Sunil Kalra owner of brand Prabhat Seeds recently published his video on FTB. The brand Prabhat Seeds is based out of Kurukshetra, Haryana and is supported by more than 100 farmers.
The video starts with a drone view of his farms and manufacturing units. He welcomes you to his recording and thanks Krishi Jagran FTB platform for giving him the opportunity to express his views and to promote his brand. He explains how he started the business and established his brand. In 1986, he started working with farmers, who were in desolate state financially. "To earn 10 rupees the farmer had to travel up to 20 kms". To see the farmers in this state he was disheartened and started brainstorming on ideas that will help these farmers.
I came up with the idea that if we could provide better seeds to the farmers, they would be able to grow good quality and quantity of crops. In 1995, I bought a plot in the Industrial Area and setup a plant in 1997 named Prabhat Seeds. We started production on a small scale and started investing heavily in increasing the size of the plant. We started producing small qualities of seeds and slowly increased our production to 2000-3000 quintal of seeds per year. Although we had made large investments, our ROI was not very good, we suffered losses and had difficulty in balancing the balance sheet.
In the year 2000 internationally recognized company Chambal Fertilizers joined hands with us and assured us that you keep up your production and we will do the marketing for you. We liked this suggestion and continued with the production of 2000-3000 quintal of seeds for the next year. The following year we increased our production to 10,000 quintals. We focused and worked hard as now not only our prestige but also the prestige of our business partner, Chambal Fertilizers was at stake. We raised the level of our work and quality of our seeds to match the expectations of our partners. Since then we have worked with many big organizations including TATA, which marketed and sold the seeds that we produced.
Working with these companies has been a sharp learning curve for us, we have learnt new techniques and methods. We gave advise and training to the farmers associated with us through contract farming. What we learnt from these big companies we taught our associate farmers. The farmers have got new varieties and we advised them on how much manure to apply and at what times and how many seeds to sow. With our training the farmers improved their production by 10-20 percent per acre. This has improved the financial conditions of the farmers. Since then our brand has grown and grown.
In 2009, having gained sufficient experience our brand started to work independently of the companies. In 2012, we bought four and a half acre of land and started a new plant which is working very well. Farmers come to us to get latest variety of seeds and most of them are satisfied with what they get. Many farming institutions scientific, educational or governmental like VWR, CCSRI, HAU, IARI among others come to see their plant. Many scientists come to us to share and discuss their knowledge, which we pass on to our farmers. We are now among the top brands in seeds in Haryana.
He expressed gratitude towards the institutions and individuals who have supported, guided and helped his organization. Our brand is now in its 23rd year. He hopes that Prabhat Seeds will keep working and growing as it has till now. At the moment they are associated with about 100 progressive farmers. Some of these farmers have been with Prabhat Seeds since its inception. He hopes that Prabhat seeds will keep meeting its goals and more farmers will come forward to join them. It will be matter of pride for these farmers to join us. The staff we have in the fields and in our offices have worked well for the brand and he thanks them for their support. He said the brand at the moment is in an excellent position which it has achieved due to high sales of its seeds.