Daulat Rahman

Guwahati: Syed Abdul Suit once trained for the corporate world but left a lucrative job to start a modern agricultural input manufacturing factory where more than 200 people are employed. His efforts are a small step to show the way out of rising unemployment in Assam.

Notwithstanding the cut-throat competition in his chosen field, Abdul Suit’s unit Monsut Chem Industries has created a niche for itself in a decade. He has since opened three more units of Monsut Chem Industries - in Panikhaiti, Guwahati, Nellie in Morigaon district, and Kaurbaha, Goreswar in Baksa district.

Monsut Chem Industries now not only supplies different modern agricultural inputs to farmers across India but also to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Nepal. Monsut Chem Industries produces mainly organic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, micronutrient fertilizers and different types of yield enhancer for doubling farmers' income.

Syed Abdul Suit with farmers in a field

The youngest child of Syed Ramzan Ali and Syeda Asika Begum, born in a very backward village, Abdul is a postgraduate in agriculture. After completing his early education in his village Nizkaurbaha and Rangia, he went to the Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Jorhat for his higher education. He then completed his MSc in Agriculture from Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal.

After obtaining an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Commerce and Trade (IICT), Lucknow, Abdul started his professional career in 2004 and worked in different leading private companies. But he was not satisfied and became restless to do something on his own. In 2011 Abdul finally resigned from his job and started the Panikhaiti unit of Monsut Chem Industries with an investment of Rs 20 lakh.

Speaking to Awaz-The Voice, Abdul who is in his 40s, said that he did not take any aid from the government in setting up his industries. Monsut Chem Industries produces different modern agricultural inputs for paddy, different Kharif and Rabi crops, and tea plantations. The company also has marketing offices in different parts of the country like Kolkata, Patna, Siliguri, Banaras, and Delhi.

“We also have a good market for our products in various parts of India as well in Bangladesh and Nepal. We have started a Life Science division also. Under this division, we manufacture 62 medicines for human use. We have three units for manufacturing medicines – at Nasik, Maharashtra, in Gujarat, and in Himachal Pradesh," said Abdul.

Hailing from an agricultural background Abdul said farming is in his blood and genes. “I am happy to leverage farming to create jobs. More than 200 people of different faiths, castes, and communities are working in my factories,” he said.

Abdul has travelled to many foreign countries where 4-5 crops are grown in a year. But in Assam, only one crop is grown in most of the areas and sometimes, even that one crop cannot be grown.

“Even though the Assam government keeps talking about taking steps to double the current income of farmers, such steps are not being taken on the ground. Only a few places like Kharupetia, Hojai, Lanka, Tezpur and Barpeta in Assam have witnessed good agriculture production.  The government has to take initiatives at the earliest to boost agricultural production," said Abdul.