8/18/2017 Akshayakalpa Farms – how IT professionals are turning into farm-based entrepreneurs in Karnataka’s Tiptur

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FOOD AND AGRICULTURE (/CATEGORY/FOOD-AND-AGRICULTURE) 5-min read

Akshayakalpa Farms – how IT professionals are turning into

farm-based entrepreneurs in Karnataka’s Tiptur
(/author/shweta-vitta) SHWETA VITTA 16 FEBRUARY 2016 15 shares

Around 150 km from India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore, several IT professionals are
returning to their roots – the farms where they spent a significant amount of their
childhood, wanting to escape to the cities. As farm-based entrepreneurs, they are
successfully managing organic, sustainable, rural dairy farms – each of which gives
them an earning of Rs 40, 000 – Rs 1, 00, 000 each month! An innovation by
veterinary expert Dr. GNS Reddy, Akshayakalpa Farms and Foods Ltd. is one of
India’s first private initiatives that incubates rural entrepreneurship by
radically redefining dairy processes. The benefits include providing high-quality
and nutritious milk to the end beneficiaries, boosting economic benefits for
farmers, bringing technology that is bridging the urban-rural divide, and helping
reverse urban migration.

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The story behind Akshayakalpa Farms

Cows at an Akshayakalpa farm

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Deeply inspired after a lecture by Dr. Manibhai Desai, a Gandhian who pioneered
rural development in India and founded Bharatiya Agro-Industries Foundation
(BAIF), Dr. Reddy decided to work with Dr. Desai in BAIF – a stint that lasted nearly
two decades and led to significant innovations in the areas of forestry, irrigation,
and watershed management.

When Dr. Reddy couldn’t incubate the Akshayakalpa model within BAIF owing to
certain constraints, he decided to turn in to an entrepreneur. In 2010, he founded
Akshayakalpa farms with an upfront investment of Rs 25 crore in Karnataka’s Tiptur
district to realise his dream “to create wealth in villages, to empower the
disempowered.”

Dr. GNS Reddy says,

A paan-wallah, who sets up his shop in a 3×3 space, earns more

monthly than a farmer who owns a 3 acre farm, growing
coconuts. This needs to change.

Current status of India’s dairy market

The good news is that India’s organised dairy sector has been growing at 22 per
cent annually for the last five fiscals i.e., 2011-15 and is expected to rise to as much
as 25 per cent by FY 2017-18 from the recent 19 per cent in FY 2014-15 (CRISIL
Report). But the bad news is that as much as 70 per cent of the milk sold in the
market is adulterated and unfit for consumption (National Survey of Milk
Adulteration 2011). As Dr. Reddy rightfully questions,

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Where is the value for the money a customer has spent if even
before the milk reaches them, most of its nutritional content is
lost?

He credits this to the incorrect focus in the dairy system, to the quantity vs quality
debate, which often overlooks the health of the cows – a prime factor in
producing good quality milk. For instance, by tying cows in congested areas and
limiting their freedom to graze on the fields, by feeding them artificial factory-
made fodder such as groundnut cakes, by injecting steroids and artificial hormones
– the milk productivity definitely increases, but every harmful chemical makes its
way in to the glass of milk finally consumed.

But isn’t pasteurising the milk a way to ensure this doesn’t happen? Dr. Reddy says,
“Milk is pasteurised because most farmers cannot afford to have in-house chilling
units. But the process destroys many vital elements such as vitamin A, B6 and B12,
calcium and iodine.”

“The milk is more or less dead.” And this is where Akshayakalpa farms step in as a
welcome change.

The model and the differentiator

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From milking the cow to chilling it, Akshayakalpa’s ‘udder to cap’ technology eliminates human
touch, minimizing the risk of diseases.

An initial investment of approximately Rs 20-25 lakhs is required to set up a full-

fledged Akshayakalpa farm, which would comprise 20 – 25 cows, an advanced
cowshed, an automated milking system, fodder chopper and chilling unit, bio-gas
plant and generator. The entire farm is completely automated. Apart from this, a
key differentiator is that the company places greater emphasis on the cows’ health.

