Sresta helps farmers switch to organic farming

Rajashekar Reddy Seelam, a man in his early forties with a management degree from IIM Ahmedabad, left his well-grounded career with a private company selling pesticides, seeds, fertilisers and allied products to start his own venture—growing and selling natural bio products.

His chosen vertical certainly didn't make a buzz four years ago. So what prompted this man to start something that had no ready-made infrastructure support, knowledge base or certification method?

His venture, Sresta Natural Bio-Products, started not just because of the entrepreneur within but because of his interest in the larger good for society. The idea was to provide organic food products to consumers and to introduce a healthy practice among the farmers by encouraging them to take up organic farming.

Seelam's approach to his business has been very methodical. He started out with contract farming on 2,000-acre of land.