COVER STORY COVER STORY

30 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | February-March 2016 February-March 2016 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | 31

t would have been easier for me to meet Anil B. Jain, MD, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. at his Mumbai office. It is just about 10 minutes drive from my own office. But he insisted that I undertake a 7-hour train journey to Jalgaon and meet him at the Company’s headquar-

ters. The reason? “You will know when you come to Jalgaon,” I was told. So Jalgaon it was.

The journeyIt was at the breakfast table at one of the guest houses inside the approximately 1600-acre Jain Irrigation campus that I started to get a feel of the organisation’s pulse. While enjoying the farm fresh snacks, most associates sitting around me were discussing about how they were bringing positive difference to the productivity of the farmers they were working with across geographical locations. “From Rs500/- per day, my farmer is now earning Rs2500/- per day on the same strawberry field with lesser water,” said one of them. “Oh, we are doing a huge project in Nigeria where we are turning around hun-dreds of hectares of average fields into agriculturally rich farms,” said another. And similar conversations kept doing the rounds of the table along with the simple yet delicious food being served. It was a good start, I thought.

Things were to become more interesting. I was then to be taken around on a guided tour to make me understand about the various activities of the organisation. My guide for the tour? A Ph.D. from IIT Mumbai with post doctoral qualifications from the US. While I was expecting a rather serious kind of a person with loads of technical information, I was pleasantly surprised to see a young project manager who was just as passionate about

his work as were his colleagues at the breakfast table. He took me around showing the farms, the facilities, the labs, the solar instal-lations, the training centers, the demo centers, the green houses, the poly houses, the dam built by JISL for the community and the Gandhi Tirth (a monumental creation that depicts the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi – the founder’s inspiration). And after a tiring and yet refreshing two-day tour in and around the campus, I finally met Anil B. Jain at his office in the Plastics Park, which is located outside the main campus. The 30-minute drive from the main campus to the Plastics Park itself was quite reveal-ing as it clearly showed a newly evolving Jalgaon City.

A quick formal introduction and Anil B. Jain, one of the four Jain brothers running this large organisation, was all set for the interview. There was no tea or coffee offered! Those are considered as unhealthy drinks at all Jain facilities. Visitors are usually offered flavoured milk, something I did not fancy at that time of the day. “My focus is on plastics and polymers,” I told him. His response was sharp and yet quite friendly. “We do not look at our busi-

ness as plastics; polymers and plastics play a very important role in what we do. But we use plastics in providing solutions for agriculture,” he said. Then, he went on to explain the sig-nificance of plastics not just from his Company’s perspec-

tive but also from the overall economic and environmental points of view. JISL’s primary product is drip irrigation which it provides to farmers to save water, to improve productivity, to save cost and to actually change the way agriculture is done. “We have been the pioneers and we are also the leading players in this segment, not only in India but also globally. We think plastics can play a further important role in precision agriculture; to deliver to farmers not only water but also fertilisers and nutrients so that the plants can grow healthy,” Jain says.

Anil B. JAin, MD, Jain irrigation SySteMS LtD. expLainS how hiS organiSation iS uSing pLaSticS to heLp farMerS grow anD proSper

By niranjan Mudholkar

FRiEndFarmer’s

I

We think plastics can play a further important role in precision agriculture; to deliver to farmers not only water but also fertilisers and nutrients so that the plants can grow healthy.

COVER STORY COVER STORY

30 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | February-March 2016 February-March 2016 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | 31

t would have been easier for me to meet Anil B. Jain, MD, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. at his Mumbai office. It is just about 10 minutes drive from my own office. But he insisted that I undertake a 7-hour train journey to Jalgaon and meet him at the Company’s headquar-

ters. The reason? “You will know when you come to Jalgaon,” I was told. So Jalgaon it was.

The journeyIt was at the breakfast table at one of the guest houses inside the approximately 1600-acre Jain Irrigation campus that I started to get a feel of the organisation’s pulse. While enjoying the farm fresh snacks, most associates sitting around me were discussing about how they were bringing positive difference to the productivity of the farmers they were working with across geographical locations. “From Rs500/- per day, my farmer is now earning Rs2500/- per day on the same strawberry field with lesser water,” said one of them. “Oh, we are doing a huge project in Nigeria where we are turning around hun-dreds of hectares of average fields into agriculturally rich farms,” said another. And similar conversations kept doing the rounds of the table along with the simple yet delicious food being served. It was a good start, I thought.

