Management Team

Vimal Chawda

Managing Director

Vimal Chawda is Managing Director of VNR Seeds, which is currently India’s one of the fastest growing seed company. VNR Seed is a socially and environmentally responsible organization with a leading presence in agriculture sector of the Indian economy.

Early days of entrepreneurial spirits:

Vimal graduated in agriculture with Honours – awarded Vice-Chancellors Silver medal – from prestigious G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in 1993. He returned to Chhattisgarh the same year and joined father Narayan Chawda’s farm which was at that time, a farm of 36 acres having a modest turnover of INR 2 million. With small infusion of funds from family savings, he started vegetable cultivation at 30 acres lease land in summer season at village Berla. Limitation of funds could barely make the ends meet. This first independent attempt turned out to be a failure due to outage of electricity for 2 days and crop dried due to shortage of water. Vimal learnt his first lesson about lack of planning and risk mitigation i.e. pre-arrange availability of generator at farm location. The disappointment of failure lead to a dilemma – whether to continue with vegetable cultivation or search for alternatives. He took the challenge to pursue the first option—his passion for agriculture.

Having treaded through rough waters – he forayed into large scale vegetable cultivation to break the earlier set myth – “vegetable cultivation can be done only in peri-urban area and in small acreage”. While establishing the infrastructure needs of a large-scale cultivation project – he devised a 7-step plan, addressing core requirements:

• Multiple cropping patterns
• Scientific plot layout and roads for accessibility
• Plots designed for mechanized operations
• Drip irrigation system with automation for less consumption of energy
• Modern agriculture implements and failover arrangements
• Housing facility for manpower engagement
• Shaded floors for grading and packaging of produce

With his acumen and expertise in agriculture production technology, he breached the barriers of average production volume per acres in many crop segments. He achieved highest recorded yields – In tomato 100 tonnes per acre against average yield of 40 tonnes per acre, similarly in Hot pepper highest yield of 42 tonnes against an average of 24 tonnes, Bitter gourd 16 tonnes against an average of 10 tonnes per acre. The list goes on to Bottle gourd, cabbage, cauliflower, cowpea, pointed gourd etc.

Major milestones & breakthroughs:

The milestones that majorly impacted the professional career graph of Vimal and are spread across decades of his enduring efforts. 

Establishing drip irrigation:

In 1988, while studying in class 10^th Vimal got his hands on a literature about significance of micro-irrigation in agriculture; brought by Narayan Chawda from Micro Irrigation congress held at Australia. Having developed specific interest in drip irrigation, he visited Gujarat to understand and learn the technology. Though drip irrigation was earlier adapted in Chhattisgarh during the year 1986, but all 3 installations failed due to lack of technical and agronomic guidance – no awareness about maintenance of sub-surface drip line and usage of drip for fertigation apart from watering. Post studying and analyzing the technicalities and finer details of drip irrigation, he installed the first successful usage of drip irrigation in Chhattisgarh. This initiative helped him to understand the importance of adhering to details and adaptiveness towards local conditions.

Identification of Gynoecious line in Bitter Gourd:

In 1995, during his farming venture at Berla, he planted bitter gourd in 4 acres of land. He was very attentive towards his crop and use to stroll in every row of plants—keenly observing and noting physiological changes in plants. During one such walk, he saw a plant with only female flowers – which was not a routine character. He could immediately sense an opportunity, but the challenge was to maintain the line and establish the protocol. He researched and did sibmating to maintain that line. This led to a rare phenomenon of that time – development of Gynoecious line in bitter gourd. With this breakthrough, VNR became the least cost producer of bitter gourd seed, securing good value by selling at an average industry price. It was a differentiator which brought the much-awaited success.

Establishment of new vegetable seed production center:

In 2009, when there was a shortage of sponge gourd seed, Vimal decided to produce it, at one of its testing sites in tribal region of Chhattisgarh. As the protocols of seed production were stabilized and well monitored, an output of 1000 kgs. per acre was achieved, instead of regular 300 kgs. His acute understanding of seed production could instantly corelate it with impact of environment in a favorable agro-climatic zone. In no time, he started mobilizing resources, increasing production area by enrolling local tribal farmers for undertaking more profitable activity of seed production. As a result, VNR now has more than 2000 acres of seed production bank under its umbrella from northern to southern tribal region of Chhattisgarh. This created a mutually beneficial situation for both VNR and tribal farmers. It also gave him a sense of deep satisfaction by paying back to farming community – as tribal farmers, who could barely meet their daily necessities were now able to build pucca houses, install fencing, setup advance irrigation facilities and get their children educated in city institutes.

