42 students From TY B.Com Div A along with Ms. Shilpa Mense & Ms. Preksha Chopdekar visited Letcetra Agritech on 17th July 2017. The field trip aimed at supplementing the classroom learning in the Entrepreneurship Development course with an industry visit and motivating students to take up entrepreneurship.
This unit is one of a kind in Goa. It is into h
ydroponics which involves growing vegetables in water on a multi-tier rail system in an air conditioned environment. This innovative idea came to three cousins – Sandeep Metri, Jagdish Naik and Ajay Naik, all engineers in their early 30s.
The unit operates from a rented shed at Thivim Industrial Estate, where they grow varieties of exotic vegetables like Romaine lettuce, Lollo green, Basil, etc. in an 80sq-m air-conditioned room. Mr Ajay Naik explained the concept of hydroponics to the students. He also explained the working of the system – the watering, fertilizing, and the nursery and allowed the students to see the vegetables being grown in the A.C. room.
The unit produces 100 kg vegetables every day or three tonnes of exotic vegetables per month. They supply these to the restaurants and supermarkets in North Goa.
The young entrepreneurs plan to start with cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, other Indian vegetables and even strawberries in a few months time. For this they have acquired a 2000 sq m farm at Valpoi which will be operational by the end of the year.
Sandeep, a 33-year old electrical engineer looks after operations. Mr. Jagdish, a mechanical engineer takes care of production and Mr. Ajay, a software engineer looks after the marketing. The trio believes that agriculture can be profitable if technology is used efficiently.
The entrepreneurs do admit that not all risks can be tackled. The demonetization move has dampened the demand for exotic vegetables but they are confident that the market will pick up.
Overall, the students had a great learning time. They were happy to see a successful innovative start-up.
