Prowins Biotech
Hyderabad firm is engaged in acqua culture, poultry &bioengineering business.
Prowins Biotech Private Limited, head quartered in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, was established in September 2003. The company’s areas of specialization are aquaculture, poultry and environmental bioengineering. Prowins is chaired by Mr. Praveen Kumar D., who has done his Master of Fisheries Science from CIFE, Mumbai followed by M.Sc. in fisheries management from University of Portsmouth, England. Apart from 4 years of experience in independent business management, he also has 13 years of extensive product marketing and sales experience in India and abroad.
Core Competencies
The company is engaged in the development, innovation, formulation, manufacturing and marketing of several microbial products for aquaculture, poultry and industrial waste water management.” Our environmental bio-engineering division is involved in planning and designing the effluent treatment plants by incorporating microbial technology for various industries,” says Mr. Kumar. “Aquaculture and poultry divisions of the company are extensively working along with farmers and research institutes to develop new and innovative microbial products for solving many problems associated with commercial farming,” he adds. The manufacturing unit of the company is located in Hyderabad. The company has manufacturing capacity of 100 mt annually.
Aquaculture Prowins has developed field performing pro biotic products for shrimp hatcheries and grow-out farmers. Pro biotic is biotechnological approach to disease management in aquaculture. The pathogens are detected for avoidance of disease and pro biotic are used to suppress their growth. Pro biotic also functions as bio remediators for improvement of environment, bio-control agents for suppression of pathogens, immu no stimulants to stimulate the immune system of host.
“We have done several field trials with various combinations of several strains of beneficial bacteria for achieving the objective of excellent water and soil quality apart from maintaining pathogenic microbes at lowest possible ebb,” says Mr. Kumar. He further elaborates, “Our product list is never going to be limited as whenever we find the possibility of microbes to play a major role to solve problems, we keep enhancing and increasing our products cart forgiving maximum benefit of technology to aquaculture industry,” he says, adding, “Our team is constantly working with farmers and local research institutes to develop new and advanced microbial formulations for commercial aquaculture.”
Poultry Sciences Prowins has developed and introduced a few poultry healthcare products. “Our products are developed with lot of field work including consultation with some of the reputed research institutes in India and abroad. All our products are eco friendly, sustainable, affordable and help farmers to enhance their production with minimal cost,” says Me. Kumar.
[private] Environmental Bioengineering The company assists industries to adhere to pollution control norms including global quality accreditation standards. “At our company, we integrate environmental engineering technology with proven environmental biological systems thereby creating a new trend and enhancing the maximum benefits in the above technology and systems,” maintains Mr. Kumar, adding, “We have an integrated approach of solving pollution problems in industrial, domestic, municipal, agriculture, household; by introducing environmental bioengineering products and services.” The company’s scope of work extends from industrial waste management to solid, liquid and bio composting, introducing more efficient natural microbes for enhancing quality of waste. The company also claims to refine and fine tuned technology and services to fit to various industrial and agro climatic regions.
Beneficial Microbes
The company collects pure strains of microbes from Hyderabad Central University and also from NCIM Pune.” We do not produce pharma grade microbes. Our facility is suitable for agriculture, poultry and aquaculture. We do not produce these microbes ourselves but we cater to any business queries. They are mostly in demand in Europe. The strain of lactobacillus saprogenic has the highest demand,” says Mr. Kumar, “Pharma grade microbe plays a predominant role in intestinal digestion by synthesizing VitaminB3, B5, B6, B12, folic acid, biotin, VitaminK, bacteriocins and digestive enzymes such as amylase, protease and lipase. It helps in assimilation of proteins and in digestion of lactose containing dairy products,” he adds.
Soil Microbes The beneficial soil microbes the company supplies are azospirillum, pshospho bacterium: potash solubiliser, zincsolubiliser, cellulose digester; trichodermaviride plus pseudomonas decomposes biomass and converts to bio fertilizer and suppresses pathogenic microbes; micorrhiza solubilising P, Bo, Mo, Fe, Cu increase stillering, rooting and plant growth and is best for cotton, chilies, tea, cardamom, roses, vegetables, oil seeds, pulses, pomegranate, grapes, pepper wilt, ginger, turmeric, vegetables, orchards, rice, cotton, chillies, sugarcane, oil seeds and pulses.
Mr. Kumar also details the application procedure. For compost/cellulose digester, mix 1 kg of cellulose digester with 1 kg of jaggery in 200 lt of water and mix per tonne of wet biomass and leave for 4 weeks. This will help to prevent growth of pathogenic microbes in the soil, and also increase bio fertiliser quantity. . “The cost can neverbe more than from Rs.5000 to 10000,depending on the crop and type of problem,” says Mr. Kumar, adding,” Common mistakes that people do while applying these microbes is mostly the type of microbe they use. If a farmer is buying from a company that does not have quality standards the product may not work at all.”
Aquaculture Microbes
Aquaculture microbes contribute over 80%of the company’s turnover. Speaking on aquaculture microbes, he explains, “Soil microbes for aquaculture help in degrading waste in the soil. In aquaculture micro besrhodo coccus attracts the highest demand. Others are rhodo coccus, rhodo bacter, aspergillus oryzae, as pergillus niger, bacillus subtitles, bacillus megaterium, bacillus polymyxa, bacillus licheniform is, bacillus pumilus, thiobacillusthio oxidans, thiobacillus ferrooxidans, cellulomon as uda,phosphorus solublizing bacteria, pseudomonas denitrificans,nitrosomonas europaea and nitrobacter winogradskyi,” adding,” They are mostly used for shrimpetc.
According to Mr. Kumar, the various advantages of the Prowins’ aquaculture products are they solubilize organic substrates in ponds bottom soils environment; balance pond bottom soils environment; out compete and help prevent the growth of undesirable bacteria (pathogenic organisms); speed up the natural process of waste degradation; eliminate ammonia, nitrite, hydrogen sulfide and other undesirable gases accumulated in pond soils environment; increase higher survival rate and grow rate when stocking post larvae (PL); safe and beneficial for shrimp and phytoplankton; have no residue and are environment friendly. Their prominent clients in aquaculture include PVS Laboratories, Nagarjuna Biotech, DeeVee Biomed Pvt Ltd, Astra Biotech, Munogeniks Biotech etc. The company has not yet got into exporting the products but is hopeful of starting within a few months.
Marketing of Products
The company has 14 employees and has clocked an annual turnover of Rs. 2 crores. The company supplies to some of the farmers directly and also to some companies, who brand and sell to farmer. Some of them include Supra Biotech, Agri Life, Pratibha Nagarjuna, who sell under their own brands. The company markets its products in the entire Indian sub continent. “We are also expanding our business network in South Asia, Middle East, Europe and United States of America,” avers Mr. Kumar. The categories the company is involved in are bio pharma, biotech – agriculture and general, diagnostics, pharmaceutical and it is also supplier involved in both production and distribution. Prowins gets the maximum sale from Andhra Pradesh.
Quality Certification
When asked about quality certification, Mr.Kumar says, “We follow standard microbial count and quality assessment procedure. We allow our customers to test the products themselves.” Mr. Kumar maintains that the company maintains high transparency in all its negotiations and invites people to visit the factory and show them the entire infrastructure and how they are manufacturing. Mr. Kumar says, “In future, we want to increase our market share looking for more contract manufacturing orders.”
Our Correspondent
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