The Founders established a mission to provide farmers with knowledge, technology, marketing, and extension services for improved quality and quantity of produce by efficient adoption of technology. The company focuses on the efficient use of big data to provide a decision support system for the farmers.
Dhiresh, Nishant, and Paras are school friends. While roaming through Tier-II and III cities as college students in the summer of 2018, they understood the problems faced by farmers and decided to create something that would cater to the needs of the farming community.
Being a group of two engineers and one from an agricultural background, we used to think and brainstorm on how we can solve this interesting problem using the help of technology, and that’s how the idea of Neem Tree Agro Solutions came into existence.
An engineer by profession and an entrepreneur by passion, Dhiresh pursued BTech from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology and gained experience in management, business development, social entrepreneurship, and business leadership. He also has experience in brand building, brand architecture, and corporate communications.
Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Paras is proficient in the fields of web, application, and software development. Presently an engineering student at Bharati Vidyapeeth's College of Engineering, Paras has experience in graphic designing, ethical hacking and AI/ML, and cloud computing.
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Head of R&D, Nishant was a student of organic agriculture and food business at Amity University, and also has a five-year of experience in management. An advocate of social rights, he started an initiative named ‘Massomyiat‘ against sexual abuse of children which received many accolades from the likes of Doordarshan.
2. What impact do you want to make in this world through Neem Tree Agro?
Dhiresh: In a world where everything is digitized, be it payments for food or groceries farmers are still opting for a physical approach whereas 60% of the population is dependent on agriculture and allied activities so why not digitize farming. When the whole world talks about food traceability why do we shy away from including this sector?
Nishant Chauhan: The only goal is to make a substantial impact on the rural economy considering small and marginalized farmers are the mainstay of Indian agriculture, and they are the ones with unresolved farming problems, as they have always leaned towards traditional practices and have sparse knowledge about crop agronomy.
Paras Jain: The main motive remains to revolutionize farming from the root level. Also creating a robust ecosystem for farmers for managing their queries can help them seriously through tough times. What good would the world be if we couldn't help the farmers who put in their hard work and sweat to provide food for us? With these visions in mind, we want to make Neem Tree Agro Solutions a global enterprise.
3. Several global companies have come out and thrown their support behind not needing a formal education. What are your opinions on this?
Dhiresh: Formal education is necessary to a point but after that, you have to identify the threshold be it undergraduate, postgraduate, or Ph.D. There is a limit to what formal education can actually offer you, especially in India where one size fits all approach is heavily used. This by any means is not to malign the education system but after a point, you need to figure out how to move further in terms of skill set and experience and that has to do with your eagerness and willingness to learn.
Nishant Chauhan: We shouldn't be surprised that formal education is breaking down as a result of the pandemic. Overcrowding in classrooms, outdated and rigid curriculum design, and a lack of appreciation for providing a holistic approach to education were just a few of the ways it was already failing to provide students with opportunities to develop important life skills and become lifelong learners. So, rather than focusing on formal education, we should focus more on providing them with the opportunities to learn all the skills needed for an all-around development of an individual.
Paras Jain: According to me, formal education isn't necessary. If you have the required skill set for the job and can back it up with your work, formal education isn't a decisive criteria. With the growing use of the internet, education is more accessible than ever. As they are available over the internet, they can be acquired for free and put actually paying for a formal degree, under a lot of scrutiny.
4. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced with Neem Tree Agro and how did you overcome that?
Dhiresh: Coming from a very humble background where the parents have a typical mindset, the aim was only to take government jobs or get into civil services. At one point, I even dreamt of becoming an IAS. I got into an excellent college, cracked JEE then my parents thought that I will be taking a govt job or becoming a civil servant and going in a complete diff direction by opening a startup convincing my parents myself when all of my friends are IAS, investment bankers, and high salaried people these were the major challenges that I overcame.
Nishant Chauhan: While running a startup you face enormous and strenuous challenges on a daily basis. The biggest challenge for us was to curate a model that would cater to the current Indian rural economy and would be a perfect fit for it. The only way to overcome this challenge was to understand the rural agri consumer pattern and what are all the niches that we can explore in order to provide them with tailored solutions.
