ISAP Entrepreneurship series:Story 11 Doing things differently Resources are available to all, but some make best use of it.This adage is best suited for Ranjit Kumar Bora, a B. Sc. Agri. graduate from AAU, Jorhat. Since his graduationhe had a strong inclination to start off some venture in agriculture on his own. After graduation he worked inreputed Agri-companies in different parts of the country in different capacities and gained ample field experience to work with the farmers. In 1999, he left the job and came back to his native place at Kaliabor Tiniali, Assam. Initially, he set up a nursery with the name “Kaliabor Tiniali Nursery” and started the production of nursery plants of various vegetable, fruits, ornamentaland flowers. Being in business Ranjit learnt from the scientists of KVKs that Patchouli (Pogostemoncablin) has been identified as one of the essential oil bearing aromatic plant with immense export potential.He wanted to take up Patchouli production and oil extraction in a big way. With this intension,he completed ACABC training at ISAP-Guwahati in 2010. Post-training,though, he continued producing nursery plants but shifted his main focus to patchouli cultivation which was known to very few people during that time. He is the pioneer in starting patchouli cultivation in Assam and neighbouring states. He added manpower to his team and started supplying Patchouli cuttings, saplings to different parts of Assam,North Eastern states and other states of India.He has set up an Aromatic Oil Distillation Unit, to extract patchouli oil. The oil is used in pharmaceutical, confectionary and cosmetics industry and it has good demand in India and abroad.Now the cultivation is being done in his own and leased land of approximately 26 hectares. Patchouli oil production can be a rural based, labour intensive, low cost agro-based cottage industry, which can give large-scale employment in rural and hilly areas. More and more farmers started getting associated and benefitted through him. Many youth have started cultivation of Patchouli in their own land and sell their produce to Ranjit. Along with patchouli he is also cultivating other medicinal plants like lemon grass,sugandhmantri and Kapurkechriand extraction of oil is carried out in his distillation plant. Inspired by his success,5-6 patchouli distillation units has been setup by entrepreneurs in different parts of Assam like Golaghat, Tinsukia, Darrang,Nagaon, Kachar, etc. Ranjit is a resource person/expert to institutions ofGovt. of Arunachal Pradesh, Govt of Nagaland, Govt of Assam, Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship, National Institute of Rural Development, etc. He startedthis business with a capital of ` 11.20 lacs and now his annual turnover is `2.00 crore with the support of 130 full time employees working with him.In the process more than 2000 farmers are directly associated withhimand another 1000 number have availed training annually. His efforts have able to bring some revolutionary changes in rural economy particularly those are associated with patchouli. “Initially, there was skepticism about the scalability of the model. But we won the confidence of farmers. They trusted us and we have grown together,” he says. Mr. Rajnish Kumar Boras details can be collected by sending email at [email protected]
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 15:28:55 +0000