What is the name of your organization?
1000 Farms Agritech limited
What is the name of your solution?
Light weight Agri BioGel
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
BioGels are microbial formulations encapsulated in natural polymers to reduce usage of chemical fertilizers.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
India
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
The Green Revolution was started in India in the year 1965, to increase food productivity by using high-yield variety seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides. This, in the long run, led to the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers. The consumption of Nitrogenous fertilizers such as Urea and DAP has increased 5 fold over the past decades, since the 1960"s. Manufacturing of 1 ton of chemical fertilizer releases 1.5 tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHG), polluting the air and depleting the ozone. The excess fertilizer run-off from fields damages water bodies significantly, leading to algal blooms and contributing to additional GHG. Chemical fertilizers, due to the above reasons have direct implications on climate change. Agricultural land degradation is a pressing concern in India. 90% of the land has been degraded due to overuse of nitrogenous fertilizers in the past five decades. Apart from the above, excess fertilizers have decreased the availability of primary macro and micro-nutrients to the plant, due to depletion in the natural microbial ecosystem, contributing to the reduction in crop yields. In response to declining productivity, and growing population, more fertilizers are recommended, contributing to the fiscal burden on the government and farmers.
What is your solution?
Biological Agri inputs, comprising of live bacteria, which can fix atmospheric Nitrogen and solubilize mineral phosphorus and potassium, reduce chemical fertilizer usage. The challenges of delivering a live microbial consortium from the manufacturing site to the farmer's field have been addressed by our innovative solution. We have developed a lightweight natural polymer-based gel, which stores a high count of live bacteria, for 2 years. The cutting-edge biogel can increase the fertilizer utilization efficiency of chemical fertilizers and reduce the use of chemicals by 25%. It can increase the yield by 20-30% and increase the overall margin/acre by 1.5-4 times. 100 ml of the biogel holds around 10^13 bacteria, which is sufficient for an acre of land. The product is water soluble and it is 100% biodegradable.. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEsH84b_uSg&t=6s
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Agri BioGels can be used by farmers to improve soil quality, crop yields, and quality, and reduce the use of chemicals. The farmers can save around 22% on their input cost and can make a profit of around 20-30% on their output. The current biofertilizers have a count of 10^3-10^5 microbes, but our Innovative Biogels have a significant count of 10^13 cells in 100 ml of biodegradable gels. This high count of live bacteria is the reason for the increased utilization of chemical fertilizers, which can reduce the use of chemicals, saving costs and also improving soil quality. The import of chemicals can be reduced significantly, which in turn can be offered as a subsidy to the farmers adding further fiscal advantage both to the government and the farmers. The better quality produce can fetch the farmer better pricing. Our innovation also indirectly increases the shelf life of the produce, further helping the farmers in storage and marketing. At 20% market share in India, Biogels can reduce the emission of 10 MMTA of CO2/year, priced at approx. $30M in the carbon trading market.