Dr. Reddy says, “All cows are stress-free and have the freedom to graze whenever
they like. Their sheds are cleaned regularly – limiting the risk of diseases and every
single cow is monitored electronically for its health and overall milk production
regularly.”

As for the cows’ nutrition, he says, “A mix of organic fodder; monocots (maize, ragi
and local jowar) and dicots (cow pea and velvet beans) along with tree fodder
(moringa), all of which are grown organically by the farmers themselves, are fed to
the cows.”

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Organic farms grown and maintained by the farmers

In the ‘udder to cap’ automated technology, right from milking the cow to chilling
it, everything is done through machines without the touch of a human hand,
eliminating the need for pasteurisation completely. As a move towards
sustainability, cow dung and urine are diverted to the biogas plant, which
effectively produces enough methane gas that can operate the entire technology
in the farm for eight hours every day, largely reducing the dependency on the
state’s power grid, which is often a challenge in the rural areas.

How are the processes bene ting?

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Akshayakalpa milk packets available in select organic stores

The processes are benefiting in many ways for all stakeholders –

The farmers are typically earning anywhere between Rs 40, 000 – Rs 1, 00, 000,
depending on the scale of their farms. This salary is at par with a person living and
working in a city.

The cows are healthy and happy, which has resulted in increasing the national
average of milk production from 2.5 litres per cow per day to 10 litres per cow per
day.

The glass of milk that the consumer drinks everyday contains over 60 digestive
enzymes and immunoglobins, amino acids and proteins – all vital for the body’s
overall functioning and development, in addition to being completely digestible.
Apart from this Akshayakalpa also produces a wide range of milk products such
as paneer, curd, ghee and butter.

Where next?
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8/18/2017
Where next?
Akshayakalpa Farms – how IT professionals are turning into farm-based entrepreneurs in Karnataka’s Tiptur

With the current level of success and acceptance, Dr. Reddy feels like he is “living a
dream”. And why not? He started with the firm belief that

farmers are capable of contributing to the growth of the

economy like anyone else.

And that belief led to the establishment of 110 farms, which cumulatively
produce 7, 000 litres of milk, every day!

In the next six months, Dr. Reddy wants to scale up to 200 farms and 30, 000 litres
of milk. His bold idea has attracted investments from TATA Capital and a few
nationalised banks are also responding. More importantly, he has gathered a
carefully selected group of 10 ex-IT people who want to venture in to rural farming
by giving interest-free loans as well as working closely with the farmers to
accelerate their outputs. This, Dr. Reddy says is his next step, a move to “bridge the
urban-rural divide.”

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RESPONSES

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8/18/2017 Akshayakalpa Farms – how IT professionals are turning into farm-based entrepreneurs in Karnataka’s Tiptur

3 Comments Sort by Oldest

Add a comment...

Zuber Zubi · Civil Engineer at New Consolidated Construction Co. Ltd

I have land 4.5 acars..i can plan start organic dairy foram. Can u suggest..
Like · Reply · Aug 1, 2017 4:50pm

Zuber Zubi · Civil Engineer at New Consolidated Construction Co. Ltd

Chikkanayakana Halli Tumkur dist.
Like · Reply · Aug 1, 2017 4:51pm

Zuber Zubi · Civil Engineer at New Consolidated Construction Co. Ltd

I Read your story in Hindu news paper..
Like · Reply · Aug 1, 2017 4:53pm

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RELATED TOPICS

AKSHAYAKALPA (/tag/akshayakalpa) DAIRY FARMING (/tag/dairy-farming) GNS REDDY (/tag/gns-reddy)

ORGANIC FARMING (/tag/organic-farming) ORGANIC MILK (/tag/organic-milk)

TECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPMENT (/tag/technology-for-development)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shweta is passionate about social innovation and entrepreneurship.

At SocialStory, she is out to explore the impact these have on the
country’s development.

(https://twitter.com/shwetavitta)

SHWETA VITTA
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8/18/2017 Akshayakalpa Farms – how IT professionals are turning into farm-based entrepreneurs in Karnataka’s Tiptur
SHWETA VITTA

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