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Hit by Covid downturn, ex-MR makes desi vinegar a sweet proposition
This 32-yr-old Kaushambi man returned to his family business, injecting fresh know-how into it, drawing the attention of NABARD while also attracting fellow farmers to join the effort
‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’ is a proverb that fits well on Rajkishore Singh, a small-time farmer-turned-entrepreneur of Mohammadpur Anetha village of Sirathu development block of Kaushambi district.
During this pandemic-hit time, when many established firms are struggling to keep themselves afloat , Rajkishore, 32, is gearing up to expand his family’s vinegar business in a big way from his village located 20km from the Kaushambi district headquarters.
Rajkishore worked as medical representative for a pharmaceutical firm till the world got hit by Covid-19. “Overnight I found myself without a job and struggling to even support my wife Renu, 27 and son, Abhi, 4,” he said.
Luckily, his family owned three bighas (80,732 sq ft) land in his village, where his father grew sugarcane and made vinegar from its juice.
“My father, Raj Khema, 56, had been making vinegar for the last 15 years, by the traditional method using the juice of our home-grown sugarcane and in which I often helped. He used to sell excess vinegar to ‘thelawalas’ at a cost of ₹40 to ₹50 per litre while using the rest for home use,” Rajkishore said.
In this time of need, Rajkishore returned to his family business.
“I decided to organise and expand this business. I started procuring sugarcane from Fatehpur villages like Dhata, Sonari and Pauli at a cost of ₹400 to ₹500 per quintal and started preparing vinegar in the traditional style, using my father’s recipe, but at a larger scale, using earthen pots and selling it to a few neighbouring districts like Kaushambi and Pratapgarh,” he added.
His efforts paid off and soon, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) took note of this small family business and offered to support it. This saw Rajkishore joining hands with other few fellow villagers, also financially hit by the pandemic, like Shiv Ashish (40), Vijay Bahadur (52), Ajit Singh (31) and Uday Narayan (63) resulting in the birth of Anetha Farmers Producer Company Ltd, a Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO), befittingly named after their village.
Soon, more farmers joined in and their count rose to over 300—all having a share in the FPO.
In place of 10-12 quintals of sugarcane that Rajkishore and his father used for making the vinegar, they are now using 350 quintals of sugarcane for making their tasty and healthy vinegar using the money pooled in by ‘partner’ villagers.
“Despite the present challenges of a sluggish economy, courtesy Covid-19, I sent many samples to different states last year and got a decent number of orders. Now, I am supplying the vinegar not just across UP but even to states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal with NABARD support,” he added.
Rajkishore, who is now also planning to improve the filtration process of his family’s vinegar-making technique to cut down on the wastage, said that he is confident that his efforts will not only benefit him and his father but also the villagers, making the name of his village known all across India for quality desi vinegar.
