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Turning Crop waste into Agribiopanels to replace the traditional wooden panels - The story of Strawcture
By Ketul
Updated 08 Sep, 2024
10 min read
Contents
In India, more than 500 million tonnes of agricultural residue is generated every year, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Nearly 20 million tonnes of this biomass is openly burned, a practice that contributes up to 40% of winter-time air pollution in North India, as reported by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). At the same time, the country’s construction sector consumes massive volumes of plywood, MDF, and other engineered boards—many of them built on formaldehyde-based resins that release harmful VOCs indoors, a problem highlighted by the World Health Organization.
This is the backdrop against which Shriti, a civil engineer from India and founder of Strawcture Eco, began her journey. Her company transforms crop residue such as rice straw, wheat straw and other fibrous biomass into high-density engineered boards used for furniture, drywalls, acoustic panels, ceilings and interior applications. Her story is not only one of invention, but of patience, first-principles thinking, and the courage to build a new materials category from scratch.
This is her journey — in her own words and through the lived realities of India’s rural and construction ecosystems.
A Problem First Witnessed in Smoke
Shriti’s first encounter with stubble burning wasn’t in a textbook or a news article. It was in 2016–17, when she was living in a village in Madhya Pradesh as part of a rural fellowship. Every harvest season, the fields around her turned into patches of smoke. “Farmers would clear off the lands and burn the agriculture stalk that is left on the ground,” she recalls. “It was biomass being cleared simply to prepare for the next crop.”
What stayed with her, however, was not the act itself — it was the logic behind it. She spent months speaking to small and medium farmers across different states. The answers were consistent:
• Crop residue is voluminous, and farmers have no space to store it.
• The by-product has little to no market value.
• Clearing fields by hand is labour-intensive and expensive.
• Burning is the only economically practical method.
The problem, she learned, wasn’t merely environmental; it was deeply structural. India produces over 100 million tonnes of paddy straw annually, much of which farmers cannot manage due to lack of storage, collection incentives, or market linkages, as noted by the NITI Aayog. And unlike Europe, where burning has been banned for decades, India lacked the supporting ecosystem to convert this biomass into value.
“It is not limited to one crop or one region,” she says. “Wheat, paddy, soy, coconut, banana — every part of India burns something.”
Sitting With the Problem — Before Trying to Solve It
Most entrepreneurs begin with a solution in mind; Shriti began with a question:
Why hasn’t this been solved yet?
Instead of rushing to build something, she spent nearly a year understanding the deeper economics of agricultural residues. It became clear that technology was not the bottleneck. Across the world, biomass was already being used to create biofuels, pellets, biochar, insulation materials and fibre composites. Europe had built straw-based homes. The UK had experimented with wheat-straw boards. The U.S. had research labs creating biomaterials from corn husk and hemp.
But in India, despite the scale of the problem, none of these materials had transitioned into mainstream products.
“What is missing is not the idea,” she realised. “It is the ability to execute an idea at scale.”
A Serendipitous Connection in Eastern Europe
During her research, Shriti discovered a small company in Eastern Europe using wheat straw to make building panels. She sent a cold email — something most young engineers do instinctively — and waited. After a month, they replied.
What followed was a rare moment of global generosity: the founders invited her to visit, learn their process, and shadow them.
“They said it wasn’t patented, and they were happy to share,” she says. “They had learned it from someone in the UK, so they believed others should learn from them.”
Shriti spent weeks in Europe studying:
• how they sourced straw,
• how they processed it,
• how they worked with farmers,
• how their boards performed in buildings that had stood for 10–15 years.
It gave her the confidence that if this was possible with wheat straw in a cold European climate, it could be adapted — even improved — for India’s more diverse biomass and climatic conditions.
Returning to India to Build Something of Her Own
In 2018, Shriti registered Strawcture Eco with one clear intention:
Not to reinvent the wheel, but to adapt global learnings to the Indian context.
