Interview With Anil Jain, CEO of Jain Irrigation

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Interview With Anil Jain, CEO of Jain Irrigation

With a mission statement passed down through generations in his family, Anil Jain runs Jain Irrigation with his three brothers for the good of the world’s farmers, and for the good of Earth.

ANIL-JAIN-_JAIN-IRRIGATION.jpgIt’s our mission to leave this world better than we found it,” says Anil Jain, CEO of Jain Irrigation Systems Limited.

The company started as a local pipe manufacturer in India, and has since grown to be a leading manufacturer of irrigation equipment with thirteen manufacturing plants in India, seventeen overseas, and a workforce of 11,500 people.

Its annual turnover has grown to more than US$1 billion. When the company was established thirty years ago, its products were provided to 25,000 farmers in India. Now, Jain Irrigation caters to the demands of 5 million Indian farmers annually.

Starting with a base of five countries, Jain Irrigation has expanded to cater to the needs of agriculture in 116 countries, and with a mission to change agriculture in developing countries such as India, Jain Irrigation products offer improved productivity and cost savings to poor farmers with small landholdings.

Their mantra, ‘More Crop Per DropTM’ embodies the company’s promise to farmers: that they can produce more with fewer resources. Anil and his three brothers now run the company, which was founded by their late father, Bhavarlal, a towering visionary. They work together to achieve the company’s goals and realise Bhavarlal’s dreams.

“Almost 50 per cent of our business today is micro-irrigation, or irrigation technology that saves water and aids productivity for farmers,” says Anil. “About 20 per cent of our business is piping, which we supply to farmers and which isused for infrastructure projects including water, gas, and cables.

About 22 per cent of our current business is food processing — buying from farmers. We add value, process the food, and sell it to large global food companies like Coca-Cola Amitil, Nestlé, and Unilever as fruit juice, fruit concentrate, and dried vegetables. Further, about 10 per cent of our business is in agro-appliance, including biotechnology.

We also produce some renewable energy products like solar water pumps and solar streetlights, and have started a finance company to provide low-cost, easily accessible loans to small farmers in India.” Anil is not just passionate about supplying products to customers. He sees that a major challenge for agriculture in the coming decades will be climate change, and he wants Jain Irrigation to help farmers to contain the associated adverse weather conditions that could affect their businesses.

“We believe our products, technologies, and solutions are going to be very helpful to contain the impact of climate change,” says Anil. “Climate change is here, and it’s going to be disastrous, especially for the agriculture community. Essentially, what’s important is helping to improve productivity on small farms and helping to save precious natural resources such as water and energy.

It’s also vital to ensure that soil is good. While we do this, we try and ensure that those who use our agtech — whether a small farmer in India or a larger farmer in the US or Australia — will grow their income, and that their productivity will increase.”

Read full interview at: CEO Magazine

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