Paras Jain: The biggest challenge was to develop a system that can be adopted by farmers easily. We overcame that with inputs from farmers' meetings, helping/explaining to farmers the adopted technologies and how they can benefit them.
5. How do you believe one can overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?
Dhiresh: In the beginning, you need to bootstrap your own funds. I even had to borrow from friends and family but at the end of the day if you are not able to convenience your own blood and friends how can you expect investors to pitch in?. We were lucky that we got govt grants and govt has been making constant efforts in this field. We received grants from premium bodies which made us believe in our vision and once again we got a boost of confidence.
Nishant Chauhan: The key to deal with financial hurdles is to review, revamp, research and rewrite the business plan. Make certain changes if the current plan of action, including company expenditures on marketing, advertising, and employees isn’t working out. Seek loans and grants that are designed to give startups a boost. And the ultimate long-term funding option is to associate with venture capitalists and angel investors.
Paras Jain: Lack of funds is a hurdle difficult to overcome. I would suggest going for government funds as the government is keen on investing in new and innovative ventures wherever you can and can be of great help networking too.
6. What are your tips for first-time and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Dhiresh: Don't do a startup just for the sake of having a startup, don't make another ola, uber, or zomato. You need to come up with something original, something which has an appeal to the masses and solves an enormous problem that you have faced in your life. As an entrepreneur, you have to solve problems and then build a business over them. Something that I firmly believe in is that only if you believe in yourself and your vision only then people believe in your vision. Lack of funds is never an excuse to not go ahead with your plan (dream) you'll get the funds arranged from your friends or family only if you believe in yourself.
Nishant Chauhan: Starting out as an entrepreneur is, without a doubt, a stressful effort. The only advice I have for them is that if you believe in yourself and your vision then do take the risk regardless of the difficulties you will face along the way, but face your fears and never give up.
Paras Jain: You might face regular rejections and fail but being consistent with your approach and finding solutions to problems is the most important thing when first starting up. If you have an idea. go for it. Don't get demotivated and learn from your mistakes.
7. What are your future plans for yourself and your company?
Dhiresh: We aim to become a full-stack solution and 5-10 years down the line, we want a reduced dependency of labor on agriculture within the production of AI-based robots factor, IUT based irrigation systems, exposure of farmers to organize credits, and helping farmers to get out of the vicious cycle of debt. India will only truly be digitized when each and every farmer has access to digital enablers which in turn helps out a farmer to reduce all its input costs and increase profitability.
Nishant Chauhan: My future plans are linked to Neem Tree Agro and its ultimate vision. Ten years down the line our vision is to reduce the farmer’s dependency on traditional methods and make them familiar with new technologies like IOT-based agriculture systems. The other plan is to eliminate their dependency on labour and introduce mechanized farming equipment such as Automated tractors for seeding and harvesting, and smart drones for the application of chemicals. Also, digitizing all their transactions and opening new marketing channels to widen their selling base.
Paras Jain: The future plans are to create a robust tech infrastructure, introduce precision farming and automated farms, learn new things along the way and network more the farmers, and understand their problems and hardships on a personal level.
8. Which is your favourite book and why?
Dhiresh: "The Alchemist "Paulo Coelho inspires me as an individual to live my life to the fullest and singular pursuit of my individual dream life is full of treasures you just need to and in this journey, you can discover some of them only and only if you listen to your heart follow your dream.
Nishant Chauhan: My favorite book is “THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI” by Robin Sharma. The reason being It's one of those books that stays with you for months after you finish reading it. It's not a stretch to call it a classic, because it really is. It teaches applicable life lessons, guiding you on a fulfilling path regardless of your chosen career path.
Paras Jain: I would like to judge "RINGS OF FIRE" by Eric Flint as the most insightful and motivating book that I have ever read. I find it to be very inspirational and it has actually persuaded me to make some decisions that have made me who I am today.
Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Paras is proficient in the fields of web, application, and software development. Presently an engineering student at Bharati Vidyapeeth's College of Engineering, Paras has experience in graphic designing, ethical hacking and AI/ML, and cloud computing.
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Head of R&D, Nishant was a student of organic agriculture and food business at Amity University, and also has a five-year of experience in management. An advocate of social rights, he started an initiative named ‘Massomyiat‘ against sexual abuse of children which received many accolades from the likes of Doordarshan.
