Women entrepreneurs rule the roost in agribusiness in Kovai

COIMBATORE: Sujatha Varadarajan, 52, a resident of Madhampatti was just helping her husband set up a senior citizens' community outside the city when she began noticing the many coconut farms in her neighbourhood. Eighteen months on, she runs a bottled coconut water brand called Madhura Cocofresh.
Varadarajan became a member of Tamil Nadu Agriculture Business Development department two years ago and started exploring the possibility of selling bottled tender coconut water.Her brand Cocofresh is now being retailed in many colleges and hospitals like PSG and Kovai Medical College and Hospital (KMCH).
Agriculture has created entrepreneurs out of housewives and other working professionals like Varadarajan. While easy accessibility to different crops, vegetables, fruits, nuts and spices has helped the spurt in entrepreneurs, research and development facilities in institutions like TNAU, PSG and GCT has helped convert ideas into business models. PSG's Food Processing Department helps create many products like candies and baby food apart from extending the shelf life of several products. So, it is not just designers and entrepreneurs entering the exports business, but also farmers and their family members too.
Subadra Devi, from Chennai who runs Ecobuddy, a company that exports palm sugar in a powdered form said she wanted to run an eco-friendly business. "I was always fond of jaggery, even as a child," recalls the former chartered and cost accountant. "I began reading up on palm sugar and found that it was more nutritious and had fewer calories when compared to refined white sugar. So I invested Rs75,000 to buy a small machine to extract sugar out of palm nectar. I did some research on how to extend its shelf life," she said.
Two years ago Devi managed to secure a security free loan of Rs53lakh on the recommendation of the Tamil Nadu Agriculture Department's business incubation cell. "Now we have expanded the business, upgrading our machinery and packaging materials and we are making good profits," says Devi. "We buy jaggery from farmers in southern districts, melt it in water to make a jeera, remove the impurities and make the jaggery from which palm sugar powder is created," she adds. "This can be added to milk, Indian sweets, ice creams and any drink or dessert," she says.
The Tamil Nadu Agriculture University's business development and incubation cell formed seven years ago has helped more than 100 such businesses to be set up, says S Gnanasambandham, the technical head. "We introduce them to scientists and engineers for technical assistance, offer cold storage and laboratory facilities for experiments and tests on their product, recommend them for financial loans, help them liason and market their products and offer contacts to start exporting their products," he added.
For example, the incubation cell allowed Varadarajan to use TNAU's laboratories to test and ensure that the coconut water is bacteria free.
"They told us different people we can approach to use and display our products, and invited us for all their stalls and exhibitions" adds Varadarajan.
Twenty-nine year old Dhivya V, an MBA graduate who had been in the corporate sector for seven years, now runs a counselling service for farmers called Agro Green Biolife. "It is a 100% female oriented organisation providing guidance to transform farmers into innovative agripreneurs," she says. "We do tele-counselling and help the farmers from land preparation, crop selection, seed treatment, crop protection, crop health and wealth management. Her firm also networks with scientists across the country, sources and supplies organic bio-fertilizers to farmers. Her Recent activity involved setting up of organic terraces and kitchen gardens for households.