Starting with 6 men, we now have 6500 investors: Krishibid Group managing director

Agricultural scientist Dr Ali Afzal worked at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (Bari) for 20 years before he left it to set up his own company in 2001. That business has gradually evolved into the Krishibid Group – a conglomerate that involves around 6,500 investors, mostly agriculturalists or their relatives.

Dr Afzal, the managing director of the group, talked with The Business Standard correspondent Shawkat Ali about his ventures in the agricultural sector.

We want to hear the story of your becoming an agriculture scientist.

After finishing my studies at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, I returned home and asked my father to arrange some land where I could set up a farm, but my relatives were determined not to let me do that. They asked what the point was of studying if I wanted to become a farmer.

When I could not convince them, I returned to Dhaka and sat for the Bangladesh Civil Service exam. When I was selected there, I could have joined the administration cadre, but I chose to join Bari as a researcher and earned a doctorate degree.

I worked there for 20 years and at one point served as its chief scientific officer. There I was involved in developing 23 new crop varieties.

How did you become an entrepreneur?

At government organisations, one cannot go beyond a certain limit, but I wanted to work more closely with farmers. So, six of us agriculturalists decided to start a small enterprise with Tk30,000. We set up a farm and raised 3,000 chicks there. Since then, we have been working hard to grow as entrepreneurs.

What is the current status of this 20-year-old organisation?

The company, worth Tk30,000, has now become a conglomerate. Twenty-nine of our concerns are limited companies. Aside from those, we also have some other companies. Currently, the business group with 5,000 workers and employees is valued at Tk4,000 core.

How many investors do you have?

We started the company with six entrepreneurs and now we have 6,500 investors. It did not happen in one day. The number of investors increased gradually – in the first year we had 17 investors, in the second year 50, in the third year 200 and so forth.

It happened because we have paid 19% dividend on average to our investors in the past 20 years. By investing around Tk250 crore, they got a return of Tk315 crore. A bond developed between us and our investors because they put their trust in us.

Who are these investors?

Most of our investors are agriculturists and their relatives. In fact, it is a platform for agriculturists.

We conducted research when we launched our business and found that there were about 1.86 lakh companies related to agriculture, but where not a single agriculturist was involved. We were very surprised. After that, our desire to form an organisation with agriculturists got stronger.

How is your organisation playing a role in agricultural research?

Our group is working in all sectors of the agriculture, including poultry, feed, seeds, and fisheries. We have developed 66 varieties of different crops, including paddy, maize, vegetables and fruits, which farmers are cultivating in the fields. Almost all of them are hybrid crops. We are meeting 4-5% of the demand for seeds in the country.

How do low quality seeds come to the market? How are farmers cheated?

There are many organisations which import high-quality seeds from abroad and market them without considering whether they are suitable for the country's weather and soil. Besides, many companies grow 1 kg of seed at Tk5,000 and sell it at Tk1 lakh. These factors are causing losses for many farmers.

We too are running a business, but we do not cheat the farmers, who want nothing but good quality seeds, fertilisers and appropriate prices for their produce. If we cannot provide them with these things, they will give up farming.

Where is the group doing its research work?

We are conducting research on a total of 26 acres of land in Savar, Magura and Dinajpur. We are working to invent new crop varieties. Earlier it took 12-13 years to invent a new variety, but now we have reduced it to three years.

What corporate social responsibility programmes do you run for farmers?

We distribute free seeds among them. We provide farmers, who try our innovations, with all the facilities they need to cultivate a new crop variety, but we do not take any share of their produce. We also train farmers in agricultural management throughout the year.

Which organisation is working as the growth driver for Krishibid Group?

Different businesses perform well at different times – sometimes poultry, sometimes fisheries, sometimes feed, sometimes real estate. We have set up our companies in such a way that if the profit of one of our sister concerns falls, we do well in some other company. It is a means of minimising risks.