Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Apr 06, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Apr 06, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marketing
-
Rural Marketing Corporate - Outlook Aries Agro plans 100 mobile rural retail units
Suresh P. Iyengar Mumbai, April 5 Aries Agro, a speciality plant micro-nutrient company, plans to set up 100 Rural Retail Vehicles (RRVs) to visit farms, conduct soil testing and prescribe suitable fertilizers and nutrients. Dr Rahul Mirchandani, Executive Director, Aries Agro, said: “We have formed eight RRVs which are working in North India. We will form 100 RRVs at a cost of Rs 8 crore before kharif season begins in July.” Each vehicle will be equipped with soil-testing kits and travel around the country according to the crop season. It will also arrange for supply of nutrients and fertilizers through the dealers network. The company has been able to bring down the cost of nutrients and fertilizer for farmers by negotiating with the dealers, besides getting valuable inputs to develop new products, said Mr Mirchandani. Farmers can also save about 15-20 per cent on transportation cost, he said. The company has over 65,000 distributing channels spread across States and four manufacturing units. As part of its advisory services, Aries Agro plans to send SMSes to farmers on commodity futures prices. Terming it as knowledge arbitrage, Mr Mirchandani said “middlemen are taking advantage of farmer’s unawareness on futures price trend; besides farmers can select their crop based on the futures price trend.” The company in association with Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishva Vidyalaya, an agriculture university, recently tested soil samples from 30,000 villages in West Bengal and submitted a ‘Soil Wealth Map’ to the State Government. Similar efforts have been undertaken in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Capacity expansionAries Agro plans to set up new manufacturing units in Panvel (Maharashtra), Ahmedabad and Lucknow and double capacity by September to 1.8 lakh tonnes a year. The company recently inaugurated a high-tech manufacturing unit of 32,400 tonnes a year capacity in Hyderabad. More Stories on : Rural Marketing | Outlook | Pesticides
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
Stories in this Section |
 |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | The Hindu ePaper | Business Line | Business Line ePaper | Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2008, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|