City firm plans farm start-up

At a time when the farming community in the country is facing many problems in terms of return on investment, Being Farmer India Pvt. Ltd, a one-of-its-kind social start-up venture, has taken a step towards making farmers more self-sufficient and thus turning agriculture into a more profitable venture.

The company’s plans to transform farmers into agripreneurs is centred around encouraging farmers to cultivate exotic vegetables at temperature-controlled smart micro farms.

“Most of the technology that we have is not benefitting farmers. Looking at this issue, we came up with the concept of Smart Micro Farms, which are already successful in Israel, the Netherlands and US. In this, the farmers can grow those crops which India normally imports. In addition, we buyback the entire produce at a fair market price, thus assuring the farmers the right price. Currently, we are developing one cluster in Karnataka and by 2016 we are planning to develop 100 such clusters in all the three states — AP, Telangana and Karnataka,” said Srinivasa Balaji, chairman of Being Farmer India Pvt. Ltd.

The capital costs involved in setting up smart micro farms will be met through government subsidy and funding arranged by the company.