Ahmedabad, India: The Pelican Group has forayed into sustainable agriculture and is adopting regenerative agricultural practices. The focus of Evolving Roots, lies in bringing about solutions that enable it to produce more in smarter, responsible and transparent ways.
India has traditionally been an agricultural country. The yields, however, are just half of what can be achieved potentially in both the developed and developing countries. This shows a tremendous growth potential.
Arjun Lalbhai, the co-founder of Evolving Roots believes that while there is potential, it is imperative to take measures for sustainable growth. Lalbhai believes that, “With the use of the best scientific practices and technology, we will be working on providing high yields but also making sure there is no water or food wastage. We have based our model on demand driven agriculture. The demands of the developed countries can be met by producing in the developing countries. That will not only help the local communities and farmers financially but will also give them exposure to the latest technologies and practices.”
Unfortunately, soil erosion is a major problem facing the world. It is not only an environmental issue but also an economic one because it leads to low yields and more water usage. “Evolving Roots uses zero to low amounts of soil tilling. The health of the soil is directly connected to the health of our planet”, says Lalbhai.
Evolving Roots will be concentrating on superfoods. With sustainable farming, the company is also providing complete transparency. Amongst technologies that the company would be employing on its farms, through QR Code traceability, it would be possible for anyone to track the exact dates of sowing and harvesting, the process, geo-location, seed variety details, the inputs used per KG, and the crop cycle timelines. That is likely to put at rest the concerns of all stakeholders.
Scalability is one of the factors that could determine the effectiveness of the methods, practices, inputs and technology employed by the company. Over the next five years, Evolving Roots is looking to expand into more superfoods and will be targeting an area of over 1000 hectares.
In order for its demand driven agriculture model to be a success, Evolving Roots is looking to enter into buy-back partnerships with companies that want to source produce and ingredients from a company that follows sustainable practices with this level of transparency. Evolving Roots is also looking to partner with companies in the agri-tech space. They are looking to raise funds for this.
About Evolving Roots
The promoters belong to the Lalbhai family which is one of the oldest entrepreneurial families of India with an illustrious history that can be traced back to more than 600 years. The family has always had a progressive vision and a commitment to serving communities. With evolving times the family has constantly maintained its entrepreneurial spirit and the evolution has led to the creation of Evolving Roots.
The company is focusing on sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices and ensuring food systems adapt to secure long term environmental, social and economic sustainability across the entire value chain.
The objective is to nourish the world through innovative and sustainable food systems. The goal is to deliver safe and nutritious food with minimum impact on the environment by embracing farmer engagement, cutting edge agriculture technology, sustainable business model and impact driven investment philosophy.
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