Bhavarlal Jain

Bhavarlal Jain was an Indian entrepreneur who founded Jain Irrigation Systems, which grew into the world's second largest micro-irrigation company after Netafim. Starting in 1963 with a small kerosene trading business, he expanded into farm equipment and agricultural inputs before pioneering drip irrigation technology in India, establishing a dedicated micro-irrigation manufacturing company in 1987 and 1988 and running a thousand-acre research farm that developed cost-effective methods for wasteland reclamation, soil conservation and horticultural improvement, including introducing the tissue-cultured Grand Nain banana variety that became a leading cultivar among Maharashtra's farmers. He transformed degraded land near Jalgaon into the Jain Hills and Jain Valley agricultural park and in 1997 became the first Indian to receive the Crawford Reid Memorial Award, a leading honor in the international irrigation industry.