Interviews

From Mechanical Engineer to Greenhouse Manufacturer: The Trendsetter Entrepreneur Mr Habibullah Journey

By Danish Reyaz

The area of 24-Parganas, 60 km from Kolkata, looks devoid of all basic amenities even from far, but as you enter the limits of Aerotech Engineering Works Private Limited, the high-tech factory of Mr Habibullah will remove all the negative feelings from your mind. Sitting in his drawing room, fitted with all luxuries, when he speaks on the global changes in the field of agriculture and farming, one wonders how a person sitting in a small village can gather so vast knowledge.

Mechanical Engineer by training, when Mr Habibullah was working in different companies, he had heard people talking about greenhouse. How greenhouse was bringing prominent changes in agriculture impressed him so much that he left the salaried job and started greenhouse cultivation in 2006 and began producing the crops that were popular in the international market.

Familiar with the Bengali culture and civilization, Mr Habibullah has observed the nature from close while playing in the soil and pond in the childhood. Talking about his family, he says: “People in my family have been in government jobs. They have had little inclination towards agriculture, but we are connected to the Bengali culture where pond and greenery in the surrounding of the house are considered as signs of good luck. Therefore, I have been naturally close to trees and plants.”

Narrating the story about the Aerotech Engineering Works Private Limited, Mr Habibullah says: “After doing Mechanical Engineering, I started doing a salaried job, but my heart was inclined to start own business and this is the reason I started greenhouse cultivation.”

Years of hard work have paid him as his firm has earned reputation and honour. Today the Aerotech Engineering Works Private Limited is a pioneer firm in India for Designing, Fabrication and Construction of Greenhouse of superior quality at a reasonable price. Thanks to the hard and sincere work by Mr Habibullah and dedication of his experienced workforce, the firm was awarded ISO 9001-2008 certificate.

With vast experience and dedicated workforce, Aerotech works closely with India Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. It has become a major fabricator/supplier of greenhouses in India and abroad. The firm also provides consultancy on various subjects such as choice of structure, area location, supply and installation of infrastructures and greenhouse equipment. It offers long-term service contracts on irrigation fertilization and climate control system.

The long list of its prestigious and reputed clients in India include Krishi Kendra, State Horticulture Department and Ministry of Textiles.

Mr Habibullah does not take all credit for success, rather mentions his team’s hard work on the website of the firm.

“Our team of dedicated staff has played a vital role in our success. They are regularly trained and keep updated so that they can perform well in long run. These professionals perform well and make sure that the tasks and work assigned to them are accomplished in an efficient manner. Our personnel are aware of their duties and responsibilities and make sure that they give up-to-the-mark performance.”

Well-equipped and advanced infrastructures have helped Aeortech to carry out business operation in smooth manner. In order to ensure efficient manufacturing, the infrastructure is segregated into varied segments. These departments are looked after by trained staff, so that synchronization is maintained between the tasks performed by these units. Machines that are used in production are upgraded regularly so that these machines can perform well and work with utmost accuracy.

Aerotech Engineering Works Private Limited prepares several types of greenhouses. A brief introduction about some of them is given on the website:

Types of Greenhouses

Naturally Ventilated Poly Greenhouse: Naturally ventilated greenhouse is best suited for areas where temperature ranges between 15°C to 30°C. The structure should have a provision of sufficient number of openings for ventilation. The percentage of ventilation will be up to 60% of the floor area depending upon climatic conditions. The openings may be side wall vent or roof vent or both to exchange air (hot/cold) flow inside the greenhouse. During the summer period, the openings are needed to ensure efficient air movement and should be fully airtight during winter period.

High Tech Greenhouse: The greenhouse with fan and pad cooling system is best suited for hot dry climatic conditions such as Northern plains where temperature goes above 30°C. The system works on the principle that when water evaporates and heat is absorbed from surroundings. This is possible by drawing cool air into greenhouse through wet pad located at one end of the wall, where hot air is replaced by co-axial fans mounted on the opposite end of wall. The excessive temperature causes various damages to the morphology and physiological processes of plants such as flower shedding, leaf scorch, poor fruit quality, excessive transpiration, shortened life span of the plants and low net photosynthesis due to excessive respiration etc. Hence, it is important to maintain air temperature inside the greenhouse ranging between 20°C to 28°C for better crop growth.

Shade Net House: The net houses prepared by Aerotech Engineering Works Private Limited Aerotech have a variety of applications — the majority being, growing of vegetables, floriculture and fruit crop growing for export market. In conventional Agronomical Practices, the crops are being grown / cultivated in the open field under natural conditions where the crops are more susceptible to sudden changes in climate i.e. temperature, humidity, light intensity, photo period and other conditions due to which the quality, yield of a particular crop can get affected and may be decreased.

Besides complete greenhouses, Aerotech has been producing greenhouse accessories also. They include Agro Shade Net, Ground Cover, Mulch Films, Crop Cover, Insect Net, Greenhouse Covering Film and Nursery Seedling Tray etc.

Success Mantra

Mr Habibullah mentions that customer satisfaction has been the success mantra of his firm.

“Customer satisfaction has always been given prime importance by us and we make sure that customers associated with us are served with the products of their choice. Customization facility, R&D facilities, best quality products at reasonable prices are the reasons which have contributed to our success. Besides, we listen carefully to the clients demand and ensure that they are served accordingly,” he writes.

Awards

Aerotech’s efforts in delivering top-notch products have been recognized and appreciated by several government bodies and organizations including the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

“We are thankful to our customers without whom we could not have achieved what we have done today. These appreciations motivate and inspire us to keep doing better and raise the bar even higher in terms of quality and performance of our products. Being one of the Largest Greenhouse and Irrigation equipment manufacturers in India we always make sure our clients get the best products at the cheapest price for which our entire R&D team works day and night to bring new ideas and technologies to the table,” mentions the firm.

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