2. What impact do you want to make in this world through Neem Tree Agro?
Dhiresh: In a world where everything is digitized, be it payments for food or groceries farmers are still opting for a physical approach whereas 60% of the population is dependent on agriculture and allied activities so why not digitize farming. When the whole world talks about food traceability why do we shy away from including this sector?
Nishant Chauhan: The only goal is to make a substantial impact on the rural economy considering small and marginalized farmers are the mainstay of Indian agriculture, and they are the ones with unresolved farming problems, as they have always leaned towards traditional practices and have sparse knowledge about crop agronomy.
Paras Jain: The main motive remains to revolutionize farming from the root level. Also creating a robust ecosystem for farmers for managing their queries can help them seriously through tough times. What good would the world be if we couldn't help the farmers who put in their hard work and sweat to provide food for us? With these visions in mind, we want to make Neem Tree Agro Solutions a global enterprise.
3. Several global companies have come out and thrown their support behind not needing a formal education. What are your opinions on this?
Dhiresh: Formal education is necessary to a point but after that, you have to identify the threshold be it undergraduate, postgraduate, or Ph.D. There is a limit to what formal education can actually offer you, especially in India where one size fits all approach is heavily used. This by any means is not to malign the education system but after a point, you need to figure out how to move further in terms of skill set and experience and that has to do with your eagerness and willingness to learn.
Nishant Chauhan: We shouldn't be surprised that formal education is breaking down as a result of the pandemic. Overcrowding in classrooms, outdated and rigid curriculum design, and a lack of appreciation for providing a holistic approach to education were just a few of the ways it was already failing to provide students with opportunities to develop important life skills and become lifelong learners. So, rather than focusing on formal education, we should focus more on providing them with the opportunities to learn all the skills needed for an all-around development of an individual.
Paras Jain: According to me, formal education isn't necessary. If you have the required skill set for the job and can back it up with your work, formal education isn't a decisive criteria. With the growing use of the internet, education is more accessible than ever. As they are available over the internet, they can be acquired for free and put actually paying for a formal degree, under a lot of scrutiny.
4. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced with Neem Tree Agro and how did you overcome that?
Dhiresh: Coming from a very humble background where the parents have a typical mindset, the aim was only to take government jobs or get into civil services. At one point, I even dreamt of becoming an IAS. I got into an excellent college, cracked JEE then my parents thought that I will be taking a govt job or becoming a civil servant and going in a complete diff direction by opening a startup convincing my parents myself when all of my friends are IAS, investment bankers, and high salaried people these were the major challenges that I overcame.
Nishant Chauhan: While running a startup you face enormous and strenuous challenges on a daily basis. The biggest challenge for us was to curate a model that would cater to the current Indian rural economy and would be a perfect fit for it. The only way to overcome this challenge was to understand the rural agri consumer pattern and what are all the niches that we can explore in order to provide them with tailored solutions.
Paras Jain: The biggest challenge was to develop a system that can be adopted by farmers easily. We overcame that with inputs from farmers' meetings, helping/explaining to farmers the adopted technologies and how they can benefit them.
5. How do you believe one can overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?
Dhiresh: In the beginning, you need to bootstrap your own funds. I even had to borrow from friends and family but at the end of the day if you are not able to convenience your own blood and friends how can you expect investors to pitch in?. We were lucky that we got govt grants and govt has been making constant efforts in this field. We received grants from premium bodies which made us believe in our vision and once again we got a boost of confidence.
Nishant Chauhan: The key to deal with financial hurdles is to review, revamp, research and rewrite the business plan. Make certain changes if the current plan of action, including company expenditures on marketing, advertising, and employees isn’t working out. Seek loans and grants that are designed to give startups a boost. And the ultimate long-term funding option is to associate with venture capitalists and angel investors.
Paras Jain: Lack of funds is a hurdle difficult to overcome. I would suggest going for government funds as the government is keen on investing in new and innovative ventures wherever you can and can be of great help networking too.
6. What are your tips for first-time and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Dhiresh: Don't do a startup just for the sake of having a startup, don't make another ola, uber, or zomato. You need to come up with something original, something which has an appeal to the masses and solves an enormous problem that you have faced in your life. As an entrepreneur, you have to solve problems and then build a business over them. Something that I firmly believe in is that only if you believe in yourself and your vision only then people believe in your vision. Lack of funds is never an excuse to not go ahead with your plan (dream) you'll get the funds arranged from your friends or family only if you believe in yourself.
