Mother-Son duo disrupts the Agritech Start-Up space by Empowering Farmers with Renewable Energy
He was resolute to empower farmers, had dreams to start his Agritech Company, and ardour to confront challenges. The result of his hard work, perseverance and an everlasting thirst for success gave birth to ‘AgriVijay’ that empowers farmers and makes them future-ready by providing a plethora of Renewable Energy & Services along with new Technological Innovations in Agritech space. Vimal Panjwani (32), Founder & CEO, still holds passion and has fire in the belly to find ways to enhance thousands of farmers’ lives.
His zest was amplified by his mother Shobha Chanchlani (58), who supported him through thick and thin who also partnered with him as Director and Co-founder in this venture and built the brand identity by bootstrapping AgriVijay.
AgriVijay ‘s core value is to make farmers independent for their energy needs by encouraging the use of Renewable Energy & Services like Biogas or Solar Energy Products, boost their savings, income and reduce fossil-fuel usage for a cleaner environment, and replace firewood used for cooking with clean biogas. Thereby, improving soil health and yield, effective waste-management, and generating energy from available waste as in the case of dairy farmers.
Vimal says, “I always had an urge to help the farming community while implementing environment-friendly measures. Chemical fertilizers impact the environment and soil health. Having studied several products in renewable energy, like Biogas and Solar energy, I realized there was a dearth of vendors providing both along with affordability. I resolved to club both the markets and bring them on a single platform. And AgriVijay idea was conceived.”
Launched in June 2020, AgriVijay successfully collaborated with 20+ Solar and Biogas Companies bringing them under one umbrella and has 100+ Products. This initiative opened multiple avenues of Biogas, Solar, and Renewable Energy Technology products for farmers. Farmers benefit from its pocket-friendly prices and time-saving measures.
Various Companies, Product Manufacturers, Startups in Renewable Energy Space are at an advantage to grow their business by having proximity to farmers across India.
Partnering with the renewable energy firms and bringing everyone on a unified platform was a substantial challenge at inception. But Vimal’s prowess which comes from eight years of industry experience mainly on rural grounds paved the way for on-boarding these twenty companies.
For further ease or procurement for farmers across India, the company designed a Franchise Model – AgriVijay Renewable Energy Stores for Rural entrepreneurs who will provide these products to the farmers thus ensuring rural growth and generating employment within the village.
AgriVijay’s Business Model:
Farmers rely on fossil fuels such as diesel for running Gensets, Water Pumps, firewood for cooking, etc. They heavily rely on chemical fertilizers for their farms which impact the soil health in terms of nutrients and in the long run reduce yield or productivity. With the Biogas digestor product offered by AgriVijay, the farmer can get rid of firewood. The Biogas Organic Liquid Slurry with efficient use of water for irrigation will enrich the soil health. Furthermore, there are multiple Biogas Digester options from multiple companies offered by AgriVijay.
A Solar water pump or a Biogas Genset can be a replacement for diesel and provides uninterrupted free power, unlike electricity which faces outages in rural areas. This assists farmers who grow perishables like flowers, vegetables, or fruits and even hydroponics.
“With an investment as low as INR 35000/- or with farmland of two acres, any farmer can implement renewable energy,” says Vimal
The ISO 9001 certified model is backed by E-commerce Website, Call Centre, Field Sales Teams, and Branch Offices in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat. They began commercial ground operations in Rajasthan and Maharashtra and plan to enter Gujarat & Karnataka in 2021.
The company is looking forward bring Green Energy Products such as E-tractors and start branch offices at Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
The Founders:
Shobha Chanchlani is selected for the Rajasthan Women Entrepreneurship Program 2020 by the North India Office of the US Embassy, New Delhi among the several applicants. She feels proud of Vimal for taking up the task of empowering farmers’ life especially rural women who are still cooking on firewood.
Vimal has done his MBA in Agribusiness Management from SIIB,Pune. “In our country, more than 60% of the population are farmers. So if we can convert them as Renewable Energy users not only will our farmers and country prosper but we can achieve the goal of a greener environment” states Vimal.
Source: business-standard
