Pune Inc: With climate change in mind, startup working to increase agricultural yields

BioPrime is today known for creating sustainable solutions for agriculture using deep-tech science and a multi-disciplinary approach. It is the winner of the prestigious Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG), Sustainable Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development (SEED); and Launching Entrepreneurial Driven Affordable Products (LEAP) Fund from the Central Government’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

On July 7, the startup, recognised by the Intra-Ministerial Board, unveiled a library of plant-related microbes that is considered one-of-its-kind in India. Carefully catalogued and stored at -80 C and -196 C in specialised containers, the library includes several unexplored strains such as Arthrobacter, Splingomonas and Nocardiodes.

“Earlier, with heirloom varieties or landraces, 60 per cent of the photosynthesised carbon was leached into the soil to feed the microbes, which, in turn, gave nutrients to plants and also defended these. The entire plant lived like a harmonious community with the environment rather than a single entity, which made them more resilient. Now, due to the relentless use of insecticides and pesticides, the defence and adaptive responses have gone down. Microorganisms stopped cooperating with the plants and the plant had to do everything by itself,” says Diwan. The library of molecules and microbes is an effort to build a more resilient and regenerative agricultural system.

The founders of BioPrime were academicians in plant physiology and biotechnology for over 15 years before 2016. That year, two years of El Nino had caused extreme heat across the world, resulting in more than 2,500 deaths in India itself, besides other losses. In the tomato-growing regions of Narayangaon and Nasik, thousands of hectares of crop were decimated in five record-breaking heatwaves. “It was around 2016 that we were trying out our initial hypothesis in the form of formulations on the field. We had a very small number of farmers and were not sure what the impact would be. But, our products actually delivered,” says Diwan.

The scientists suddenly found themselves stepping into the shoes of entrepreneurs through the company. High-end types of scientific equipment were needed from the very beginning, making this venture impossible with minimal capital. BioPrime was incubated at Venture Center, a Pune-based business incubator that focuses on technology commercialisation, among others. The scientists-turned-entrepreneurs received funding from prestigious organisations such as the Department of Biotechnology over the years. The Indian Agriculture Research Institute helped them find validation on the field and Niti Ayog supported them through its climate-smart agriculture programme.

Each product has a trigger molecule that modulates different processes in plants. The range includes Prime Verdant and Prime Aavirat, containing a bioactive consortium to make the crops climate resilient, Prime Fortisea, a formulation of fortified seaweed extracts for faster growth and stress resistance, Prime 7525, and Prime Chiron a complex blend of naturally derived biomolecules that modulate flowering and fruiting.

Diwan, who is from Solapur, comes from a line of farmers in her mother’s family. They grew jowar, bajra, sugarcane and groundnut, among others, in rotation on 10 acres.She saw her grandmother tend to fields and the good harvest during her childhood. “By the time I was in college and university, I began to observe how the family struggled to get a yield, forget make a profit,” she says. It is this pain that she and the other founders of BioPrime want to spare farmers.