Things were to become more interesting. I was then to be taken around on a guided tour to make me understand about the various activities of the organisation. My guide for the tour? A Ph.D. from IIT Mumbai with post doctoral qualifications from the US. While I was expecting a rather serious kind of a person with loads of technical information, I was pleasantly surprised to see a young project manager who was just as passionate about

his work as were his colleagues at the breakfast table. He took me around showing the farms, the facilities, the labs, the solar instal-lations, the training centers, the demo centers, the green houses, the poly houses, the dam built by JISL for the community and the Gandhi Tirth (a monumental creation that depicts the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi – the founder’s inspiration). And after a tiring and yet refreshing two-day tour in and around the campus, I finally met Anil B. Jain at his office in the Plastics Park, which is located outside the main campus. The 30-minute drive from the main campus to the Plastics Park itself was quite reveal-ing as it clearly showed a newly evolving Jalgaon City.

A quick formal introduction and Anil B. Jain, one of the four Jain brothers running this large organisation, was all set for the interview. There was no tea or coffee offered! Those are considered as unhealthy drinks at all Jain facilities. Visitors are usually offered flavoured milk, something I did not fancy at that time of the day. “My focus is on plastics and polymers,” I told him. His response was sharp and yet quite friendly. “We do not look at our busi-

ness as plastics; polymers and plastics play a very important role in what we do. But we use plastics in providing solutions for agriculture,” he said. Then, he went on to explain the sig-nificance of plastics not just from his Company’s perspec-

tive but also from the overall economic and environmental points of view. JISL’s primary product is drip irrigation which it provides to farmers to save water, to improve productivity, to save cost and to actually change the way agriculture is done. “We have been the pioneers and we are also the leading players in this segment, not only in India but also globally. We think plastics can play a further important role in precision agriculture; to deliver to farmers not only water but also fertilisers and nutrients so that the plants can grow healthy,” Jain says.

Anil B. JAin, MD, Jain irrigation SySteMS LtD. expLainS how hiS organiSation iS uSing pLaSticS to heLp farMerS grow anD proSper

By niranjan Mudholkar

FRiEndFarmer’s

I

We think plastics can play a further important role in precision agriculture; to deliver to farmers not only water but also fertilisers and nutrients so that the plants can grow healthy.

COVER STORY COVER STORY

February-March 2016 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | 33

Plastics and climate change!It is not uncommon for me to meet people in the plastics indus-try who take a defensive stance while talking about this material, particularly when it comes to its impact on the environment. And there are those who are not from this industry and who would identify plastics as a culprit when it comes to climate change. Anil B. Jain offers a significantly different dimension to this situation. He believes that plastics can actually be an effective tool in the fight against climate change! “Well, plastics are already being used so and they can be further utilised so. Plastics can be extremely useful and value additional if used and handled properly with the thought-process of zero waste in any product lifecycle.”

Jain strongly believes that plastics and polymers also play an important role – in fighting the consequences of climate change on agriculture. “If you read newspapers every day, you will find that there is some headline related to climate change. It is about earth heating in some places and freezing snows in other places, it is about rains in Chennai and odd-even cars in Delhi, it is about droughts and farmers committing suicide and so on. We obvi-ously have to face the consequences of climate change. And the primary consequence of earth heating is in the reduction of the agricultural yields. I think with the help of plastics, we can solve that. One way to solve is to do cooling of the crops. So even if the earth heats, and if you can provide cooling to the crops then the yield will not go down as much as it is feared it will go down,” he explains.

He gives another example. “As a result of climate change, we have hailstorms and untimely rains which destroy standing crops leading to huge losses for farmers. We have developed greenhous-es, poly houses and shade houses from plastics, which can protect against these natural calamities. So you can say that plastics can be connected to food security eventually.”

Jain also points out that usually, plastics are seen as some-thing more convenient than what we had before, something which is recyclable, something which is lower in cost compared to metal, something which is light in weight and something which is easier to handle. These are the basic features why plastics are promoted and used in a variety of applications. “But I am talking about agriculture where we are using plastics to create fundamen-tal solutions. With plastics, we are creating better water security for the nation, we are creating food security for the nation and eventually we would also be fighting climate change. This is quite important as well as unique. Nobody thinks of plastics in this way.” Indeed, nobody does.

about value additionFor Jain, plastic is not about just convenience, or being light-in-weight and or the ease of production; for him it is about tremen-dous value addition. And he knows what he is talking about. “In the case of drip irrigation, the way we have used plastics, the value

addition has been enormous. Many farmers have been able to get extra value. They have been able to get more output from the same land and by using less water compared to earlier. This has been made possible with plastics. So plastics are playing crucial role in ensuring next generation agriculture and, as I already said, for food security and water security for nation.”

