Global food waste offers business opportunity for Krimanshi Technologies

Krimanshi, an agritech startup led by Nikhil Bohra, aims to revolutionise the innovation-stagnant Indian feed sector by creating a new value chain around unconventional feed resources by utilizing the food waste being generated to produce natural high nutrition feeds.

Launched in 2018, the firm's existing offerings range from concentrate feed based on fruit and vegetable feed powders to silage, based on agri-hub wastes like banana leaves and carrot tops, and from Azolla and hydroponics as green fodder to mineral mixes.

With its novel technology to manufacture high-quality animal feeds from surplus agriculture and food residues, the agritech startup claims that its unique technology "upcycles" food waste into low-cost nutritious cattle feed and fodder, results in minimal loss to nutrients that are produced at half the conventional drying cost.

Explaining the firm's proprietary technology, its founder Nikhil Bohra says, "Krimanshi upcycles the food waste collected from farms, Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs), juice shops and other sources, and dehydrates them in a controlled environment without exposing the substrates to direct sunlight or high temperatures from burnt fuels.

As part of the process, the firm claims to make use of a modified solar tunnel drying concept, using which, its founder adds that the enterprise is able to speed up the entire drying process to support rapid scaling up while maintaining the natural minerals and vitamins in the dried food.

The primary beneficiaries of this social enterprise today include low-income, dairy farmers who cannot otherwise afford high-protein dairy feed, and therefore are unable to sustain profitable milk production.

"We strive to provide a year-round supply of naturally more nutritious feeds, fodder and natural mineral mixes to small farmers at a lower cost than the market prices," says Bohra, 31. He claims that as a result of using the start-up’s unique offerings, many of its early users have reported over 20% increase in milk yield and fat and SNF% (Solids Not Fat) content.

According to him, though the country has substantial feed resources, still much of the agri waste, to the tune of 31 crore tons, is burnt while another 10 crore tons of grains, fruits and vegetables are lost due to poor storage and logistics. This is where a great business opportunity lies for Krimanshi.

"We are targeting to raise pre-series A round in the mid of 2020 to expand in the poultry and fish segment, while cementing the cattle feed business in the markets of the low-income states," says Nikhil Bohra, CEO, Krimanshi Technologies.