From rain-starved Jalgaon in Maharashtra to Watertown in the US, Jain Irrigation may have gone places, but its 75-year-old founder-chairman, Bhavarlal Hiralal Jain, says they have just managed to scratch the surface.

There is huge potential for corporates in the agriculture sector as water gets scarcer in the coming days, he feels.

Jain puts in eight to 13 hours strategising his vision of setting up a university that will focus exclusively on water management, renewable energy and sustainable agriculture.

Each of these subjects is covered separately in different universities and colleges, but the university planned by Jain will inculcate knowledge on these subjects at one point through practical experience.

Jain is confident that students passing out of this university would be most sought after given the shortage of quality talent in the agriculture sector.

“It will definitely be more attractive than IT or any other sector. We are looking at just 500 students a year; we can absorb half of them ourselves. But our intention is that each student should become an entrepreneur,” he said.

Jain has the experience of running the ICSE residential Anubhuti School on 100 acres at Jalgaon.

FUNDING PLANS

With regards to funding, help seems to be coming from within the family. “My four sons have already agreed to transfer 80 per cent of their holding to a yet to be formed trust which will finance and operate the university. This will not only fund the university, but also lead to clarity on ownership of Jain Irrigation in the long run,” said Jain.

An ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi’s principals, Jain wants to replicate the Tata Group ownership structure for Jain Irrigation. The trust will perform the role of Tata Sons in driving growth across group companies.

Jain Irrigation has 27 agriculture-based manufacturing plants of which 15 are located overseas.

For society

Farmer suicides, climatic changes, erratic rainfall and poor agriculture growth apart, Jain believes that investments in the farm sector can still be profitable if the intention is to leave something for society.

“When I started my business venture in 1963 with an investment Rs 7,000, I never dreamt that the business would grow to what it is now. But my objective was always to touch the life of the people in the lowest strata of the society,” he said.

For instance, when the company acquired the first piece of land in Jalgaon, it was about 150 feet high and people thought it was a disastrous decision.

“Forget about the difficulty in sourcing water at that height, we had to follow donkeys to find the easiest path to reach the top. They have the inherent strength of finding the right way to top,” he quips.

Related Topics