Craste: Turning Crop Waste Into a Sustainable Future

By Ketul

Updated 10 Nov, 2025

10 min read

At a time when timber is increasingly precious and India is spending a massive sum of money importing it from thousands of miles away (Scandinavian countries, Malaysia and New Zealand), Shubham Singh’s story comes as a breath of fresh air. By buying the country’s crop waste, he is not only preventing the harmful act of crop-burning, but is converting it into strong, durable and biodegradable boards for furniture making. Now that’s an impressive number of ticks in the box for one small start-up! We talk to him to find out what started his journey with Craste and how it has unfolded for him.

Background and Motivation

A chemical engineer by background, Shubham was very curious to understand more about the biomass waste in the country and find a solution for it. After studying in India, he went to Imperial College in London for his Master’s in Chemical Engineering and to learn the ropes of business. Despite that, Shubham was always very clear that he wanted to come back to India and do something in India. “I went to the UK to gain knowledge and come back. I wanted to do something for my country, that was clear”, he says humbly.

While studying in the United Kingdom, he learnt about crop burning in India and the damage it causes, and wanted to come back here and work towards solving this deeply ingrained social issue. He found his opportunity in 2017 at a Fellowship by the Ministry of Science and Technology, BIRAC called Social Innovation Immersion Program based out of a venture centre in Pune. Shubham realised that the Fellowship would be a great way to validate his ideas; and since it was run by National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, he would be supported by a deep chemical knowledge from the mentors there. It truly became his launch pad into his entrepreneurial journey and propelled him on the path that he wanted to be on.

Even as a young college student, Shubham’s mind was already geared towards solving problems in the sustainability sector. Back in 2011, when he was only 19, he started a non-profit organisation called Gramiksha , whose first modules sought to bring environmental awareness to government school children. From there it’s been a long journey of learning, putting together different experiences from his past, applying his chemical knowledge to practical problems, product development and building a business.

Size of the Problem in the Context of India

Shubham brought to the fore an astonishing fact that India generates approximately 500 million tons of agriculture waste annually (double the plastic waste). States like Punjab and Haryana unfortunately burn enough crop residue every winter to engulf not only themselves but their neighbouring states as well in toxic smog. Despite laws made by the Government to prevent this harmful practise and local people themselves getting affected by this toxicity, crop burning has continued. Lack of awareness of alternatives and myths prevalent around the practice have played a huge role in its continuity. When he started to talk to farmers, Shubham unearthed some of these myths. “Some farmers think that burning the crop gets rid of rodents, insects or fungus present in the soil, which can harm the plant, but what they don’t know is that they’re destroying and burning the entire soil ecosystem”, he explains.

It used to be the only solution for farmers to get rid of their crop residue – burning was free and took very little labour and time. This is exactly why Shubham decided that the best way to establish supply for Craste would be to incentivise the farmers and actually pay them for their crop residue. Not only would that add a source of income for them, it would also eliminate the effort that went into burning the crops and then clearing the debris after.

Interaction with the Farmers to get Raw Material

Shubham explains that initially it was quite difficult to convince farmers to sell their crop stubble to him but eventually realising that they’d get paid for it and not have to bother with the waste at all, they got on board happily. The value of their waste through multiple applications like pellets and briquettes (compressed blocks of combustible material used as fuel) slowly started being visible to them. In the region of Morena in Madhya Pradesh, market demand for briquettes already ensured a steady supply chain of mustard stalks – there were many stockists who’d buy this waste from farmers, store it and sell it further for industrial use.

While a supply chain for rice crop waste already existed in Punjab and Haryana, there was nothing in the region around Morena. Craste wanted to take the first steps to establish it in his region as well. The Craste team had to start from scratch, doing field visits and raising awareness with farmers, making deals with them before their crop was harvested and then arranging logistics.

Fellowship Days and first Prototypes

Shubham is extremely grateful for the support and mentorship he obtained from his incubation and attributes the success of his start-up heavily to that part of his journey. The BIRAC Fellowship provided him with adequate Government grants to make his first prototypes, connected him to excellent mentors who helped him through tough situations, gave him lab space to do all his trials and even a small stipend! It gave him the flexibility and confidence he needed to bring his idea to life. It also provided him with the opportunity to meet farmers, understand the problem, figure out why they were burning the crop residue to begin with, and then come up with a feasible solution. He was able to validate his idea in a small test lab in Pune where he made his first prototypes in 2017. Now, after quite a few years in R&D, Craste has two products – packaging from pulp and paper, and boards made from crop residue.

In an interesting anecdote, Shubham revealed how he made his first board. “Back in 2017, before I incorporated Craste, I made my first board..I mixed straw particles, compressed it and made my first board, and was very happy!” While he even took part in early competitions with it, he soon realised that Fevicol is not a great solution to the problem. He started experimenting with some bio-adhesives to replace Fevicol. Despite all these trials, the first prototypes failed government lab tests. Rather than demotivating him, it gave him the confidence to push himself to keep creating better solutions.

He continued doing extensive market research around a high-value added product that would bring suitable returns to farmers as well as create a financially sustainable business model. In that time, Shubham also met some big furniture makers in the county and received enthusiastic encouragement from them for his product idea. After doing considerable study to understand market demand and size, he concluded that there was a gap both at the source side (crop residue being burned instead of used) and at the market side (no sustainable timber alternatives available). This is what gave him the conviction to motor ahead with Craste.

