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Gujarat farmers into greenhouses

Our Bureau

AHMEDABAD, Dec. 24

MOVE over Mr Pradeep Mammen and Mr J.P. Prem of the Mammen Mappillai family and the LMW group respectively. It may now be the turn of Mr Bhagwat Amin of Dholka and the mother-daughter combine of Ms Kailashben Shah and Ms Bijalben Haria of Gandhinagar to take on the garb of the biotechnology venture capitalists. Not being of the stand-alone variety like those put up by their southern counterparts, the Gujarat ventures are more in the nature of small-time farmers taking up biotechnology projects as add-on s to their existing farming activities.

On the anvil are not less than 15 greenhouses in various parts of Gujarat where the stress would be on bonafide farmers setting up the biotech ventures. Much smaller both in size and volume than the greenhouse export houses of the south which are in the Rs 3-4 crore, 2-3 hectare variety, these new ventures in Gujarat are more of the Rs 10-12 lakh, 1,000 sq.m kind.

Just as the farmers have taken to the greenhouse culture with relative ease, it is the Gujarat State Finance Corporation (GSFC) that has provided the initiative by identifying biotechnology as the business segment of the future and has decided to provide the necessary fillip by making available the seed capital to the farmers.

``The idea is to take biotechnology to the grassroots-level farmers instead of getting stuck with the stereotype image of green houses being a corporate venture. The economies of scale work very much in our favour if biotech ventures are taken to the mas ses thus ensuring larger exposure rather than limiting it to a few corporate houses. While these projects will be much smaller in size, sheer volumes will more than make amends,'' said Mr S.K. Nanda, Managing Director, GSFC.

The mother-daughter combine of Kailashben-Bijalben are currently putting up a 500-sq.m. greenhouse near Gandhinagar exclusively for red roses, the same as Mr Bhagwat Amin has done in Dholka in a 1,000 sq.m. plot once again with no multiplicity of product s. However, Ms Kailashben and Ms Bijalben have also taken up a three-acre farming venture to develop an exotic vegetable basket which will soon get extended into a cold mart where the products would be on sale. Among the vegetables being grown there are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cherry tomatoes, red and Chinese cabbage to name a few.

``The farmers of Maharashtra got excited about the greenhouse projects quite some time back. Almost 150 such projects came up in various parts of the state over the last couple of years with bank finance and most are doing well. Now, it may be the turn o f the enterprising Gujarat farmers who take to methods as well as anybody else in the country. We are convinced that the greenhouse revolution is set to catch on in Gujarat,'' said Mr Amit Vasavada, CEO, Ecosystem Group, who moved out of the Pune-Nasik b elt into Gujarat some six months back.

GSFC has set itself the immediate target of bank-rolling 30 greenhouse projects. With over 70 farmers already queuing up to get into the business of greenhouses, the SFC may have its hands full till such time it monitors the success rate of the first 15 that it has already funded. The farmer-friendly model of greenhouses may well vie with corporate entities as the numbers keep adding up.