Moringa, Milk and Hyacinth

Dear Reader,

When we set out on a journey, we do not know what we will return home with - ideas, inspiration, memories, or more. Journeys are inspiring, and I am a strong advocate of travel even if it is to a nearby hill station or beach. These breaks flood our minds with new ideas, which we rarely get time for amid the humdrum of routine life. 

A rafting expedition, Mission Gange, also changed Gaurav Anand’s life. He saw the invasive water weed hyacinth, which blocks the oxygen supply for aquatic life, killing plants and animals and making flood control difficult. 

An engineer with the Tata Group for 17 years, Gaurav quit his job to set up the Swachhatapukare Foundation in Jamshedpur in 2019. And can you guess what he is doing with hyacinths now? Turning that water weed into beautiful handloom fusion saris and utility items and selling them in India and abroad. 

He told my colleague Aruna that the foundation works with tribal women to make the products, providing them with a stable income and saving the environment. The turnover from hyacinth products was Rs1.2 crore last fiscal.
 
My colleague Niroj also wrote about an engineer who quit his job to set up a dairy in Odisha’s Ganjam district. When Surendra Nath quit Exide and started his dairy business, he collected milk from two farmers, washed the bottles and delivered the milk to customers all by himself.

His monthly profit was just Rs5,000 for the first 1.5 years. Today, Vaisali Dairy empowers 250 farmers with fair rates and clocked a Rs 4 crore turnover last fiscal. How? Niroj has detailed it in the story.

I spoke to Kiran and Pardeep Mann last week. The husband-wife duo grew moringa over half an acre as an experiment in Sonipat, Haryana, in 2021 (during Covid). Their organic moringa powder sold out in four days. 

They quickly expanded to three acres. The couple has developed a low-cost method that results in a per-acre income of Rs 8 lakh and a profit of Rs 7 lakh. They turn fresh leaves into moringa powder, which is in high demand in India and overseas. 

The journey for women artisans, custodians of India’s traditional arts and crafts, has never been easy due to exploitation by middlemen. This led to the decline of crafts, making some of them endangered. My colleague Anu has put together a piece on five women entrepreneurs who are reviving these crafts, keeping legacies alive, and helping women artisans. Do look it up!

Happy Reading!

Warmly,
Rashmi