And there are many more ways in which plastics can be really helpful to us, he adds. Traditionally, water is transported from dams by open canals to the farms. A lot of water is evaporated in these open canals. Some water also percolates in the ground.

Obviously, farmers are unable to use this lost water. “Approximately, only about thirty percent of the actual amount distributed to the farms reaches to the farm-ers. Despite the time, efforts and money spent in creat-ing the canal systems, the final efficiency is only about thirty percent. Now, instead of open canals, if you use large diameter plastic pipes with drip and sprinkler sys-tems at the final output then the efficiency is more than doubled. So in the context of overall water availability and water conveyance, this is a much better solution. Moreover, to build a new canal, you need to acquire land. And land acquisition is a huge political and social issue today as land is extremely valuable. Alternatively, you can go about 2-3 meters below the ground by dig-ging the soil to install the large diameter pipes and then cover the pipes with soil again, farmers can easily use

the same land for farming! So plastic is actually solving social is-sues and agricultural issues while creating value additions. It is creating better income for farmers and it is bringing prosperity to the rural areas.” By the way, canal water is also open to pilferage, a problem that can also be addressed with large diameter plastics pipes. But Jain doesn’t want to talk about that. “I prefer to high-light the increased efficiency,” he says.

Business growthJISL’s plastics business is primarily divided into three main divi-

Dr. Bhavarlal H. Jain, the founder of Jain irrigation Systems ltd. (JiSl) would have actually become a bureaucrat had it not been for the advice of his mother. He already had a deputy collector’s job in his pocket but his mother asked him to do something that would have a larger positive impact on the society. And thus, with the objective of fulfilling his mother’s vision, he started his entrepreneurial journey in 1963. That journey has resulted in the creation of a global organisation that has progressed by helping the farmer grow and prosper. And while the Company name is synonymous with the micro irrigation industry in india and is also the largest producer of thermoplastic piping systems for all conceivable applications with pipes ranging from 3 mm to 1600 mm in diameter, it goes much beyond piping and irrigation. For example, the Group’s relatively recent venture into food processing called ‘Farm Fresh’ endeavours to provide a ready market for the farmers its serves through other businesses. The idea is to create another value addition and touch point with the farmer across the value chain.

Beyond piping and irrigation

32 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | February-March 2016

COVER STORY COVER STORY

February-March 2016 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | 33

Plastics and climate change!It is not uncommon for me to meet people in the plastics indus-try who take a defensive stance while talking about this material, particularly when it comes to its impact on the environment. And there are those who are not from this industry and who would identify plastics as a culprit when it comes to climate change. Anil B. Jain offers a significantly different dimension to this situation. He believes that plastics can actually be an effective tool in the fight against climate change! “Well, plastics are already being used so and they can be further utilised so. Plastics can be extremely useful and value additional if used and handled properly with the thought-process of zero waste in any product lifecycle.”

Jain strongly believes that plastics and polymers also play an important role – in fighting the consequences of climate change on agriculture. “If you read newspapers every day, you will find that there is some headline related to climate change. It is about earth heating in some places and freezing snows in other places, it is about rains in Chennai and odd-even cars in Delhi, it is about droughts and farmers committing suicide and so on. We obvi-ously have to face the consequences of climate change. And the primary consequence of earth heating is in the reduction of the agricultural yields. I think with the help of plastics, we can solve that. One way to solve is to do cooling of the crops. So even if the earth heats, and if you can provide cooling to the crops then the yield will not go down as much as it is feared it will go down,” he explains.

He gives another example. “As a result of climate change, we have hailstorms and untimely rains which destroy standing crops leading to huge losses for farmers. We have developed greenhous-es, poly houses and shade houses from plastics, which can protect against these natural calamities. So you can say that plastics can be connected to food security eventually.”

