“A few acres of my uncle’s land was lost to salinity until I figured out a way to restore its fertility,” Muhammad Yashin, 31, tells The News on Sunday. He adds, “…back then, I didn’t have an inkling that this experiment would pave the way for me to establish a start-up.”

Yasin is the founder of a startup called Kalarmar. He was in the second cohort at the National Incubation Centre (NIC) established at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, and has been assisting startups since September 2022.

According to Yasin, Kalarmar uses innovative techniques on saline terrains to convert them into arable land using underground brackish water. “One of our services involves providing soil reclamation solutions for saline-sodic and sodic soils,” he says. “For this, we use water from wells so that even if a farmer’s lands are not irrigated by canal water, we can make it arable.”

Yasin comes from a small village in Gojra tehsil. He finished school there and was in intermediate when his maternal uncle told him that he had lost his agricultural land to salinity. He took on the challenge, “I wanted to make the lands arable again,” he tells TNS.

“I was good at chemistry. So I began my research. I read scientific papers from International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) and following the methods mentioned in those, bought various chemicals from my own pocket and started experiments on a small patch of land,” recalls Yasin.

Yasin says in a few months, he came up with a chemical solution. “I observed that treating a piece of saline land with this formula restored its fertility. Even brackish water could be used then to irrigate the fields,” he says.

“After that, I helped other farmers in my village restore the fertility of their lands,” says Yasin. “The recipe worked. That bolstered my motivation to explore this domain.”

“I used to share experiences on my Linked-In account. A friend advised me to start my own company and join the NIC,” he says.

According to Yasin, that was the turning point for him.

Joining the incubation centre gave him the opportunity to learn how businesses work. Using the resources available, he was able to adapt his idea, reform it and watch it take form as a functional startup.

“Before joining the NIC, I didn’t even know what a business model was,” he says. “The NIC was where I learnt about how to convert my startup into a sustainable business.”

According to him, NIC’s curriculum and expert guidance are something all budding entrepreneurs can benefit from. “The incubation centre helped me crystallise my ideas and move ahead,” he says.

“For now we’re only providing soil restoration services. In the future, we want to convert our solutions to products that farmers can administer themselves after testing their soils,” he says.

The entrepreneur says soon after finishing a pilot project, his startup got its first order to restore about 300 acres of saline land. “Many other deals are in the pipeline,” he tells TNS.

Another success story from the second cohort of the NIC is that of Balash, an e-commerce platform formed to propose innovative ideas to local online businesses and facilitate them in the creation of digital assets that can be sold in international markets and to aggregators.

“Balash has launched more than 600 brands on the top ten international e-commerce platforms, including Amazon,” says Muhammad Khurram Jalvi, one of the co-founders of the startup. “Our mission is to help entrepreneurs build sustainable, long-term businesses in the global marketplace, he adds.

“The efforts of startups that have graduated so far have resulted in the creation of 334 jobs. These ventures have also generated Rs 912 million in revenue and attracted Rs 16 million in investments. The NIC provides startups with high-level mentoring from industry experts, tailored coaching, networking opportunities, the best and most modern working space and access to the industry. All these services are free of cost.”

“We launched Balash a year ago. Business is good. We have successfully launched products from 400 companies on e-commerce websites,” he says.

“Good products are being made in Pakistan. However, many of our manufacturers do not know their customers in the international market,” says Jalvi.

“If we can take the products made in Pakistan to potential customers in the international market through e-commerce, we can double our exports in a year,” he claims.

According to him, the main reason why his company registered with the NIC was networking. “We wanted to establish ties with the government and collaborate with them and the business community to explore the potential of e-commerce.”

“The NIC management has been very supportive. They have been guiding us. This partnership will be instrumental in taking Pakistan to new heights in the e-commerce sector,” he says.

“In addition to providing the entrepreneurs basic infrastructure and resources to launch their ideas, the NIC also connects them with a pool of mentors and trainers who offer guidance on various aspects of running a business,” he says “from product development to company registration, you can get advice on anything.”

In his opinion, more incubation centres modelled after the NIC-Faisalabad should be set up in various parts of the country to establish a culture that is conducive to the growth of start-ups.

Mehwish Azeem is the co-founder of Recycle.pk along with Mohammad Rauf. She had just finished her studies in textiles when she heard of the NIC-Faisalabad and joined its first cohort. Their idea was to recycle textile waste and make it useful.

Their start-up aims to promote sustainability by transforming textile waste into trendy and eco-friendly products and exporting those to the international market.

The entrepreneurs aim to encourage zero waste practices in the industry by repurposing discarded materials and contributing to a more sustainable future. “More than 29,000 kg of textile waste is being generated daily in Faisalabad,” Azeem tells TNS.

“Our first product was organic cotton reusable tissues. Now we are producing various customised products including grocery bags, jumpsuits and make-up wipes,” she says.

“We got our products tested in the USA and got positive feedback. After that, we joined the NIC-Faisalabad to take it up professionally,” she says. “Now, we sell many products online,” she reports.

“We started with very little. Now we are earning four times our costs. We want to strengthen our foundation before entertaining plans for expansion, even though many investors have expressed interest in our startup,” says Mehwish.

Shahwar Khan, programme lead at the NIC, says 25 startups annually graduate from the centre in two cohorts. “Our goal is to assist 125 startups over the next five years,” adds Khan.

“We currently have 17 startups in the first cohort and 12 startups in the second cohort of the first year which are working in various sectors including agriculture, nutrition, food technology, data, IoT and advanced textiles,” Khan tells TNS.

“The efforts of startups that have graduated so far have resulted in the creation of 334 jobs. These ventures have also generated Rs 912 million in revenue and attracted Rs 16 million in investments,” he says.

Khan says the NIC provides startups with high-level mentoring from industry experts, tailored coaching, networking opportunities, the best and most modern working space and access to the industry. “All these services are free of cost,” he says.

According to the Global Startups Ecosystem Index 2023, Pakistan has climbed to the 76th position worldwide and secured the second spot in South Asia in terms of startup growth. If the commitment to fostering entrepreneurship is not short-lived, the country is poised to scale new heights in the global market.

The writer has been associated with journalism for the past decade. He tweets @ naeemahmad876