Devesh Patel: Tied to his roots

In 1992, in village Boriavi of Anand district in Gujarat, a young man was doing the unthinkable – swapping his American dream for an Indian one!

Young Devesh Patel, the founder of Satva Organic, took up IT as an education because in the 1990s, the IT wave and using it as a route to the Big American dream was the norm. Devesh recalls, “The Satva Organic initiative was in my blood since childhood I guess. As a small child I was very naughty, so family members used to take me to the family farm. That’s where the attachment came from. As I grew into my teen years, I continued to be passionate about my zameen, my land, so I knew I had to do agriculture. Organic framing was a continuation to that dream.”

He continues, “I went into IT because of society and family pressures. That was the time of Windows 98 and it was new so curiosity got me interested like using Paint, etc. I became a programmer but there was no internal satisfaction, as I was still inclined towards agriculture. I had started marketing – I used to steal wheat from my farm and take it to nearby events in banquet halls! I used the wheat to prepare food and serve it to the eminent guests there as a free sample – calling it chemical free food. Surprisingly, I even got orders from the chief guests.”

After graduation, while his classmates were looking for placements for jobs, he had already made up his mind on agriculture. He couldn’t see himself working, he wanted to do something of his own. He questions, “When I have my own land then why do I need to work for someone else?  My friends demotivated me for the choice but I was adamant that I will give it a try for at least 5 years. If it didn’t work out then I would go back to IT.”

No scientific approach

By that time his family had to go to the USA because of the F4 category. They felt he was making the wrong decision, but he was adamant so they left him to it. Devesh soon found that having a passion for agriculture and actually doing it is a different ballgame altogether. He shares, “When it came to farming, I did not have a scientific approach, only the emotional attachment. I did not know wheat management, plantation, moisturisation, production quality, etc. It was all new to me and because of this I had to face a lot of challenges and even suffered losses. My villagers laughed at me because I left IT to do farming.”

Fortunately, his family stepped in. They motivated him to go and meet other farmers who were successful in this field. He smiles when he says, “They encouraged me to go meet professors and other experts in this line. Slowly, I started learning about this field dedicatedly, studying free as well as paid resources, reading books, and doing research which gave me confidence. Today, I am a research member in an agricultural university here. I look after the organic sector research of the entire university. My 20 years of experience is based on my research and that too on a scientific approach.”

A second opportunity to go to the USA came after 5 years, but by then Devesh had started tasting success and he persuaded his family to give him a few more years to decide. He started Satva Organics. “I am a very devotional person. In the Bhagwad Gita, Lord Krishna uses 3 words – sattva, rajas and tamas – to denote 3 kinds of food and 3 kinds of life. Satva is the essence of purity. The word Satva comes from the word Satvik. I decided to use the name,” he says.

Devesh started visiting the local markets with his products, and graded his products in category A, B and C, with A grade being the best quality and C grade the lowest in quality. “What set me apart was that I did not lie about my product quality like the others in the market, and within 6 months, my products became popular,” he observed.

Today on his 18 acre farm, Devesh, who calls himself Managing Farmer, grows ginger and turmeric – these are community varieties and are patented. Satva Organic also has value added products – like dry turmeric and turmeric powder which is handpounded as it maintains the aroma and flavour. “This is our USP. We also sell turmeric pickles which are without preservatives. We supply it everywhere. We export fresh and dry turmeric to Europe and turmeric capsules to the USA. We have also developed Turmeric Latte which we sell in Europe. We sell our Turmeric powder to companies who re-pack it and sell under their brands (outsourcing),” he informs.

Value added processing

On the farm, crop rotation is done, producing a minimum of 5 tonnes to a maximum of 15 tonnes millets and grains as also vegetables and dehydrated products. “We also process products of our farm for value addition by using a processing machine which we ourselves have innovated. The machine has several advantages like it saves time in processing, it is not labour-oriented so it can be operated with very few labourers and it requires no special skill to operate it. It saves time and money,” informs Devesh.

Satva Organic has an array of processed products like dehydrated potato chips, ginger and ginger powder, turmeric and turmeric powder, chilli, chilli powder and tea masala. The spices used are fresh, carefully picked sun and solar-dried to preserve the distinctive freshness and flavour.

In 2010, Satva Organic got the Eco Cert certification for 5 years. “When the Gujarat Government took the initiative of APEDA’s India Organic certification, I was one of the first to take this certification. But I needed not just an organic certification, I wanted one for my processed products as well. So I have taken certification from the Rajasthan State Seeds & Organic Certification Agency (RSSOCA) as RSSOCA has both USDA and processing certifications. My EU certification is with Control Union,” points out Devesh.

He agrees that APEDA’s charges for certification are low – per acre it is just Rs 250, as compared to private certification companies who charge much higher. But then why do farmers go to private agencies? “Because of the good service. They are ready to help 24/7, they respond quickly and are easily accessible. Govt bodies shut offices at 5 pm. Many of the employees don’t know the procedures and it’s a slow process,” laments Devesh.

Commenting on how Covid-19 has changed the organic markets in India, he observes, “People here in agriculture researched on chemical farming but during the pandemic this research failed because we did not pay attention to food security and food safety. We focussed only on hybrids, production, etc but did not give attention to quality. Now with immunity being sacrosanct, consumers are scared and conscious about what they are eating. Because of this fear, they have now started accepting organic food.”

Many years ago, most of what we ate or wore was organic. But today organic food is considered expensive and meant only for rich people. Devesh states, “But in truth, organic means back to nature. The prices should be such that it should be affordable to the common man and the government should put a cap on the prices.” To initiate a fairprice movement, he alongwith 200 to 350 farmers have started the Madhya Gujarat Sajiv Kheti Society (MGSKS) on the co-operative format.

Satva Organic distributes its products through different channels – doctors, online platforms like Amazon, Facebook, organic sources, through its own website, etc. The company has won many awards and accolades from the Indian Government.

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