MARS vision with GROWHITHA is to build farmer centric ecosystem for Farmers to Healthy Farming

MARS is the innovation accelerating platform of young equipped energetic entrepreneurs in which we are working on a vision to transform technology towards traditional ways which energies our culture. At, MARS we invented an Automated natural fertilize & Pesticide maker (GROWHITHA) which can make all the 7 types of natural manures in a single tool. It reduces the costs of labor activities up to 80% than the conventional process. GROWHITHA is a customized complete farmer mate founded by Venkata Mahesh Subrahmanyam Bharatula, Bhargavi Kamakshi, Ananth Vedantham, Raghu Dupaguntla which can strongly and surely promote Healthy and eco-friendly natural farming. We as a young team, working on the motto to build an ecosystem where we can see happy farmers & healthy farming.

How did you come up with the idea of MARS?

It happened in my second year of polytechnic that is, in 2015. We started searching for problems. we build solutions for 8 problems. This latest 9th product is in Agricultural sector. With this product, we want to take a grand move to start a company. Along with my friends (Ananth & Raghu), we were really passionate about doing innovations and solving real problems. That’s the only unwavering passion creating the path for our dreams today. Later My friends became Co-founders. we came from rural background and observed lot of economical struggles of farmers with chemical pesticides farming.

we searched for alternatives and found Natural farming as the perfect replacement. But why farmers are not moving to low-cost, Eco- Friendly Natural farming. This question leads to 11 months of research for problem tracking and identified a lot of hurdles. Tried to build solutions for individual problems. we came out with a basic solution within 54 days.

What problems MARS solving?

Natural Farming is the Best and healthy way of agricultural practice. But only 9% of farmers are working in Natural farming because of

• Tedious Natural fertiliser preparation process
• Heavy cost incurring for Labor activities
• Needs lot of pre knowledge required (only farmers who are practicing these methods regularly can do. Need to attend awareness camps)

Target market

India has a 14 Million Natural Farmer segment. Our primary customer segment is this 14 Million farmer. Our targeting customer segment is the remaining 104 Million farmers who are using chemicals in their practice. GROWHITHA surely converts all the farmer brains into natural farming.

Larger goal & vision

We believe in giving access to traditional ways will show us a fruitful future. But lack of ease of doing we are moving away from our culture. Our vision is to Transform the Technology Towards Traditional ways which energize our culture. Our vision with GROWHITHA is to build farmer-centric Ecosystem where we can see Happy Farmer & Healthy Farming.

Team and uniqueness of Office culture

We have very diversified Operational, technical, Marketing, Public Relations, Promotions, Media & Branding, R&D Teams. We feel a Family culture in our team. Also, we care, share, nurture each other and we stick to our core values Responsibility & Commitment. We always learn, share knowledge with each other. But we have confidence that we all together can bang! We are leading a happy & Healthy team environment for the past 2 years 7 months.

Challenges and Success

Challenges are never-ending processes in startups. But How we are facing them in our own style lets us stand in a different position. We all are student entrepreneurs, Right now pursuing the final year of graduation. We faced difficulty in time management between team tasks. As no two people are at the same college, we had a clash between schedules and academics. For that problem, I personally took multi-role for more than 9 months in all teams of MARS. I used to complete the work of all the team by making my schedules very tight to complete the tasks on time. Today as a CEO, I can access all the works of each team easily because I did all roles in my past.

Awards and Recognition

Participated in International Innovation Fair as an Indian representative. We were selected for a startup acceleration program called iB Hubs – Startup School (Powered by iB Hubs), We were selected for the 6th International MSME India Expo.

Message to Young Entrepreneurs & Startups?

• Believe in yourselves.
• Make your abilities strong.
• Move with confidence.