Jain also points out that usually, plastics are seen as some-thing more convenient than what we had before, something which is recyclable, something which is lower in cost compared to metal, something which is light in weight and something which is easier to handle. These are the basic features why plastics are promoted and used in a variety of applications. “But I am talking about agriculture where we are using plastics to create fundamen-tal solutions. With plastics, we are creating better water security for the nation, we are creating food security for the nation and eventually we would also be fighting climate change. This is quite important as well as unique. Nobody thinks of plastics in this way.” Indeed, nobody does.

about value additionFor Jain, plastic is not about just convenience, or being light-in-weight and or the ease of production; for him it is about tremen-dous value addition. And he knows what he is talking about. “In the case of drip irrigation, the way we have used plastics, the value

addition has been enormous. Many farmers have been able to get extra value. They have been able to get more output from the same land and by using less water compared to earlier. This has been made possible with plastics. So plastics are playing crucial role in ensuring next generation agriculture and, as I already said, for food security and water security for nation.”

And there are many more ways in which plastics can be really helpful to us, he adds. Traditionally, water is transported from dams by open canals to the farms. A lot of water is evaporated in these open canals. Some water also percolates in the ground.

Obviously, farmers are unable to use this lost water. “Approximately, only about thirty percent of the actual amount distributed to the farms reaches to the farm-ers. Despite the time, efforts and money spent in creat-ing the canal systems, the final efficiency is only about thirty percent. Now, instead of open canals, if you use large diameter plastic pipes with drip and sprinkler sys-tems at the final output then the efficiency is more than doubled. So in the context of overall water availability and water conveyance, this is a much better solution. Moreover, to build a new canal, you need to acquire land. And land acquisition is a huge political and social issue today as land is extremely valuable. Alternatively, you can go about 2-3 meters below the ground by dig-ging the soil to install the large diameter pipes and then cover the pipes with soil again, farmers can easily use

the same land for farming! So plastic is actually solving social is-sues and agricultural issues while creating value additions. It is creating better income for farmers and it is bringing prosperity to the rural areas.” By the way, canal water is also open to pilferage, a problem that can also be addressed with large diameter plastics pipes. But Jain doesn’t want to talk about that. “I prefer to high-light the increased efficiency,” he says.

Business growthJISL’s plastics business is primarily divided into three main divi-

Dr. Bhavarlal H. Jain, the founder of Jain irrigation Systems ltd. (JiSl) would have actually become a bureaucrat had it not been for the advice of his mother. He already had a deputy collector’s job in his pocket but his mother asked him to do something that would have a larger positive impact on the society. And thus, with the objective of fulfilling his mother’s vision, he started his entrepreneurial journey in 1963. That journey has resulted in the creation of a global organisation that has progressed by helping the farmer grow and prosper. And while the Company name is synonymous with the micro irrigation industry in india and is also the largest producer of thermoplastic piping systems for all conceivable applications with pipes ranging from 3 mm to 1600 mm in diameter, it goes much beyond piping and irrigation. For example, the Group’s relatively recent venture into food processing called ‘Farm Fresh’ endeavours to provide a ready market for the farmers its serves through other businesses. The idea is to create another value addition and touch point with the farmer across the value chain.

Beyond piping and irrigation

32 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | February-March 2016

COVER STORY COVER STORY

34 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | February-March 2016 February-March 2016 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | 35

concept selling business. In drip irrigation, we sold a concept and proved that you can get more productivity with less water. And we are doing the same (concept selling) with HDPE pipes as well. We have to tell people that these pipes can be used in larger applica-tions that they did not think were possible earlier,” he explains.

make in India with a twist!Jain says that PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative is indeed quite re-markable. “It has a laudable objective and it is feasible. India can definitely be a low cost and high quality manu-facturing center. JISL has already been making in India for a long time. But for this initiative to truly succeed, red-tape must be removed, cost of energy must come down and infrastructure must improve drasti-cally. Once that happens then India definitely has the potential to be the world’s largest manufacturing hub,” he says adding that we have definitely come a long way from where we were twenty years ago.

So far so good. And now comes the twist. “In ‘Make in India’, they

must also consider agriculture as an industry. For us, a farmer is also an entrepreneur. He is also investing, taking risks and run-ning a business. But he is never treated as such. Of course, we at Jain Irrigation, practice what we preach. We treat every farmer as an entrepreneur. All our products reduce his risk and help him

sions: micro irrigation, pipes and plastic sheets. “About 47 percent of our revenues come from micro irrigation, almost 23 percent comes from the pipes and about three percent or so comes from the plastics sheets,” he informs. Thus, more than 70 percent of the company’s revenue is actually driven by plastics products. “Today, we are company with revenues of almost a billion dollars. We have been able to grow significantly because of the organic growth within India where we have invested in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat with various manu-facturing facilities. We also did acquisitions outside India. Thus, today as a company, our nature is global. We have 12 manufac-turing plants in India and 17 manufacturing plants outside India including in countries like US, Spain, Israel, Switzerland, Chile and so on. We sell our products in hundred different countries. So the growth has been in the domestic market as well as globally. In terms of drip irrigation, earlier we used to focus only on fruits. Today, we also do vegetables, cotton and sugarcane covering a wide range of crops which has also helped us grow,” he shares.