Drive to make a Sustainable and Healthy Product

Shubham wanted to find a way to make a board that was not only sustainable but also better for health.

All the plywood, MDF and other boards currently used in India contain formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical. There is also no regulation yet around the use of formaldehyde in the country. When used indoors, the chemical can stay in the environment for years. Craste’s boards are proudly formaldehyde-free.

Challenges in the Craste Journey

Shubham admits to his journey being paved with challenges, but he welcomed them, fully aware that only when you come across technical challenges or a gap in the existing research, do you look beyond the obvious and create a novel solution. His first one was realizing that the glue he was using didn’t penetrate the surface of the crop material because of its waxy outer layer, due to which the finished product wasn’t very strong. Despite multiple iterations, his first few boards failed in the tests at Government labs, pushing him to dig deeper and find a better solution. Their second challenge was to find a way to mix the glue uniformly with every straw particle, without which cracks would develop across the board. The Craste team, led by Shubham’s positive outlook, converted this challenge into an opportunity and filed a patent for this problem. They came up with a new blending technology that ensured every straw particle would be coated with glue; leading to strong durable boards (equivalent to the high density boards available in the market today).

Social Context of Craste

Working with waste never bothered Shubham. He was forward thinking enough to recognise the natural wealth available in this waste and saw an opportunity where others saw waste. He realised that the only piece of the puzzle that was missing was technology and that’s where he plugged in his knowledge in chemical engineering to create a solution.

Shubham says that Craste is a win-win-win in his opinion. Not only does it benefit farmers, but is an environmental, social and economic triumph that aligns itself beautifully with Prime Minister Modi’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

With the prices for plywood slated to continue increasing, Craste has been getting a lot of encouragement from the market. Furniture making and architects both know that materials like the ones Craste is making are much needed to eventually replace the plywood being used currently.

While Shubham wasn’t deterred when people asked him why he chose to work with waste, a prestigious invitation by the President of India went a long way in helping him gain recognition in society around him for the work that he was doing.

Current Stage and Team at Craste

A couple of years back, Craste finally scaled up their technology from the lab to the pilot stage, in Morena, where they set up their first unit. This year, in 2025, they’ve set up full scale production of their engineered boards. In 2018, Shubham got his first team on board and got some more grants from the Government to accelerate his research and development. Today they are 17 people strong, with skills primarily in the production and engineering domain; and are still hiring for more business-orientated roles. He is very grateful for having had an amazing team from the start of his journey and together they’ve gotten through many obstacles to reach where they are.

Decentralised Model of Production

Realising that logistics (for raw material and finished product) can be quite expensive, Craste created a model where they would have decentralised factories in areas where they get their supply from and where they can sell to as well. This business strategy also helped offset carbon emissions caused by transportation as well. Currently Craste has two factories in Central India and are actively in touch with stakeholders who can help Craste establish micro-factories in their regions.

The Success Story of Craste so far

In a moment of humble reflection, Shubham says that every challenge that they’ve overcome has been a proud milestone for Craste. Setting up a factory for the first time, moving from a 120 sq ft lab space to a 20,000 sq ft factory and building it piece by piece without any prior experience was a massive learning curve for him and his team.

Not only that, but doing it in a tough region like Morena is also part of their success story. They struggled with basics like electricity (sometimes getting only 4 hrs of electricity per day) and convincing people to come to Morena to work instead of in a big city. “Despite all of those challenges, we have demonstrated that businesses can be built from villages!”, he says in his characteristic simple way.

As for the impact that Craste has made, Shubham says it’s nothing more than “a drop in the ocean” so far but they are not stopping here. “I sleep (peacefully) at night, knowing that I am working on an idea that I have chosen and gives me a lot of satisfaction”. Their vision is to scale up to multiple factories and start franchising both their pulp production as well as their board production. His aim is to have multiple such micro-factories in different geographies to avoid them transporting raw material and finished products across the country.

Support by the Indian Government

Shubham emphasises on the huge amount of support he got from the Indian Government and is very grateful for it. Not only does the Government provide grants, lab space and mentors for someone working in this sector, there are also subsidies available on capex for factory setup. Additionally the Indian Government also gives incentives for an entrepreneur working with crop waste management and making products out of stubble and straw.

Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs

“I would strongly urge young people to come experiment in this space”, he says, because in his experience the Indian Government is extremely supportive of people looking to do something in this sector. If you can show them that you have a unique value proposition in the research domain, they are more than willing to give you the funds to bring your dream to life. Shubham acknowledges that he was fortunate enough to get excellent mentoring and tells young people who want to start their own business, that nothing replaces the experience of joining a good incubator. “It gives you more focused mentoring and structuring on how to take your ideas forward, rather than you figuring out everything yourself”.

We’re looking forward to the future of Craste – highly effective micro-factories processing crop waste in villages, cleaner air, more sustainable products and a self-reliant India! We couldn’t agree more with Shubham – this is most definitely a win all around!

References:

https://www.agronomyjournals.com/archives/2024/vol7issue12S/PartH/S-7-12-80-947.pdf

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