Pune start-up helps farmers make crops more resilient to changing climate

“A sudden change in weather or significant fluctuation in the day-night temperatures can interfere with the growth of plants. In such weather conditions, it is observed that the plant growth declines at least by 40 per cent. This, despite best efforts by the farmer to add manure or spray fertilizers. They add to the farmer’s expenses but do not give desired yield,” said Renuka Karandikar, CEO of Bioprime Agrisolutions Pvt Ltd.

The natural biomolecules, available in liquid form, is administered to plants and is a targeted intervention during the plant’s growth, aimed to prevent any kind of crop loss.

The company was awarded Rs 1 crore under the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) LEAP funds. For the climate resilient agriculture category, the company has bagged a grant from the Atal New India Challenge under Atal Innovation Mission.

“Farmers, especially those who cultivate export-quality fruits like grapes and pomegranate, have reported good yield without much residual matter, which is important to meet export standards. With the use of these specialised bio-molecules, the crop growth could be enhanced to 70 per cent, even in adverse weather conditions,” explained Karandikar.

The start-up, which was incubated at Pune’s Venture Centre in 2016, has been closely working with farmers cultivating vegetables and fruits in Pune, Nashik and Satara. This team has also expanded its network and interacts with  farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.