Pradeep Kumar Dwivedi, a 45-year-old progressive farmer from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, is practicing organic agriculture. With a B.Tech in Food Science and an M.Tech in Chemical Engineering from HBTI, Kanpur, his academic background is as impressive as his career trajectory. With over 26 years of experience spanning R&D, Product Engineering, QA, QC, and Project Management across industries such as Food, Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, Herbal, and FMCG, Pradeep's journey reflects a deep commitment to innovation and a passion for sustainability.
Shifting from Corporate to Agriculture
He worked in the corporate world for so long that he started questioning his future in it. With an illustrious career at prestigious multinational companies, he began to wonder how long he could continue working this way and for how much longer. Eventually, he decided to take a risk, quit his job in 2010, and focus on organic farming. He started farming and contract farming on a total of 300 acres of land in Fatehpur district. This venture was founded on a strong academic and professional background.
Pradeep got a chance to visit Peru which is in South America. During his visit, he found Quinoa and decided to introduce it to Indian farmers. He began the Quinoa with four farmers in Bahua village, Fatehpur, demonstrating the profitability of Quinoa cultivation. It was not an easy job in the beginning to convince farmers and find buyers, but his persistence paid off. Today, he works with 40,000 farmers across six states cultivating Quinoa, Chia seeds, Radish, Moringa, Flaxseeds, and more.
Model of Sustainable Business
The core of his business strategy is to support farmers by providing them with seeds, technical assistance, and post-harvest processing. He tackles the crucial problem of market access by buying products directly from farmers and managing the sales himself. By encouraging cluster-based farming, his cooperative approach increases efficiency and enhances collective bargaining power.
Pradeep’s Innovations Boosting Farmer Incomes
Pradeep's R&D team is working on value addition to agricultural products, which has significantly increased their market value. His team has developed an innovative product which is instant sugar cane juice. One of the innovative ways to consume the sugarcane juice from the instant powder is by mixing it with water, which can be consumed throughout the year without chemicals.
He started his journey with a turnover of 5 lakh annually today now his business has a turnover of around 48 crore. His efforts have resulted in the setting up of a Quinoa Milk Plant in Noida, which is the first initiative for increasing farmers' incomes.
Awards and Recognition
Pradeep's achievements include:
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Best Entrepreneur Award (2016) by ICAR, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt of India.
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Best Farmer Award for Organic Farming (2017) by the Ministry of Agriculture, UP Government.
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Best Innovative Organic Product Manufacturing Award (2018) by the Ministry of Food Processing, Govt of India.
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Best Organic Cash Crop as Food Security Award (2018) by the Ministry of Food Processing, Govt of India.
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Best Organic Farmer Award (2021) by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
Pradeep has also published nearly 155 international research papers on different herbs and organic foods. He has written a book, 'Food Security in India by Cultivating Quinoa,' which provides some insights into the potential of Quinoa as a sustainable crop.
Vision for the Future
Pradeep's message to the farmers is always on multi-cropping and bringing in high-demand crops like Quinoa and Moringa, with patience in proper methods with government and private sector support systems, and the rest is about creation of Minimum Viable Products or MVPs as he puts them and mastering these.
Pradeep Kumar Dwivedi's path from corporate professional to organic pioneer is a tale of creativity and commitment. His efforts improve the lives of thousands of farmers and advance India's larger objectives of sustainable agriculture and food security.
