Banker Farmer and Milky Mushroom

Dear Reader,

Have you ever played hide and seek during your childhood? With a cloth tied around the eyes, it’s difficult for the denner to touch the other players, who tease and misguide him/her in the opposite direction. 

For those who are visually impaired, life is a continuous challenge like it is for the denner for a few minutes. The courageous ones overcome the difficulties and set an example for others, like Jasmine from Thoduppuzha in Kerala. My colleague Chandhini wrote the story of this successful woman entrepreneur who cannot see at all.

Jasmine lost her eyesight over a period of ten years due to a nerve disorder. Before completely losing her vision, she began doing daily chores with closed eyes. She has set up Appoos Food, which makes traditional Kerala neyyappams (rice-based sweet fritters). 

With a monthly production of 1500kg, she now clocks around Rs4 lakh turnover through bulk orders and sales to retailers. The figure goes up to Rs14 lakh a month during the festive seasons. Jasmine can inspect the size and quality of sweets with her touch and employs 12 women. If there’s one story you can spare time to read today, this should be it! 

Our other interesting piece last week was on Ajay Gopinath’s microgreens venture, Grow Greens, written by my colleague Rama. Ajay, a banker with Citigroup, quit his job in 2020 to grow microgreens in a 64 sq ft room in his house in Kochi. 

He earns Rs5 lakh monthly from sales to gyms, hospitals, hotels, and retail buyers and by training farmers across India to set up indoor farming units. Space is no constraint for urban farmers today. All they need is innovative thinking, tech knowledge and market awareness. 

Last week, I spoke to Jayachand Thota, a mushroom grower from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. After two failed attempts, he got lucky with milky mushroom cultivation in a shed near his house.

He started with an investment of Rs2,000 and now harvests 70 to 100 kg of mushrooms daily, selling them at around Rs300 per kg. He earns Rs25,000 daily and has trained thousands of people in mushroom farming in India, South Africa, and Dubai.

Our Sunday story is about Longwa, the village where every resident is a citizen of India and Myanmar. They vote in elections in both countries!

Happy Reading!

Warmly,
Rashmi