In 2020, Yash Dayal Sharma returned to his roots in Saharanpur to understand the problems faced by the agricultural sector in India.

Interacting with farmers and scientists made him realise that poor soil health was at the core of farming issues.

The 25-year-old was shocked by the ‘cocktail of pesticides’ being used in farmlands in Saharanpur.

In 2022, Ashok Dalwai, CEO of the National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), said that the Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) content in India had come down to 0.3% from one percent in the past 70 years.

SOC is one of the major indicators of robust soil and gives soil its fertility, water-retention capacity and more.

“Soil is the root cause of most of our problems. While healthy soil should have at least five to 10% SOC, the benchmark in India is one percent. But our farms have less than 0.5%. I was shocked by this; visiting farms in Saharanpur was an eye-opener,” Yash shares.

He found that the answer to improving soil health lay in the humble earthworm, which decomposes organic waste into vermicompost.

From 2021 to 2022, Yash worked on making vermicompost on one acre of his own land in Saharanpur. He distributed samples in nearby farmlands, and once he was satisfied with the results, he started selling them through his company Fertile Beeghas in October 2022.

So far, he has converted 2,500 tonnes of cattle dung and organic waste into vermicompost and provided training to over 2,500 farmers.

According to Yash, the differentiator in their vermicompost is the manufacturing process.

“We treat soil as a living entity, something that most of us have forgotten to do. We invested a lot in research and development to develop the most scientific vermicompost. We use a mix of greens, browns, organic materials, cow dung, and of course, earthworms,” he shares.

The secret sauce is enriching it with organic carbon, Yash states. “While other vermicomposts in the market would have 10 to 20 percent organic carbon, our product has 30 to 35 percent.”

So far, Fertile Beeghas has prevented the burning of over 950 tonnes of rice straws from 100 acres of land.

Yash wants to train over 10,000 farmers across the country. “Farmers are the torchbearers of our country. Just like we give importance to our physical health, it’s time to devote time and effort to improving the health of our country’s soil.”

You can contact Yash at  +91 97112 54856 or  email him at yash@fertilebeeghas.com.