Apart from earlier constrained region in Telangana-Karimnagar and Karnataka-Ranebennuru; this initiative of Vimal, led to setting up of new seed production area in Chhattisgarh for industry as whole—which is currently spread across 3000 acres of fertile land in unexplored tribal zone.

Leadership skills & learning abilities:

Vimal initiated the execution of VNR’s backward integration journey – from farming to seed and further onto scientific research, biotech and production management. Under the astute and inclusive leadership of Vimal, VNR has grown inorganically, seizing opportunities across dominating vegetable and field crop segments. VNR has maintained CAGR of more than 30% since a decade and is currently poised to cross INR 3000 million mark.

Under Vimal’s leadership, VNR has developed a very strong, engaged and ambitious team, where everyone considers it, as their extended family. Being an early adapter of technology, he has ensured that every aspect of organizational value chain is adaptive to innovation and develop progressive mindset towards embracing change.

Vimal—a good listener, soft spoken, has an eye for detailing, carries deep passion for learning and commitment to upgrade; these qualities have taken him places across the globe to quench his thirst of knowledge. As part of organizational growth, he ensures that his team members and he himself regularly attend seminars, conferences, symposiums, training workshops and represent VNR at various international and domestic forums.

Out of his many international sojourn – few are: International Horti Fair at Amsterdam Netherlands, International Symposium on Guava at Petrolina Brazil, International Pepper Conference at Naples Florida, US Vegetable Seed Industry tour organized by APSA, International Symposium on Tropical & Subtropical Horticulture held at Cairns Australia, The World Vegetable Centre & Fengshan Tropical Horticultural Experiment Station in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Awards, Recognitions & Honors:

Vimal has won recognitions for his exemplary contribution to agriculture, leadership and organisation building. Selective list, as under:

• Conferred with prestigious “Honorary Fellowship” of Horticulture Society of India for the year 2018 for his distinguished contributions in Horticulture Research and Development, by Shri. Bhupesh Baghel, Hon’ble Chief Minister – Chhattisgarh State at IGKV Campus, Raipur during 8th Indian Horticulture Congress 2019
• Recipient of N.G. Ranga Farmer of the year Award in 2002 for his innovative practices in diversified agriculture by Shri. Rajnath Singh, Hon’ble Union Agriculture Minister – Govt. of India
• Received AAAP Young Achiever Award at AAAP Annual Meet in 2012 at New Delhi by Agri Alumni Association of Pant Nagar
• Co-Recipient of ASPEE L.M. Patel Farmer of the year award for the year 2002 by ASPEE Research and Development Foundation, Mumbai
• Recipient of Ten Outstanding Young Indians Award in 2001 by Indian Junior Chamber during its 46th National Convention at Indore

Advisor, Speaker & Invitations:

• Appointed as chairperson for the vegetable group committee of Federation of Seed Industry of India
• Invited by Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of Chhattisgarh for suggestions and discussion
• Invited by Ministry of Land Revenue, Govt. of Chhattisgarh for discussion on Land Ceiling
• Invited by Project Directorate of Vegetable Research for dissemination of knowledge and experience with fellow farmers on vegetable cultivation
• Invited by Central Bank of India to deliver talk on Hi-tech agriculture for zonal bank officials
• Delivered lectures to several Farmer groups for dissemination of knowledge on Fertigation, Irrigation, Vegetable grafting, Vegetable Cultivation under Drip Irrigation & protected farming in various districts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh
• Regular invitee at Kisan TV programs, Agriculture shows of Doordarshan and AIR for promotion of horticulture in Chhattisgarh
• Delivered talk on entrepreneurship at IIM, Raipur during orientation program

Life Memberships:

• Member International Society of Horticulture Sciences, Belgium
• Member of Indian Society of Vegetable Sciences, Varanasi
• Member of Horticultural Society of India, New Delhi
• Producer Member of Naveen Beej Utpadak Sahakari Samiti, Raipur
• Society for promotion of Horticulture, Bengaluru
• Manage-National Institute of Agriculture Extension Management, Hyderabad

Family – Nature’s masterpiece:

Vimal lives out of suitcase and continuously travels for work, but always ensure spending quality time with family. While father and son exchange notes on research and production at breakfast table, mother Velu ensures that everyone gets a healthy treat. Vimal’s wife Hema, is a co-director at VNR and his pillar of strength in every sense—sharing professional, social and personal responsibilities. Vimal is a doting & loving father to daughters Khushi and Aanvee.

Being a university swimming champion and a captain, he’s still an avid swimmer and regularly covers 40 laps of half Olympic size pool.

Vimal is well read and always carries a book on varied topics. Whenever he finds time, listens to old songs and never misses an opportunity going for a long drive.

In words of daughter Khushi – “He tries hard not to leave things unfinished”.