Home maker to Nutrition Entrepreneur

Manjula was happily settled as a homemaker to look after her family. Her life took a huge turn when her daughter Suhana fell sick very badly. The child had to be admitted to hospital because of vomiting blood. Even with medication Suhana’s health deteriorated day by day. The doctor advised Manjula to try traditional home remedies Ragi Ganji (Finger Millet Powder gruel) to improve her condition. With her SHG network and local knowledge in millets and medicinal herbs, she prepared a Millet mix powder with ragi millet and other local ingredients. Manjula gave it to her child for a week and slowly she saw Suhana’s improvement. Not only did the millet mix stop the child’s vomiting, but it also made her stronger. Doctor was amazed with Suhana’s recovery as it was faster than they anticipated. Her millet mix gave good results. This incident was an eye opener for Manjula. She realized that her millet mix had a market opportunity and decided to become a producer cum seller of it.

Being an SHG member proved to be of immense help to her as the SHG provided her support in many ways. She got training on entrepreneurship and marketing skills through Sanjeevini Officials. Along with her saving of Rs. 5000, she took a loan of Rs. 15000 from her SHG as the initial investment. She became the entrepreneur of “Arki” Home Made product – a traditionally produced health mix. She followed traditional cooking style wherein the millets are dried in sunlight and cooked in wooden stove. According to Manjula, the wooden stove enhanced the taste of the powder.

Her fellow SHG members and friends were her first customers. After their first purchase, they were quiet happy with the millet mix and stared buying regularly from her. Slowly the villagers came to know about the health benefits and soon her product was is high demand. She followed a demand oriented marketing method as she took orders first and then freshly made the Millet mix. This helped her in cutting the marketing cost. The per unit cost of preparing the Millet mix is around Rs. 130 to Rs. 150 and she sold the product at Rs. 250 per unit. Gradually, along with Millet mix she also made other items such as sambar powder, chilli powder and so on. Now Manjula is earning around Rs. 30,000 per month and her investment has risen to Rs. 3 to 4 lakhs Rupees.

Even though she had no prior experience in selling, she was able to go ahead improving her product because of her training and valuable feedback from her customers. It was through this feedback that she understood that her millet mix is helping sugar patients in keeping their sugar levels under control. Mr. Sundreshan, a fellow villager and Manjula’s customer says the Millet mix keeps him energized even though he is diabetic.

The Home Made products with brand name “Arki” was listed as one of the top quality products in Government E- Marketing place (GEM). Through Sanjeevini – KSRLPS, she participated in SARASMELA held in Calcutta during November 2019, where she got good sales for her product and also, the top officials of Bangladesh who visited the event were very impressed by her product and praised her. At present, the Covid – 19 pandemic is limiting her market supply in comparison with demand for her products. But Manjula is absolutely positive that her business would prosper again once things become normal after the Covid restrictions are eased.

Source : Inspirational Stories of Aatmanirbhar Rural Women