Udbhij.in

उद्भिज (Udbhij) is a Sanskrit word which means “that comes out of the soil by itself”. Udbhij is an umbrella for three start-ups Khumb Organics LLP, Khumb Poshit LLP and Bhu-Krimi Urvarak LLP which are seed funded by NewGen IEDC and supported by Marwadi University Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Research, Rajkot, India.

The journey

The journey starts way back in 2010, when a Master’s student started his 6 months dissertation at Directorate of Mushroom Research, Solan, Himachal Pradesh. His project was to isolate the monokaryons of Agaricus bisporus (White button mushroom). A monokaryon is a fungal mycelium or hyphae in which each cell contains a single nucleus. Monokaryons were necessary for the production of hybrids of white button mushrooms. At that time, there were no monokaryons available in any culture bank of India and other countries were not sharing it. Theoretically the probability of the isolation of monokaryons was 6%, however practically it was less than 1%. Under the guidance of his guide Dr. Shwet Kamal, the student successfully isolated 26 monokaryons which resulted in the formation of 6 natural hybrids. The same student later on selected for international fellowship and obtained a PhD degree in Nanoscience and Technology from National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST), Beijing, P.R.China and returned to India as Dr. Aditya Saran and joined Marwadi University, Rajkot India. With the initial support of MUIIR (Marwadi University) and by the technical guidance of Dr. Aditya Saran a start-up project was launched that later formed as Khumb Organics LLP.

Khumb Organics LLP has taken as an initiative to address the prevailing malnutrition condition in the country. Even a well planned diverse vegetarian diet can’t address the issue of malnutrition completely. Mushrooms are rich in folic acid which is known to be beneficial for brain health as it contains protein and Vitamin B2 and other essential vitamins and minerals such as potassium, copper, zinc and manganese needed for a healthy body. Mushrooms are an excellent source of Vitamin-D rarely found in vegetarian food which is beneficial in the development of bone and muscle health of children.

Very soon it was realized by the team that the mushroom market needs value added products to counter malnutrition. Hence, another start-up “Khumb Poshit LLP” was launched to fulfil the need of value added products. Khumb Poshit LLP is not only limited to Mushrooms, it includes all types of vegetarian edible items and milk products. We here at Khumb Poshit LLP emphasis on customized food products as per the food culture and medical or health requirements such as diabetic, heart patient, health enthusiast as well as foodie one.

This was not the end. Food comes from Agriculture and one should pay back. Agriculture activity needs substrate, fertilizers and hence to address this issue the last but not the least “Bhukrimi Urvarak LLP” came into the picture. Bhukrimi Urvarak LLP not only provides a solution to spent mushroom, it provides compost and fertilizers for mushroom cultivation and other agriculture business like production & sale of various compost, bio-fertilizers and microbial fertilizers for general and specific crops.