Nishant Chauhan: Starting out as an entrepreneur is, without a doubt, a stressful effort. The only advice I have for them is that if you believe in yourself and your vision then do take the risk regardless of the difficulties you will face along the way, but face your fears and never give up.
Paras Jain: You might face regular rejections and fail but being consistent with your approach and finding solutions to problems is the most important thing when first starting up. If you have an idea. go for it. Don't get demotivated and learn from your mistakes.
7. What are your future plans for yourself and your company?
Dhiresh: We aim to become a full-stack solution and 5-10 years down the line, we want a reduced dependency of labor on agriculture within the production of AI-based robots factor, IUT based irrigation systems, exposure of farmers to organize credits, and helping farmers to get out of the vicious cycle of debt. India will only truly be digitized when each and every farmer has access to digital enablers which in turn helps out a farmer to reduce all its input costs and increase profitability.
Nishant Chauhan: My future plans are linked to Neem Tree Agro and its ultimate vision. Ten years down the line our vision is to reduce the farmer’s dependency on traditional methods and make them familiar with new technologies like IOT-based agriculture systems. The other plan is to eliminate their dependency on labour and introduce mechanized farming equipment such as Automated tractors for seeding and harvesting, and smart drones for the application of chemicals. Also, digitizing all their transactions and opening new marketing channels to widen their selling base.
Paras Jain: The future plans are to create a robust tech infrastructure, introduce precision farming and automated farms, learn new things along the way and network more the farmers, and understand their problems and hardships on a personal level.
8. Which is your favourite book and why?
Dhiresh: "The Alchemist "Paulo Coelho inspires me as an individual to live my life to the fullest and singular pursuit of my individual dream life is full of treasures you just need to and in this journey, you can discover some of them only and only if you listen to your heart follow your dream.
Nishant Chauhan: My favorite book is “THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI” by Robin Sharma. The reason being It's one of those books that stays with you for months after you finish reading it. It's not a stretch to call it a classic, because it really is. It teaches applicable life lessons, guiding you on a fulfilling path regardless of your chosen career path.
Paras Jain: I would like to judge "RINGS OF FIRE" by Eric Flint as the most insightful and motivating book that I have ever read. I find it to be very inspirational and it has actually persuaded me to make some decisions that have made me who I am today.
,%20Neem%20Tree%20Agro%20Solutions..jpg "Mr. Nishant Chauhan")
About Neem Tree Agro Solution -
Neem Tree Agro Solutions is a SaaS-based AgTech company focused on delivering economical, efficient, and adaptable cutting-edge solutions for agriculture and to the farmers. The services leverage the power of data and artificial intelligence-based decision support systems to improve product quality and quantity.
Neem Tree Agro Solutions is a SaaS-based AgTech company focused on delivering economical, efficient, and adaptable cutting-edge solutions for agriculture and to the farmers. The services leverage the power of data and artificial intelligence-based decision support systems to improve product quality and quantity.
The founders of the company - Dhiresh (Co-founder & C.E.O.), Nishant Chauhan (Co-founder, C.F.O. & Head (R & D)), and Paras Jain (Co-Founder & C.T.O.).
Neem Tree Agro Solutions follows a PHY-DIGITAL approach (Physical+Digital). They provide a full-stack solution and handle everything right from sowing to harvesting, with fully functional retailer shops in every nook and corner.
The Founders established a mission to provide farmers with knowledge, technology, marketing, and extension services for improved quality and quantity of produce by efficient adoption of technology. The company focuses on the efficient use of big data to provide a decision support system for the farmers.
It also provides quick and easy access to the farmers through their designated app. Such has their vision been, the Country's Prestigious university IIT and premier trade body Nasscom FITT, CIENA have shown interest and confidence in their model and joined them as investors in working towards a common goal of revolutionizing farming by providing easy and innovative technology, improved planning, knowledge, marketing and extension services. Belief by such investors has proved that they might be new to the game but have enough to reach the top.
Neem Tree Agro Solutions Link
Neem Tree Agro Solutions Link
Interviewed By - Nimisha Dutta
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