Europe’s model wouldn’t work in India. Here, the supply chain was non-existent, farmers were fragmented, and humidity varied widely. India’s construction behaviours were different too — “Indians knock on the wall to judge if a structure is strong,” she laughs. Drywall systems were perceived as weak simply because they sounded hollow.
So the product had to be engineered differently:
• Higher density for a more solid feel.
• Better moisture resistance for tropical climates.
• Adhesion and load-bearing capacity customised to Indian building codes.
• Different binder ratios for durability across weather zones.
With manufacturing partners, researchers and small labs across India, Shriti spent 6–9 months refining the prototype. The result was an 8×4 ft panel made using 96% agricultural straw, compressed at densities close to premium plywood.
Convincing Manufacturers and the Market
The unexpected part was that manufacturers didn’t dismiss her. “They said if we can press wood fibre, we can press straw,” she recalls. What was missing was the market. Shriti realised her role wasn’t just to build a product — it was to build the category.
“Why would a manufacturer make something that nobody is asking for?” she notes. Her job was to create demand from:
• CSR organisations building rural infrastructure,
• architects experimenting with sustainable interiors,
• schools, clinics and community spaces needing durable boards.
This alignment worked. India’s CSR ecosystem spends over ₹25,000 crore annually, much of it on education and healthcare infrastructure, according to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Strawcture Eco’s boards offered a way to combine infrastructure + environmental impact without significant cost differences.
Building with Patience, Not Haste
Between 2018 and 2020, Shriti worked alone — supported occasionally by carpenters — navigating compliance, labs, certifications, and field pilots. Her paid-up capital came entirely from 10 women in her family, each contributing ₹50,000.
In 2022, after achieving ₹1 crore in revenue solely through product merit, she raised her first external investment. The capital was used not for product fit — which she insisted must be proven without money — but for building a team, expanding production partnerships and developing new use-cases.
Then came her biggest strategic decision:
She voluntarily slowed down.
After two years of rapid growth post-fundraise, Shriti realised the model wasn’t sustainably scalable. The company pivoted — revenue dropped to 25% of the previous year, and she rebuilt the entire team.
“It was hard to watch the numbers go down,” she admits. “But it was necessary to build something that doesn’t break when capital stops.”
Today, Strawcture Eco has strong pricing discipline, a clear product roadmap, and the ability to create new material grades within 30–60 days for different markets, including Europe.
Innovation as a Constant Discipline
A key differentiator for the company is its commitment to continuous R&D. Grants and awards fund much of this work. One team member, Manu, focuses entirely on experimentation — “he’s the nerd who always thinks of new things,” she smiles.
This culture has enabled Strawcture Eco to imagine a future beyond panels — a portfolio of global biomaterials built from region-specific crop residues.
Research from the FAO shows that every region in the world grows at least one biomass crop that can be turned into building material: rice in Asia, wheat in Europe, barley in Australia, corn in the U.S., palm waste in Southeast Asia. Shriti hopes Strawcture Eco will help stitch this global map into a bio-based construction ecosystem.
What Happens at End-of-Life?
Strawcture Eco panels have a second life — or even a third. Because 95–96% of the material is agricultural straw, they can be:
• dismantled and recycled into new boards,
• industrial-composted by breaking binder bonds,
• or converted into bio-oil via pyrolysis.
Even in the worst-case scenario, if they end up as debris, they do not leach toxins into soil or emit harmful gases — a stark contrast to MDF, which releases formaldehyde, and PVC boards, which release chlorine compounds.
Advice to Eco-Entrepreneurs
Shriti’s advice to young founders is simple, but powerful:
“Don’t build to raise. Don’t build to exit. Build to last.”
She emphasises patience. Impact businesses, unlike traditional startups, must behave differently. They must build deep foundations before building fast. “Eco-entrepreneurs are building for communities and the planet,” she says. “If the fundamentals are strong, the capital and success will follow.”
Her final line is a philosophy she carries everywhere:
“Waste is only a waste if you waste it.
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