Learning the 'ropes' of a new product

Coir rope being loaded onto the truck 

Labourers loading coir ropes to a truck.

Satish Poojary's coir factory at Bennekudru near Barkur, has a capacity of 100 tonne per month

Workers move the coir fibre for drying; Satish Poojary supervises the coir fibre being loaded into a truck; the finished coir ropes are ready for transport. Photos by Siddharth

Coir dumped for drying  

Satish Poojary poses with his homemade manure 

Satish Poojary 

Satish Poojary was surprised when a group of people from North Karnataka landed at his coir factory in Bennekudru village near Barkur in Udupi district, looking for strong coir rope.

The group said that in all the previous years, the coir rope used for pulling a massive 65-feet temple chariot in their village had snapped in the middle. In order to avoid another embarrassment, the temple management had sent the group to scout for ‘unbreakable’ coir rope.

After collecting the dimensions of the chariot, Poojary sent the team back with a coir rope, which the temple has been using for the past eight years.

When Poojary took over the reins of the family business from his father, people were sceptical about the future of the coir industry, and advised him to invest his efforts elsewhere.

But the coir-business had formed the backdrop to Poojary’s childhood. “The coir unit was my playground. I knew nothing else,” he explains.

Early on, Poojary was convinced that value-addition would be a game changer for the coir sector but his efforts to launch products like hand-made coir mats and geotextiles were not a commercial success, due to lack of marketing and a scarcity of labourers.

However, when Poojary’s brother Uday B returned home from South East Africa during the lockdown, where he worked for 17 years, Satish knew that a wave of reverse migration was in the offing. The youth who returned home would take up farming for their livelihood.

Poojary aimed his new products — environment-friendly organic manure suitable for all soils and crops which used coir pith as a base — at this group.

First-time farmers who used his Nisarga coco pith manure or bio-compost (with nutrients), were rewarded with a higher yield.

His clients ranged from first-time farmers to kitchen garden enthusiasts and a Bonsai enthusiast in Bhatkal.

A doctor couple, Smitha and Rajneesh V Giri, also vouch for Satish’s hand-holding skills.

“During lockdown, we decided to grow organic vegetables in our 25 cents plot in our house in Athradi,” says Dr Smitha. She says Poojary not only supplied nutrients but also visited their house to check the growth of plants.

Future plans

By the time lockdown was lifted, Poojary had ended up selling more than 500 tonnes of coco pith manure and 200 tonnes of bio-compost. His 70-odd employees, most of them migrant labourers, were gainfully employed and were able to send money back home during the lockdown.

Poojary has plans seek the support of bank and the Coir Board to modernise his coir unit and outsource his coir pith compost units to create more jobs.