have been taking a look up, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“We had ready microbe mixes within the laboratory and have been within the means of checking out the mixes on crops to test their potency. I had to go back house without a thought of after 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 needless. I used to be again to sq. one — no lab, no cash and no hope for what’s subsequent.”
Unhappiness at having been so just about the dream, and having to surrender, clouded Akshay’s thoughts. All the way through this time he used to be additionally introduced a task, however a intestine feeling instructed him he shouldn’t surrender on his dream simply but.
And so, day after today, with a Rs 10,000 funding, Akshay made up our minds to show his shed outdoor his house into his lab. “I bought a pump from Amazon, a temperature sensor and I arrange a bioreactor in my area. I had the technology to organize the fertiliser. I made up our minds to do it at house.”
Throughout the weeks that adopted, Akshay went round accumulating outdated picket, and soil from several types of environments — from harsh climates, marshy spaces to loamy soil and cow dung. The primary batch of fertiliser he ready weighed 3 kg.
Akshay then proceeded to divide a 12 sq toes house outdoor the house into other parts. He planted seeds of carrots, spinach and radish in every portion however the selection of fertiliser used to be other — one batch used to be grown with a chemical fertiliser, one used to be grown with cow dung, one used to be grown with LCB fertiliser and the final without a fertiliser in any respect.
And you’ll be able to wager 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 get admission to labs, workplace house, and extra.
Along with this, a NIDHI Prayas Grant from the Division of Science and Era, in conjunction with monetary give a boost to of round Rs 8 lakh, additionally boosted the product’s building.
What’s so particular about this fertiliser?
Elaborating on why plants appear to be loving the LCB fertiliser, Akshay says this is because it supplies them with the whole thing they have been lacking in different chemical and natural fertilisers.
“Merely put, the fertiliser has 4 elements. The primary is a mix of microbes — nitrogen-fixing, potassium-mobilising, phosphorus-solubilising, and Trichoderma. This set is helping the plant get admission to the vitamins that it must develop neatly,” he says.
The second one element is agricultural biomass. This incorporates seven sorts of biomass equivalent to bagasse, cow dung, and so on. The 3rd element is the nanoparticles which building up the resistance of the microbes and lend a hand them live to tell the tale in spaces the place it’s sizzling. “It makes them thermophilic in order that the microbes can live to tell the tale at temperatures as prime as 70 levels celsius,” he says.
“The fourth element is a polymer which holds 260 instances its weight in water and is helping crops in drought-prone areas,” Akshay provides. “The LCB fertiliser is helping cut back the fee for a farmer (from Rs 6600 for one acre to Rs 4000 for an acre) whilst making the method hassle-free. As a result of the polymer, farmers handiest must irrigate the land as soon as in 25 days by contrast to as soon as in 15 days.”
Nowadays, Akshay claims that over 35,000 farmers have benefitted from the product. As an increasing number of farmers are adopting this new piece of marvel, Akshay says he feels this can be a private win. “I’ve grown up observing what farmers must bear as a result of merchandise that don’t carry out neatly. I’m satisfied that I will be able to lend a hand,” he says.
Edited via Padmashree Pande