Satyajit and Ajinka Hange climbed the company ladder after finishing their MBAs from Pune University by working with premier MNCs for nearly ten years. But there was all the time a wierd feeling. Gradually, stuff appeared off by some means. They got here to know that they may solely ever be fully content material after they had been of their 100-year-old wada within the Bhodani village of Indapur Taluka. They determined to launch Two Brothers Organic Farms (TBOF) after rising weary of their company employment. They received harsh criticism for his or her alternative. But they’d a inflexible set of beliefs. The Hange brothers started farming on a small plot of land and now function a 21-acre natural farm with an annual income of Rs 12 crore. They use typical farming methods and cow dung as manure.
TBOF: The Beginning
Two Brothers Organic Farm (TBOF) was based in 2014 by Satyajit Hange (42), and Ajinkya Hange (39), who each left their positions as bankers to pursue their very own natural farms. The brothers had been avoided farming from a younger age, regardless of hailing from a farming household. The two brothers attended faculty in Pune from kindergarten by way of commencement, they usually additionally had jobs there for some time. Before deciding that farming was their vocation, they spent the subsequent seven to eight years touring by way of India’s main cities.
Early Challenges
The brothers found that the farms’ output had considerably decreased from their fellow farm laborers. Prior to starting, they had been conscious that almost all of farms produced much less as a result of declining soil fertility and inorganic agricultural practices. Additionally, each the quantity of energetic labours and the provision of water are declining. They had been conscious of natural farming, however few others of their space had been truly doing it. They started assembly farmers who had been practising unconventional farming throughout India. In a couple of remoted areas across the nation, natural farming was carried out, however not in a method that was worthwhile. They stopped utilizing chemical fertilizers the day they discovered about their unfavorable impacts.
Use Of Traditional Manures
Two brothers resumed utilizing cow dung as fertilizer for his or her vegetation. The soil is given the micro- and macronutrients it wants by way of the usage of conventional manures like cow dung. To improve fertility, they mulched their farms with natural waste. While poly-cropping helps enhance soil fertility, soil particle dimension, water retention capability, and finally farm biodiversity, mono-cropping causes the depletion of 1 particular nutrient. As they started experimenting with poly-cropping, now their farm has a meals forest with quite a lot of fruits, greens, and 25 to 30 completely different plant species, a few of that are medicinal.
Experiment With Papaya
One of their preliminary experiments was with papaya. Even although it did not have a very enticing exterior, it tasted good. Markets, then again, disapproved of their costs as a result of they had been based mostly on the fruit’s look. Then they began constructing their model TBOF and took their produce to markets and purchasing facilities, they usually additionally entered the web realm. After 4 years of trial and error, the brothers created a mannequin utilizing native seeds, their very own fertilizers, and pesticides, which considerably lowered their agricultural expenditures. Their true market costs had been three to 4 instances larger than these on the native marketplace for the caliber of their produce. They succeeded in elevating market consciousness of the worth of natural produce by way of quite a lot of neighborhood and nonprofit applications, which had an impression on their native farmers.
Final Success Story
Gradually, TBOF obtained a lot of guests and farmers from 14 completely different nations, in addition to from throughout India. Travelers, farmers, media professionals, and bankers from the USA, France, Germany, and Australia are amongst them. Additionally, the Maharashtra authorities invited farmers from throughout the nation to be taught extra about their agricultural strategies. More than 25,000 farmers have obtained natural agricultural coaching from Satyajit and Ajinkya throughout the previous six to seven years. To consider and advise them on methods to enhance their produce, the 2 even go to their farms. The brothers have additionally joined arms with native farmers to assist them convert their farms to natural practices and market their produce.
Currently, the duo promote quite a lot of natural items, together with laddoos, gulkand, chyawanprash, ghee, peanut butter, groundnut oil, conventional wheat flour, jowar varieties, and nutritionally-rich rice and pulses. No third get together exists. Everything is out there for buy on-line, and orders are shipped out inside 4 to 5 days of being positioned. Their yearly income in 2016 was Rs. 2 lakh. However, they at the moment have an annual turnover of roughly Rs. 12 crore. Everyone within the provide chain is now a stakeholder after Team TBOF lately gave shares price round Rs 3.6 crore to all of its staff, from the cowherder to the chauffeur.
