About Us
The Varhad Group’s goal is to give rural agricultural communities sustainable economic prospects by including them as partners in various initiatives and guaranteeing equitable benefit sharing. We have been analysing farmers’ needs and seeing possibilities for them across the rural and agricultural ecosystem for more than ten years. In partnership with farmers, we develop sustainable business models and suggest fair return-sharing arrangements. The organisation is run by a number of linked businesses.
Varhad Capital Private Limited (VCAP)
The Varhad Group’s goal is to give rural agricultural communities sustainable economic prospects by including them as partners in various initiatives and guaranteeing equitable benefit sharing. We have been analysing farmers’ needs and seeing possibilities for them across the rural and agricultural ecosystem for more than ten years. In partnership with farmers, we develop sustainable business models and suggest fair return-sharing arrangements. The organisation is run by a number of linked businesses.
Background
Based out of Pune, India, Varhad Capital Pvt Ltd decided to develop the project on the carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere and subsequent transformation through the soil amendment. Varhad Capital has developed a massive network of 550,000 farmers through 165 farmer cooperatives/ farmer producer organizations (FPOs) across India. The Carbon Dioxide Removal per ton of biochar application comes at 2.4 tons of CO2 is due to high carbon content in our wood like cotton and pigeon pea stalks that is grown under tropical and subtropical climates. According to Carbon Standard International, the tropical agriculture must play a major role in achieving the removal and sequestration of at least 800 billion tons of CO2eq by the end of the century, which is necessary to achieve the goals defined in the Paris Treaty. As smallholder farmers cultivate their farms and get only 15-25 days to prepare their farms for the next crops. This forces them to burn the agri-residue across India during October to May every year, Indian farmers burn 80-90 million tons of agricultural residue every year. To minimize the damage to the nature, we have designed our 20,000 tons of artisanal as well as industrial scale biochar project for soil application. This will not only remove 44,000 tons of CO2eq from the atmosphere but also enrich 20,000 acres of soil in organic carbon for the better yield and climate resilient agriculture.
We have designed our own kon-tiki kilns that can use cotton stalk as well as pigeon pea stalks and we produced 300 tons of biochar in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra in 60 days of operations. We have trained 30 artisans in both states and have signed MoU with the 6 Artisan Pro’s that means these Artisan Pro’s can produce 3,000 tons of biochar in 2024. We are screening multiple firms for the appointment of additional 7,000 tons of biochar. Every Artisan Pro firm is supposed to produce 500 tons of artisanal biochar in 5 kon-tiki kilns. We should be able to complete the production of 100 kilns and appointment and trainings of all 20 Artisan Pro firms. We expect our deployment of 100 kilns on the site of production in the month of October 2023.
On the industrial scale biochar machine, we are also in process of finalizing the equipment for biochar production of 1500tpa per machine. We have chosen a moderate sized machine to keep the biomass price in check. Larger installations end up increasing the price of biomass and increase the carbon footprint of the biochar project through longer distance of biomass transportation.
Biocoal project: We are also qualified for 2000tpd of biocoal supply to NTPC tender for 7 years. We are also L2 for 2 tenders of 120tpd each at NTPC Solapur and NTPC Bijapur in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka where we get ample cotton and pigeon pea stalks. We should be awarded the contract by end of this year.
Introduction
The Varhad Group’s mission is to offer sustainable business opportunities to rural agricultural population by making them partners in various initiative and sharing the benefits equitably.
Since over a decade, the Varhad Group has been empowering farmers across the entire value chain of rural/agricultural ecosystem. Working closely with the farmers we understand their needs and accordingly we have been tapping the opportunities for them. We conceive sustainable business models and proposing structures to make sure returns are shared equitably with all the stakeholders.
The group operates through various group companies.
Varhad Capital Private Limited (VCAP)
VCAP is implementing large scale agriculture interventions that will benefit its 550,000 farmers in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) through 165 Farmer Cooperative/ Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).
It has an active network of about 164 FPOs. VCAP has mobilized about 200,000 cotton farmers associated with 28 cotton Farmer Producer Companies (FPC) across the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra.
As Transaction Advisor it helps aspiring entrepreneurs to get into biocoal/biochar manufacturing by handholding across the process – concept, appointment of EPC contractors, financial closure and ensuring market access. It has advised a state owned company for running its project monitoring unit and now advising a German and Indian steel companies on sourcing biochar.
VCAP is a registered C-sink manager i.e. a project developer with Carbon Standard International, Switzerland. It has produced 300 tons of biochar of cotton stalk as a C-sink manager in April-May 2023 in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. It is the largest artisanal biochar producer in India.
VCAP is an active member of the International Biochar Initiative, USA and our team participates in the events. Please refer to our Linkedin Page
Leadership
The Group is lead and managed by the experienced professionals who possess experience of working with global companies of international repute. The summary is presented below. Their detailed profiles are attached as annexures.
Our Leadership Team
Prasad Dahapute
Founder
The founder of the Group, Prasad Dahapute, at Pune, India
He is the “grounded” leader, interfaces with all the key stakeholders. He mentors the local farmers and artisans. Prasad’s larger vision for creating the impact sets the tone for the group’s endeavors. Working closely with policy makers he ensures the farmers are benefiting from changing landscape. He has been developing the click and mortar based two-way supply chain network for agricultural products and biomass.
Sanjay Patil
Visionary Director
The Visionary Director of the Group, Sanjay Patil, at Florida, USA
Sanjay’s dedication and enthusiasm have made him a Subject Matter Expert in transforming the soil with the help of Biochar. He has been involved with biochar across the spectrum of implementation (from Save Soil Movement to international biochar industry associations). He extensively networks and shares ideas with like-minded professionals with single minded focus on large scale bio char adoption.
Kanchan Khilari
Biomass Manager
The Biomass Manager of the Group, Kanchan Khilari, at Pune, India
As a biomass manager, she is responsible for coordinating and supervising the entire
biomass supply chain, from sourcing raw materials to monitoring their conversion into biochar. She also looks after the digital MRV for the complete end to end biochar project monitoring.
Gokul Gaikwad
Production Expert
The Production Expert of the Group, Gokul Gaikwad, at Pune, India
As Production expert at Pune, India, brings decades of entrepreneurial experience (fabrication) wherein he started business from scratch and grown to USD 5 million revenue in a competitive landscape. His experience comes handy in setting up manufacturing plants and equipment with different designs (sourcing and custom fabrication). He is working on pyrolysis technology for the industrial scale biochar
production machine.