Natural Farming: Way to be a Social Entrepreneur

Dr. Murli Dhar Panga; Dr. Vidya Telang; Prof. Sunil Verma; Prof.Umang Metha

Volume : VIII, Issue : I, January - 2019

Natural Farming: Way to be a Social Entrepreneur

Dr. Murli Dhar Panga, Dr. Vidya Telang, Prof. Sunil Verma, Prof. Umang Metha

Abstract :

A Social Entrepreneur by work, Mr. Devendra Satalkar, ventured with his dream project “Dhara Naturals’” reflecting his belief in nature and its productive capacity. He was always opposed to farming done with the help of fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, hyid seeds and industry dependent agricultural. Mr. Devendra Satalkar a techno graduate started with dairy farming in year and later shifted to natural agro farming. This stemmed from his belief that things grow naturally best when they are far from human intervention. He started with an investment of 4 acres of land which was uneven in topography and grew to around 12 acres of land. The land was used for growing different types of fruits such as chickoo, blackberry pomegranate, lemon, custard apples, along with drumsticks, curry leaves, lemon grass. Because of increasing awareness of the people towards natural product his customer base increased from 4–5 customers to 100 customers per month. In order to create value and make his venture more sustainable he added innovation to his efforts. Mr. Satalkar introduced many new products to his business like drumstick leaf powder, ginger salt powder, garlic salt powder etc. and various other products mix which encouraged responses from his customers. He carved a niche for himself in the business of organic and natural products. His future strategy is to work on sustainable growth by increasing the awareness among the society about natural farming and create a business which complements the nature and society at large.