In this issue, we are extremely happy to publish interview of Mr Mallesh Tigali, Owner of Purna Organics Pvt. Ltd. located in Bangalore.
Mr. Tigali who has past experience of association with many renowned companies like Wipro Technologies, Accenture and Digital Equipment India Ltd; is presently heading one of the leading organic farm in the country. Purna Organic is an innovative organic farming dealing with many innovative products as well as online training of gardening for the Urban society for coping up with space and time problem. The farm offers solutions to them who have little time to devote and yet dreams to own a garden in their little available space. Mr Mallesh is an expert in incubating new businesses and practice areas, thereby contributing towards society by delivering healthy organic products and educating laymen how to carve a beautiful, healthy garden by themselves.
Origiin: Hello Mr. Mallesh. It is a great pleasure for us to interact with you and publish your thoughts in this interview.
Mr. Mallesh Tigali: Thank you and I appreciate your efforts in helping the world get better by introducing some of the innovations in the green space.
Origiin: Being an engineer by profession and such a long term association with hard core technology, how did you shifted to agriculture and organic farming? Would you like to give a gist of your journey?
Mr. Mallesh Tigali: Well, being in IT, I have seen many of my colleagues suffering due to bad eating habits. As we are progressing, the various types of medical ailments are on the rise. It is observed that our elders generally have better health condition as compared to the young generation. One of the key reasons for this is the quality of food they used to have. Many of us do not realize that the food that we eat is laced with a huge amount of chemical residues, which are extremely harmful for the body. The food is neither fresh, as it travels from far off places in un-hygienic conditions. No wonder, our share of green export is declining and many produces are being rejected at international level.
Origiin: Please tell us a little about Purna Organic to our readers. How the idea behind online training of farming “e-Gardening” got conceptualized?
Mr. Mallesh Tigali: We have been offering regular gardening workshops, like many others across the country. Typically, in these workshops, individuals come and attend the session, ask some little questions and then walk out. Many times, they become inquisitive when they start working in their own garden but have no access to communicate with us to resolve their queries. In order to solve this issue and make this better, we engage the individuals for over a period of 4 weeks during the weekends, and walk them through the gardening skills so that they have first hand experience of sowing; raising the sapling, de-weeding, carrying out nutrient/pest management, harvesting and so on. The main challenge here was that people wanted to enroll for this, but were not ready to travel 4 times for over a period of 4 weeks to our location. Also, we had around hundreds of inquiries from across the country where people want to know about how to set-up and maintain a garden. We had instances where individuals had attended our training program, travelling all the way from Mumbai, Chennai, Coimbatore, Vijayawada, Mysore and so on. I would admire and appreciate those individuals for their commitment to gardening, but would feel sorry for the ordeal that they were going through for their travel. That’s when I started working out on a plan to see how we can integrate gardening with technology to enable a garden enthusiasts who are sitting in any part of India (read it as world) to attend, learn, ask questions live. I am glad to say that we have completed 1st batch and the 2nd batch is progressing very well, where we are teaching garden enthusiasts across the country.
Origiin: Purna Organic has developed many innovative products like that of planter box, which is equipped with automatic self-watering facilities. Have you sought any IP protection in terms of patent, copyright or trademarks for the wide range of your products?
Mr. Mallesh Tigali: Yes, for the self-watering, we have applied for a patent to protect our innovation. This innovative product will help watering the plant using an automated process, where the plants will absorb as much water as they need and whenever they need.
Origiin: What are the hurdles that you had to overcome while setting out this brand name at large in the country? What has been your driving force?
Mr. Mallesh Tigali: Some of the hurdles are like increasing the awareness on Organic Gardening across our urban people, hand holding them all along the journey, getting them addicted to organic food that is grown by them and eaten, while it is still fresh, logistical challenges when we started sending across India. Hand holding customers, who are outside Bangalore and not able to come and so on.
Origiin: What sort of customers reach out to your farm? Would you like to share some of their feed back or experiences?
Mr. Mallesh Tigali: We have customers from all walks of life. Some of them are engineers, doctors, businessmen, and teachers and so on. One of the quotes, “when everyone was crying because of the rise in vegetable prices, I was just smiling.”
Origiin: Would you like to give any advice to young aspirants who carry the same zeal like yours to venture into entrepreneurship and contribute to society?
Mr. Mallesh Tigali: There is a great deal of satisfaction in giving back to society. Perhaps, each one of us can give back to society and work towards improving our country and our people.
Origiin: Thank you so much for your valuable inputs. We wish you all the best to you!
Mr. Mallesh Tigali: Thank you and it has been a pleasure. Wishing you all the best and good luck in your future endeavours
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