FARM SECTOR CONSULTANCY

During the last century there has been a boom in the global population. Improvement of economic conditions has led to an increase in per capita income of individuals and hence the demand for high quality produce and substantial yield is on the rise. Matters have been made worse by availability of only a finite area of arable land. To combat water scarcity there is a need for innovative solutions and techniques to tackle agricultural challenges. India especially seems to be affected by this trend in a dramatic manner with rapid urbanization of farming lands and decrease of area available for cultivation of food crops. As we step into the next decade, India’s farming sector needs to accelerate to keep pace with the global agricultural practices. There is a need for consolidation of land under cultivation, a greater need to adopt scientific techniques and improved technology and use new management practices to propel India forward in the coming years.

THE RISE OF COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE

In simple terms, a cash crop or commercial crop is an agricultural crop which is grown for sale to return a good commercial profit. These crops have good export demand or have very good industrial demand and good demand in traditional markets as well or have demand in off season market. They include some varieties of fruits, off-season & exotic vegetables, flowers, medicinal plants, spices, various beverage crops etc. In major cases the market seeks specific qualities/varieties to satisfy its demand instead of a name. Some other allied projects also have good commercial potentialities like Composite farming, Organic farming and more.

The days of traditional farming with conventional knowledge passed down through generations is no longer sufficient to flourish in the coming years. Modern scientific techniques coupled with real time market information and the marriage of traditional methods with advanced information systems will be necessary for all crops in general and commercial crops in particular.

6 IMPORTANT REASONS TO CHOOSE THIS SECTOR?

There are so many strong causes for which people could consider this sector for their career or diversification. But here we are pointing out 5 incredible points which may attract one’s interest quite easily.

THE GENERAL TREND OF PEOPLE

Many people know the importance of this sector. But they do not know all the pros and cons or the technicalities and do not have the required knowledge for commercialization. So they go ahead and select their crop variety by copying the traditional trend that is followed by some other plantations. Nowadays, many people are heavily influenced by Facebook and YouTube and are making poor decisions.

In other cases, the people who are a bit more progressive have engaged some agriculturist to get assistance into their ventures. In both the aforementioned cases, people do not engage any techno commercial experts with qualified research teams to transfer their investment (money, time & land) into a sustainable venture. Instead, they set up a mere plantation and just hope to get the highest possible return out of their investment. So, in essence, they are losing out on better profits or the best profits against their investment. In the developing countries, more than 90% people are reluctant to hire professional knowledge services and to pay for their quality services.

But a totally different approach is adopted by few pioneering people in the country and the farmers and entrepreneurs of developed countries – they start with the hiring of subject matter specialists or a team of the same to make their efforts and investment more profitable than they could make by using the traditional method. They consider the knowledge and expertise as an important key input for their success.

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM AgriCon’s EXPERTISE IN THIS FIELD?

Our holistic services are designed for all kinds of farm entrepreneurs and veterans in the field of farming who have envisioned to chalk out a serious career in this brand new field in the coming years. The experience of our experts in this field for last few decades coupled with latest analytical economics and statistics on survey, planning and market demand analysis and adoption of cutting edge technology will help the farm entrepreneurs to steer the meandering course into unbridled prosperity.

OUR VISION IN THIS FIELD

Our goal is to revolutionize commercial farming and help budding entrepreneurs suggesting best commercial crop breeds and providing our unique techniques which allow them to prosper in the coming years. Our firm works towards promoting a “Green” Return on Investment, via structured investment plans in commercial farming and composite farming under both Open air or protected category following Organic, General or GAP protocol and practices that are classified as “Precision farming”.

agriCon as well as Sudharma is a one of a kind agriculture asset management company with a dedicated focus in the Indian subcontinent. A pioneer in introducing commercial farming services, we have developed a scalable model to achieve operating institutions of scale, certainty and minimize risks to its green conscious stakeholders.

Based out of Kolkata, this year we are targeting to work on 100 acres of farming in respect of land and targeting to manage assets valued over 10000000 USD in value added Horticulture & other innovative agribusinesses.

Sudharma was born from the idea of establishing a green venture with sustainable ROI for all stakeholders. It has grown from a small start up to a social business, benefiting realtors and investors alike. Our goal is to revolutionize commercial farming and adapt them to the best effect in different agro climatic Zones worldwide besides the Indian subcontinent context. Our firm works towards promoting “Green” ROI via structured investment plans in commercial farming and practices “Precision farming”.

Our profile helps us to look after Investors who benefit from our systematic Agri portfolio management, transparent investment structure, deep expertise in precision farming and our commitment to achieving environmental and community sustainability.

WHAT SPECIAL SERVICES CAN YOU CHOOSE FROM?

Here, agriCon offers a variety of service modules to its clients to help in their specific farm ventures. Information about major services are furnished here under in a FAQ format.

