The voyage of a rural startup
Farming is turning out to be a losing proposition. Villages across Karnataka are devoid of youth. They head for cities in search of a livelihood. The tide must be reversed with post-harvest technology which provides new, satisfying and lucrative vocations.
Madhu Basavaraju, from Kargunda village, 15 km from Arsikere, works in a corporate in Bengaluru. But, he always had a rankling disenchantment about the lot of villagers he had lived with, feeling guilty about not responding to the call of his conscience to address the plight of farmers. A deeper study of the farmers’ plight revealed that they do produce farm products, but are not able to turn them into value-added products.
Severe Drought
Severe drought for five consecutive years across the agricultural belt in Karnataka had dried up wells. Water had descended to nearly a thousand feet below the surface. Farmlands were turning unproductive. Coconut trees, a major crop, was on the decline. There were no takers for the little that the farmers were able to harvest, eventually driving youths to taking driver jobs or as security guards. Madhu spent a lot of time to find a means to halt and reverse the trend. Why not source the coconut crop from the surrounding villages, extract oil and supply the natural oil to millions of users who were otherwise going for paraffin-laced branded products? He began visiting his village regularly on weekends since early 2018.
His family owned a five-acre coconut farm in the village. The village also had a cold press unit set up by a group of farmers four years ago to extract virgin coconut oil as they came to know that the market brands had paraffin content. The oil has good demand, but the production capacity remains low as they could source only 40 to 50 coconuts a day. Since farmers were not acquainted with modern and updated production techniques, they were unable to source the coconuts from the surrounding villages. Hence, found it difficult to sustain their livelihood.
Madhu, being aware of the situation, takes the venture to a new level. He did a crop mapping of the surrounding villages and started collecting coconuts. He uses the cold press facility set up by the farmers and pays them for the service rendered. Later, he branded his own extract as ‘Tengin’ and began to market it. The cold press facility of the farmers came handy for the purpose. While working in Bengaluru, he goes to his village on the weekends to bring the oil bottles to be marketed to his intimates in Bengaluru. His father manages the enterprise during weekdays. Approvals from the recipients provided an incipient clientele, and it did not take much time for Madhu to decide a whole-hog plunge into the business that synchronised with his passion.
Soon, the virgin coconut oil, under the ‘Tengin’ brand, came to be promoted through rural markets and at Ragi Kana, a cultural hub that hosts rural products every Sunday in a Kannada-medium school on Bannerghatta Road. The platform immensely helped Madhu to connect with urban consumers and put him in touch with several like-minded individuals.
According to Madhu, his unit crushes 300 coconuts every day, yielding up to 18 to 20 kg of coconut oil. The residue is served as a fodder to feed the cattle. The oil is sold at Rs 695 a kilogram and is distributed through a limited number of organic outlets.
Sap to sugar
Next, he set his eyes on Neera, the sap from the coconut trees which turns into an intoxicating drink when fermenting under sunlight. But, he was keen to convert it into sugar as it contained a low glycemic index. Embarking on this experiment three months ago by tapping the sap and boiling it on low heat, he was able to produce brown sugar, which has a good clientele among the health-conscious folk. Though experiments are underway and plans have been made to market the product under the same label of ‘Tengin,’ he is waiting for an endorsement and a license for turning Neera into sugar. If the enterprise finds an approval, then a 200-gram packet of coconut sugar would be sold at Rs 160.
Madhu is concerned about the cityward exodus of youth and fears that if the trend continues, there would be food insecurity eventually leading farmers on the brink of fear and chaos. He feels the need if the authorities could take a serious look into the crisis, it could save farmlands and dissuading youth from opting for farming as a means of livelihood.
Madhu can be contacted at 9740330316.
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