Four years ago, three engineers decided to quit their lucrative jobs at the peak
of their careers. The reason? They wanted to undertake scientific and mechanized agriculture.
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| Hosachiguru team |
While the initial idea of the
Bengaluru-based trio–Ashok Jayanthi, Sriram Chitlur and Srinath Setty, was to
find a piece of land close to the city where they could practice organic
farming and grow chemical-free food for their families, little did they know it
would culminate into an innovative agri-startup, today known as Hosachiguru.
What is Hosachiguru?
Originating from the Kannada terms ‘hosa’ which means ‘new’ and ‘chiguru’
which means ‘sprout’, Hosachiguru is a leading agricultural asset management
startup that is running over 30 sustainable green projects on 800 acres of
land.
When you think about investments, you might consider buying a plot of land
away from the city where you’d spend more of your savings, perhaps building a
home that you may or may not live in for the next decade. But what if we told
you, despite living in the city, you could invest and buy a piece of land,
which could be transformed into a mini-forest and get you returns ?
And you don’t even have to think about its maintenance. Everything will be
done for you! Plus, you’ll have organically grown and pesticide-free produce
from this mini-forest delivered at your doorstep weekly.
Sounds utopian?
Well, the Bengaluru-based agricultural
asset management startup with its latest Eco-habitat project is
doing exactly that!
Speaking to The Better India, the trio explains the inception of the
company saying,
“When we decided to take up
farming ourselves, and hunted for farmland, we travelled across Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. It was during this ground research that we
realised that procuring, buying as well as maintaining farmland was no child’s play.
Either the cost of the land was too high, or it was too remote to be within our
reach. But we were passionate about farming and willing to go the extra mile.
As a company, we decided to procure 20-30 acres of farmland. We fenced it, dug
borewells, sowed seeds, got farm labour, all by ourselves. But slowly our work
started piquing the curiosity of those in our social circles. People started
asking us for tips.
Sriram Chitlur shares, “It was at the time we thought, why don’t we sell
the pieces of land to these people and manage it on their behalf. That’s how we
started getting customers on board and started rolling one project after
another.”
Whether it is their retail project that helps investors get long-term
income from timber cultivation or their upcoming eco-habitat project, their
road to success was full of challenges.
The trio travelled across the globe to understand the best-mechanised
farming practices. Despite the massive exposure to a wide range of practices
across different countries, they decided to come up with the own techniques to
ensure that they brought down the cost without compromising on quality, while
also ensuring maximum yield and profit.
Srinath observes, “While the labour costs to maintain an acre or two of
land is as high as Rs 30,000 – 40,000 a month, we had to innovate techniques
and build operations at a scale to ensure the same piece of land only required
a labour cost of Rs 5000 a month thus ensuring better returns for our
stakeholders.”
How are their methods
different from those used by traditional farmers?
Regular
farms are designed by the farmers, based on years of knowledge and experience.
But one cannot overlook the fact that if a farmer maintains an acre of land,
his primary premise is to rely on rainwater and grow cash crops like pulses and
brown rice during the monsoons. Many farmers don’t have the scope nor the
resources to scale up their operations or use mechanisation for the small piece
of land. Plus, the lack of insurance, marketing challenges and uncertainty of
climate, only add to their woes.
With
the resources and mechanisation available at their disposal, Hosachiguru follows some sustainable and
mechanised practices. A classic example of this is how they dedicate a few
acres of farmland and turn it into a catchment area for rainwater harvesting
with contour bunds, drenches, compartment bunds, soaking pits, mounds etc.
In 2016
alone, they were able to save a whopping 1.2 crore litres of water on a 35–acre
farm during heavy rains that lasted 45 minutes. This water lasted them for
seven months until the dry summers. And so, they have successfully built a
system where they are not reliant on groundwater for sustenance.
Besides
this, Hosachiguru also uses the method of biodiverse farming to replicate the
ecosystem of natural forests with zero residue farming methods,
bio-fertilisers, bio-pesticides, live mulching, intercropping, integrated pest
management and the inclusion of a diverse variety of herbal plants.
“So all you
have to do is own or invest in a piece of farmland, and we will manage it for
you with the best agricultural practices. You don’t have to worry about the
farm operations, labour, power & water availability, soil conditions, sale
of produce etc. You can enjoy the true spirit of the farm by getting chemically
free produce at your doorstep,” says Sriram Chitlur.
Additionally,
you can also visit the land whenever you please, participate in the farm
activities, enjoy the hospitality or just bask in the glory of your mini-forest!
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| micro bunding for rain water harvesting |
Each of these plots will be
demarcated, have road access, water supply through drip irrigation and
underground pipes, access to borewell, centralised water distribution and a
nursery to grow fruits and vegetable plants.
This
project will also have sustainable homes built using compact stabilised earth
bricks (CSEB) to serve as weekend getaways or post-retirement dream homes close
to nature.
Today,
Hosachiguru has over 100 customers who have bought various farmland projects,
and the number is only growing. The average investment required for a project
is Rs 15-18 lakh per unit. In the next 365 days, the trio envisions to add
another 1,000 acres of land to expand their projects.
Today,
Hosachiguru works with over 300 farm labourers living in native villages close
to their farmlands spread across the three states. Many of these labourers are
uneducated and come from impoverished backgrounds. But the team at Hosachiguru
has helped them unlearn unscientific agricultural practices and skilled them in
sustainable practices.
These
farmhands (which include many landless labourers and several others with small
but barren pieces of land) are not only successfully maintaining the day-to-day
working of Hosachiguru’s extensive agriculture projects spread over 800 acres
of land but are also replicating similar sustainable practices like maintaining
biodiversity, multi-crop management, bunding etc., on their land to make it
agriculturally viable.
What’s
better than investing in a property that gives your life a purpose and ensures
food security for your future generations besides transforming the lives of the
underprivileged?