Talking purely about the plastics business, JISL’s processing capacity is about 300,000 tonnes annually. And its product of-

ferings span requirements across rural, urban and infrastructural segments. “We are across the spectrum. But we started with rural and rural remains our primary focus. At the same time, slowly, steadily and surely, we are also moving into urban.” The country as we see today stands on the verge of transformation and Jain Irrigation is providing solutions to almost every key aspect of the economy. “Our conscious thought has been that as we build the

modern India, we must play an important role in terms of building the infrastructure across the landscape - be it ur-ban or rural.”

And Jain is also aware of the challenges in the market. “We are ready to address the huge infrastructural require-ments of the country in terms

of solutions for wide ranging industries like telecom to ports and water and gas supply to roads. We already have successful case studies in different regions but there is some resistance within the country to accept plastics for these segments. The old-school deci-sion makers cannot go beyond metal when it comes to these in-dustries. It is the mind-set that needs to change.” Of course, Jain is happy that the new generation is more open towards plastics. Importantly, data is now available with the government agencies as well. And then there are global case studies. “It is evident that around the world plastic is the preferred material. There is no need to take any material except plastic up to two meters. Of course, in India, it will take time some time across all departments and consumers to accept that plastic is strong, flexible, good, cost-competitive, and on a life-cycle basis always cheaper than any oth-er material. But we are not complaining because we understand the merit of our products. Sometimes, we feel that we are in the

With plastics, we are creating better water security for the nation, we are creating food security for the nation and eventually we would also be fighting climate change. This is quite important as well as unique. Nobody thinks of plastics in this way.

COVER STORY COVER STORY

34 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | February-March 2016 February-March 2016 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | 35

concept selling business. In drip irrigation, we sold a concept and proved that you can get more productivity with less water. And we are doing the same (concept selling) with HDPE pipes as well. We have to tell people that these pipes can be used in larger applica-tions that they did not think were possible earlier,” he explains.

make in India with a twist!Jain says that PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative is indeed quite re-markable. “It has a laudable objective and it is feasible. India can definitely be a low cost and high quality manu-facturing center. JISL has already been making in India for a long time. But for this initiative to truly succeed, red-tape must be removed, cost of energy must come down and infrastructure must improve drasti-cally. Once that happens then India definitely has the potential to be the world’s largest manufacturing hub,” he says adding that we have definitely come a long way from where we were twenty years ago.

So far so good. And now comes the twist. “In ‘Make in India’, they

must also consider agriculture as an industry. For us, a farmer is also an entrepreneur. He is also investing, taking risks and run-ning a business. But he is never treated as such. Of course, we at Jain Irrigation, practice what we preach. We treat every farmer as an entrepreneur. All our products reduce his risk and help him

sions: micro irrigation, pipes and plastic sheets. “About 47 percent of our revenues come from micro irrigation, almost 23 percent comes from the pipes and about three percent or so comes from the plastics sheets,” he informs. Thus, more than 70 percent of the company’s revenue is actually driven by plastics products. “Today, we are company with revenues of almost a billion dollars. We have been able to grow significantly because of the organic growth within India where we have invested in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat with various manu-facturing facilities. We also did acquisitions outside India. Thus, today as a company, our nature is global. We have 12 manufac-turing plants in India and 17 manufacturing plants outside India including in countries like US, Spain, Israel, Switzerland, Chile and so on. We sell our products in hundred different countries. So the growth has been in the domestic market as well as globally. In terms of drip irrigation, earlier we used to focus only on fruits. Today, we also do vegetables, cotton and sugarcane covering a wide range of crops which has also helped us grow,” he shares.