WHAT ARE THE STEPS FOR A START UP ENTREPRENEUR

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

WHAT CROP SHOULD I GROW AND HOW IT WILL BE DETERMINED?

CROP/PROJECT IDENTIFICATION

We provide our unique crop identification services to the willing entrepreneurs, which is the first and most important part of their green venture. We deliver this service in a form of an exclusive report called CIR (Crop Identification Report). During this study we do SWOT (Strengths – Weaknesses – Opportunities – Threats) analysis and do research on various factors like soil, climate, location, social and commercial aspects like market, geographical abstract, social psychology and character, man/organisation behind the project, natural calamity record and many more factors related to technical feasibility and commercial viability of a project and find out best suitable crop breeds (in respect of commercial quality and productivity) that have a good market demand and suit one’s situation as well. We may find out other prospective allied ventures (like primary processing unit, crop care centre, unique hospitality, contract farming units etc) which could be coupled with the main venture for an additional growth and more sustainability.

This service is specially designed for the medium to large categories of investors to get maximum possible return and to minimize the risk out of their investment.

HOW CAN I GET LOAN AND SUBSIDY? WHAT WILL BE MY BUSINESS PLAN?

BUSINESS PLAN & DPR

Almost all the nationalized banks are providing loans in this sector as project form following their terms and conditions in India.

DPR: Detailed Project Report (DPR) is one of the important factors to get loan from financial institutions. We can make the business plan following the CIR and prepare the DPR accordingly as per requirements adhering to proper standards. And as an extension of our assignment we provide knowledge support to our clients during negotiation for loan approval.

LOI: We do provide knowledge support to the entrepreneurs so that they can enjoy the maximum benefit of Government subsidy and can prepare LOI as per the standard guideline of Subsidy disbursing agencies and make corresponding follow ups.

HOW COULD I DEVELOP THE INFRASTRUCTURE?

You could develop the infrastructure as per recommendation mentioned in the CIR by yourself or we could provide our service towards the same in a turnkey manner. This is available specially for infrastructure development including poly house, irrigation, fencing, store development, land development, layout preparation etc. to make the proposed site into ready to cultivate condition.

WHERE CAN I GET THE TECHNICAL AND MANAGERIAL SOLUTIONS?

We have our own dedicated and very experienced team of experts in both Technical and Commercial domain and we are also well connected with the big research agencies/ academic institutions like ICAR, IIT (STEP), EDII etc. as well. So, our clients could get the latest technologies through our rich team to manage the technicalities following the best possible standard. Beside this our agri business experts could provide managerial cutting edge solutions to any commercial venture very efficiently.

HOW CAN I CAPTURE THE MARKET?

Our vast network allows us to arrange Marketing Linkages or Tie Ups. We can provide buyers’ information and can make buyers’ contracts also. Even we are ready to provide web marketing or digital marketing solutions and retail chain development solutions.

WHAT IS THE SCHEDULED TERRITORY OF SUDHARMA TO PROVIDE SERVICES?

At this moment, Sudharma is a Kolkata based company. So we could provide services throughout eastern India naturally – to the medium to big to the large scale investors. But in the case of distant states or abroad we could provide services to the big to large scale projects only.

APART FROM THE ABOVE WE PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING SERVICES TO OUR CLIENTS AGAINST REQUISITION

GENERAL CONSULTANCY

For the people who are interested in this field but want to gather some knowledge regarding what? Where? How? Etc. before step into their venture.

TRAINING

Customize Training for Skill and HR development.

RESOURCING OF INPUTS

Resourcing or Supply Services of Critical Inputs.

RESTRUCTURING

We also provide services for Restructuring of Old Farms.

SUDHARMA PROVIDES SERVICES IN THE FOLLOWING FARM SECTOR VENTURES

Sudharma also provides services on the following farm sector ventures. We classify these in 2 broad categories.

1 ) Open Air Farming

Commercial farming of High value Exotic & off- Season crop

CROP BREEDS.

  • FRUITS
  • VEGETABLES
  • SPICES
  • FLOWERS
  • MEDICINAL PLANTS
  • AEROMATIC PLANTS
  • TIMBER

AVAILABLE PROTOCOLS

  1. General
  2. Organic
  3. GAP

2 ) Protected Farming

Commercial farming of High value Exotic & off- Season crop

CROP BREEDS.

  • EXOTIC FRUITS
  • EXOTIC VEGETABLES
  • EXOTIC SPICES
  • EXOTIC FLOWERS

AVAILABLE PROTOCOLS

  1. General
  2. Organic
  3. GAP

OTHER FARM SECTORS

1. SEED PRODUCTION OF POTATO, ONION, CEREALS, PULSES ETC.

2. HYBRID VEGETABLE SEED PRODUCTION

3. ANIMAL HUSBANDRY: DAIRY, GOATERY, PIGGERY, POULTRY, FISHERIES, APPIARY