Ion Exchange Enviro Farms Ltd.: Professional Management

Professional Management
Ion Exchange Enviro Farms Ltd. (IEEFL) is a professionally managed company, headed by an eminent board of directors and a well qualified and experienced executive management team.

Board of Directors
	G. Shankar Ranganathan - Chairman An ardent environmentalist, Ranganathan is the founder Chairman of Ion Exchange (India) Ltd. The CEO since inception in 1964 until 2003, he has over four decades' experience in environment and water management, and is currently the Executive Chairman. He holds a Masters in Science (Wood Technology) from
the University of Michigan, USA. He has written extensively on the environment, rural community development and intermediate technology, and has presented papers at national and international fora.

Rajesh Sharma
The Managing Director of Ion Exchange (India) Ltd., Sharma has over twenty-seven years of experience in water treatment. He is instrumental in sourcing technology and partnerships with leading specialist companies, as well as developing business relations with leading EPC contracting companies. Sharma has presented papers at many national level conferences.

	L V Keshav Director on the Board of Ion Exchange Enviro Farms Ltd., Keshav is a Chemical Engineer, with a rich & varied experience of over 30 years in the Chemical Industry. He has been with Ion Exchange (India) Ltd. for over 15 years, currently as Vice President - R & D, Corporate Quality & Environmental management.
He has initiated systems at all our farms for better monitoring and control to improve productivity and farm self sustainability. Periodic system audits at all farms have also been initiated.

M.D. Dharmadhikari
Dharmadhikari is an expert in law, real estate and property matters. He is the former Company Secretary and Vice President - Corporate Affairs, at Ion Exchange (India) Ltd. A law graduate, Dhamadhikari is a qualified Company Secretary.

Abhiram Seth
Earlier with Hindustan Levers' sales and marketing division, from 1982-93, Seth managed his own business as an entrepreneur. He later joined Pepsico India in 1993 where he is currently the Export Director as well as spearheads the agro-operations.

Dr. B. B. Jadhav
Currently a Professor and Head of the Department of Agriculture and Botany, at the Konkan Rishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Maharashtra, Dr. Jadhav has vast research, extension and teaching experience spanning 28 years. He is credited with being the first in the world to perfect the 'clove grafting technology' , has authored a popular book on homeopathy, and guided many students for their master and doctorate degrees. He holds a Doctorate in Plant Physiology from the Indian Agricultural Institute, New Delhi.

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Bankers

Exim Bank
Bank of India
State Bank of India

Auditors

GMJ & Co.
Chartered Accountants

Advocates and Solicitors

Crawford Bayley & Co.

Project Management
Ion Enviro brings to bear its highly qualified and technically competent teams of professionals and specialists - graduate and post graduate horticulturists, project managers, hydro-geologists and legal experts on every project. Their collective experience of over three decades is reinforced by training support from experts in India, US and Israel.

The Enviro Farms are managed by a team of horticulturists, and headed by a farm manager who oversees the farms in a locality. For every fifty acres of farm, the company has an experienced farm executive/supervisor to supervise the horticultural activities. Unskilled labourers are hired on a contract/daily wage basis. Land is developed using the latest techniques in land usage, water harvesting and conservation, horticulture, post-harvesting and distribution. In keeping with our environment-friendly practices, our Environ Farms use the best international practices in bio-intensive organic farming, while employing the most modern water management techniques.

Water Management

Every Enviro Farms project site is selected after a thorough evaluation of its water potential. Water management techniques are incorporated under the guidance of in-house experts.

Focal thrust involves:

Extensive use of drip irrigation for water resource optimisation
Rainwater harvesting and water conservation techniques to harvest surface and sub-surface flow
Use of sub-surface water by construction of underground structures
Simultaneous utilisation of surface and sub-surface water resources
Water resource exploration through open wells and bore wells

Under consideration:

Adoption of artificial recharge techniques like rainfall infiltration through bore wells and hydro fracturing to re-establish and sustain water tables
Root zone monitoring technique, to understand water requirements of plants by monitoring the excess water discarded. This will conserve water resources by supplying plants with their exact water requirements

Watershed Development

Our participatory watershed project for the village Vihule Kond in the district of Raigad, Maharashtra entails technical consultancy from Ion Exchange India; awareness building, funding and monitoring by an NGO, and involvement of the villagers who contribute labour. Rainwater harvesting ponds, bunds, trenches and gully plugs are constructed to benefit over 1100 villagers.