Talking purely about the plastics business, JISL’s processing capacity is about 300,000 tonnes annually. And its product of-

ferings span requirements across rural, urban and infrastructural segments. “We are across the spectrum. But we started with rural and rural remains our primary focus. At the same time, slowly, steadily and surely, we are also moving into urban.” The country as we see today stands on the verge of transformation and Jain Irrigation is providing solutions to almost every key aspect of the economy. “Our conscious thought has been that as we build the

modern India, we must play an important role in terms of building the infrastructure across the landscape - be it ur-ban or rural.”

And Jain is also aware of the challenges in the market. “We are ready to address the huge infrastructural require-ments of the country in terms

of solutions for wide ranging industries like telecom to ports and water and gas supply to roads. We already have successful case studies in different regions but there is some resistance within the country to accept plastics for these segments. The old-school deci-sion makers cannot go beyond metal when it comes to these in-dustries. It is the mind-set that needs to change.” Of course, Jain is happy that the new generation is more open towards plastics. Importantly, data is now available with the government agencies as well. And then there are global case studies. “It is evident that around the world plastic is the preferred material. There is no need to take any material except plastic up to two meters. Of course, in India, it will take time some time across all departments and consumers to accept that plastic is strong, flexible, good, cost-competitive, and on a life-cycle basis always cheaper than any oth-er material. But we are not complaining because we understand the merit of our products. Sometimes, we feel that we are in the

With plastics, we are creating better water security for the nation, we are creating food security for the nation and eventually we would also be fighting climate change. This is quite important as well as unique. Nobody thinks of plastics in this way.

COVER STORY

36 | The Economic Times POLYMERS | February-March 2016

succeed and prosper. The five million farmers that we have been able to reach are do-ing well. They are producing more, they are making more money and they have become prosperous. And we will con-tinue to do so. But India has 120 million farmers. And we have a long way to go. But we have helped create an industry. Agriculture is the biggest opportunity for ‘Make in India’. If we focus on agriculture then we will have better food and water security and it will have a direct impact on the industrial sector,” he says emphatically.

Generation to generationBeing a son of an illustrious father is a responsibility in itself. Anil B. Jain understands it and takes it in his own stride. “The first and foremost lesson that I have learnt from my father is that of ‘Work Ethics’. For him work is worship. That’s the first article of faith. Secondly, he has focused on growth and development but with conscience. And thirdly, he has taught us that whatever wealth we have created, it belongs to the society. We are merely custodi-

ans of that wealth.” Besides his father’s teachings, the MD of JISL wants the next generation to adopt and make full use of digital technology. We want to become a truly global organisa-tion and the next generation must blend understand of dif-

ferent cultures and technology to drive this organisation ahead. The world is far more dynamic and volatile today than it was ten years back. So they need to be extremely hardwired and agile,” he says.

empathy with farmersThen I take the conversation to my experience at the breakfast table in the guest house. I share with him the talks that I had overheard there. He smiles. “When someone tells me that JISL is a family-run business, I totally disagree with them. It is ac-tually an extended-family-run business. Each of our more than our ten thousand associates is part of this family and together we run this business. The company is not just run by me or my brothers but by these more than ten thousand professionals. It is the sense of ownership and responsibility amongst the associates

that powers our organisation. They believe that they are making a differ-ence. And they take pride in making a positive difference to the farmers’ lives and the society. We do not sympathise with farmers, we empathise with them and that is what JISL is all about,” he says. “I wanted you to come to Jalgaon because I wanted you to experience this empathy. And by the way, Jalgaon will always remain our hub. My father was always clear on that right from the beginning. Branch office in New York but headquarters in Jalgaon.”

In ‘make in India’, they must also consider agriculture as an industry. For us a farmer is also an entrepreneur. He is also investing, taking risks and running a business. But he is never treated as such.

Some of Jain Irrigation’s product rangesHi-tech agri products & services Plastic piping

productsNatural Resource Conservation Products

R&D Demonstration and Training Centre, Tissue Culture Lab and Agri Bio-Tech LabTurnkey Services and Hi-tech Agri ConsultancyTissue Culture, Hybrid and Grafted PlantsGreenhouses, Poly & ShadehousesDrip IrrigationSprinkler Irrigation and Turf Irrigation

PVC PipesPolyethylene PipesPolypropylene PipesPVC FittingPolyethylene FittingsPolypropylene FittingsMDPE Pipes (Gas)Corrugated Pipes

PVC SheetsJain Solar Water HeatersJain Solar Photovoltaic AppliancesJain Jeevan Solar Surface/Submersible PumpsJain Solar Photovoltaic Module (Panels)Bio-Gas Power Plant