ArupBytes

Kaushalendra, a 27 year old Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad graduate from Ekangarsarai in Nalanda District of Bihar State in India, is nurturing a co-operative of vegetable farmers that we all should be proud of.

The young man, out of India’s premier management institute could have opted for the best of placements in top corporates and MNCs, but he chose something that would benefit a larger number of people rather than an individual. He founded a farmers’ co-operative type initiative christened as Samriddhi (prosperity), being managed through his for profit organization, KNIDS Green Private Limited, which sells vegetables in temperature controlled pushcarts on the streets of Patna, the Capital of Bihar. Samriddhi aims to propogate organic farming and use its marketing expertise to reach out to the markets.

A private-public partnership venture, Samriddhi was launched with just one push-cart a few months back, with help coming from Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA). Today, it has around 50 push-carts and plans to get into newer markets. Help has also come through a collateral free loan of US$ 100000 from India’s leading public sector financial institution, the Punjab National Bank. Kaushalendra has plans to take the Samriddhi brand to the US, Europe and Japan. Friends of Women World Banking (FWWB) too pitched in with soft loans.

ATMA a government body, is training the several hundred farmers that are associated with Samriddhi, in matters relating to high-yield seeds and crop protection.

The unique supply chain is all about reaching out directly to the consumers with the rightly priced and weighed, high quality garden fresh vegetables, while creating a bright future for the villagers. The tags attached with the produce also informs the consumer about its origin, like the name of the farmer and the village it has come from. That is a nice way of recognising the effort put by these deserving people.

Samriddhi’s mission is to make Bihar as the vegetable hub of India. With someone like Kaushalendra at the helm of affairs, it doesn’t seem to be too difficult.

But for a temporary blip, from ancient times Bihar had shown the path of enlightenment to the people of India. Kaushalendra continues with that legacy.