“Positive Action Combined With Positive Thinking Result in Success”- Mr. Kailash Yadav

“Mr Kailash Yadav is an experienced horticulturist with rich experience. He has always been a lead performer. Realizing that he wants to achieve more gave birth to Kshitij Nutriscience where he is Managing Director. He tirelessly works to revolutionise & modernize the Indian horticulture system. From selling one container of fertilizer to selling 150 containers, here is his story.”

Ques) How did you land up in this profession?
Since the beginning, I have always imagined doing business in horticulture. After completing my graduation in 1998 in Horticulture, I started working with Godrej Agrovet as Management Trainee.
Godrej Agrovet is food and Agri conglomerate, dedicated to improving the productivity of Indian farmers by innovating products and services that sustainably increase crop and livestock yields.
In Godrej Agrovet, I looked after the Sales and Marketing of Agri Nutrition Products in the entire state of Gujarat. This was a challenging task for me but it gave a very good ground-level exposure and taught me practical experience in marketing & sales. Real Agriculture was similar yet quite different from the books. Afforce academics did help me to quickly absorb the fundamentals of Agriculture at the grass-root level. I was happy but still wanted to do more and achieve more.
After working 8 years in Godrej Agrovet, I joined Manshya Marketing Pvt. Ltd. in the year 2006 as Sales Manager. Manshya Marketing Pvt. Ltd is a Pune based Agri Firm, which is a Fertilizer Player.
This was a very good opportunity for me as I was introduced to Indian Agriculture Speciality Fertilizer Sector. Indian agriculture speciality sector has been growing in India at 15 to 20%. I was taking care of entire water-soluble fertilizer sales in Gujarat as well as in Chhattisgarh state. The business has been very good and sales have been continuously on the growth. I was one of the top performers in the company and things were very well. But certainly, I realized I wanted to do something more and achieve more in my life. I commenced Kshitij Agrotech in 2014.
Connecting to nature is always mesmerizing.

Ques) At which profile does your work with Kshitij Nutriscience India Pvt. Ltd.?
I am at present, Managing Director of Kshitij Nutriscience India Private Limited. (https://www.kshitijnutriscience.in/)
The company is into 3 three segments:
1) WSF & other speciality Fertilizer in Foliar Range
2) WSF & other speciality Fertilizer in “Fertigation Range”
3) Bio Stimulants – Like Humic Acids, sea-weed extracts, Plant Growth Regulators etc.

Ques) What makes you keep going?
I am passionate about making available the best technology and products that are used around the globe to our Indian farmers: to enable them to increase productivity and income with the best and sustainable practices.

Ques) Any project that is close to your heart?
Our Dream Project in Gujarat: “GUJ-POMO” meaning Gujarat Pomegranate.
Pomegranate-Drip Cultivation has just peaked in the Kutch district in Gujrat, in the last few years. Our Company has played a good role in this as our field team has worked dedicatedly with Kutch farmers to demonstrate the success of drip cultivation in Pomegranate cultivation. Our company systematically and faithfully works to give back to the state thus contributing to the nation.

Ques) Challenges you faced while working in this industry? And how do you hold yourself up and got through it?
It was a very tough decision to start the company as I did not have the surplus money to start with. I mortgaged my house, took out a loan from the bank, and also collected some money from friends and family.
It was kind of a do-or-die situation but I’m very thankful to God for his blessings and also to my family who supported me at every step and helped me succeed.
The initial money which I collected was just enough to purchase a container load. I still remember that it was a mixed container of different fertilizers as we could not afford to get a single container for a single fertilizer. Managing, dealing, and surviving with such adversities and limitations was a big task and further expanding was a big challenge.
As the saying goes, the first step is the hardest one. It was very difficult to send this container when you don’t have your brand and you don’t have a market presence but anyhow, we were successful in selling and collecting the money. This was achieved with the efforts of our small team at that time. I visited each dealer personally and made sure that every bag supplied is reaching farmers.
Then we made sure that we used to do farmer meetings every week so that we can guide them and take the real feedback about product quality, its applied result and benefits at the grass-root level.
This was just the start of the journey and with similar continuous efforts, we have reached the target of importing & selling 150 containers in Financial Year 2021-22.

Ques) Where do you see India in this field?
Water Soluble Fertilizer is now an integral part of Horticulture and I see India’s continuous growth of 10 to 15% in Water Soluble Fertilizers every year. India is importing 3,00,000 MTs of Water Soluble Fertilizers in a year at present and next 10 years. I view India importing 9,00,000 MTs in near future.
Ques)What steps should be taken to make the horticulture/landscape/nursery business a field that interests people?
Ans) Our State Agriculture Liasioning should improve further. It takes a lot of time to implement new technology and register new products. It should be streamlined to make it fast.
‘Time’ is a big essence in the fast-growing Agriculture World.

Ques) What are the recent/recommended technologies in the field that should be adopted for better results?
Drip Irrigation is majorly prevalent in South, West and Central India. Government should come out with schemes and package to make Drip Irrigation relevant in North & East India too.

Ques) Tell people about the scope of your field.
The scope of Indian Horticulture is beyond any limits. There is still a lot of good work required in modernizing and revolutionizing our Indian Horticulture when compared to Europe and the Western World. And I believe that the coming generations will hold the future in this field.

Ques) Can you give us your secret to success?
Always believing in dreams and chasing them with complete honesty, dedication and consistency is my success mantra that is very simple yet hard to follow.

Ques) Any piece of advice to youngsters/aspiring horticulturists?
I would just want to tell the young generation that the world is growing at a very high speed in technology and everyone is connected now. There is now a higher reach of resources. Be honest with your work and commitment which definitely will attract the right opportunity to grow. Also, learning should be a lifetime process that there should not be any end to it. Improve yourself every day so that every next day you are a better version of yourself.