In this, the 102nd episode of our award-winning series, MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast, I am delighted to bring you a conversation with the Founder and CEO of the excellent Akshayakalpa Organic, Shashi Kumar, who is a soft-spoken but tough-as-nails and equally solidly committed visionary-extraordinaire who has made it his life’s mission to help prepare both farmers for economic empowerment and society with healthy food habits through the consumption of organic dairy and other products. The outstanding Akshayakalpa Organic today works closely with and helps more than 1200 farmers and delighted customers of organic dairy and other products across three states in India.
I caught up with Shashi at the verdant Akshayakalpa Organic farm in Tiptur, 150 kilometers from Bengaluru, and came away utterly impressed with Shashi’s focus and strategic vision and his meticulous execution thereof.
Shashi tells me he was born into a farming family and worked with Dr. GNS Reddy at Technology Days. They ran a program called Yuva Chetana, where technology industry professionals would give money to select farmers to become entrepreneurs. This program was part of the vPro program for close to 17 years. The idea was to turn farmers into entrepreneurs, rather than relying on NGO intervention.
Akshayakalpa Organic aims to change the way farming is done in the country by getting youngsters into farming and proving that there is money to be made in farming, and Shashi discusses his mission to prepare farmers for economic empowerment, and society with healthy food habits through the consumption of organic dairy and other products. Akshayakalpa Organic works closely with over 1200 farmers across three states in India and is working on expanding their market operations in Chennai and Hyderabad.
The organic dairy industry in India is at a nascent stage, but Akshayakalpa, the largest organic dairy player in the country, produces around 90,000 liters of milk daily, sourced from 1,200 farmers. The organization has diversified its ecosystem by identifying farmers, grooming them, and integrating farming practices such as trenching, bunding, hedging, tree integration, dairy integration, backyard poultry integration, and the cultivation of bananas and other fruits and vegetables.
Shashi tells me Akshayakalpa focuses on two key aspects: enabling regular cash flow to farmers and creating a sustainable farming ecosystem. They have been teaching farmers how to make quality manure at a scale for the last 13 years, which has enabled them to intervene at the farm side and improve their cash flow.
Akshayakalpa Organic operates in three states and is the Number One organic dairy products house in India with an INR 300 Crore share of the total INR 500 Cr that the small sub-sector of Organic Dairy and Milk products has. While Shashi is keen on growing the footprint of Akshayakalpa’s goodness for farmers and Society, he wants to remain consciously in sync with the effort and time it will take to transition from conventional farms to organic ones and the high carbon footprint of the farming ecosystem. He is convinced that without helping farmers create the ecosystem literally in their own backyards, their farms, he will not make a move to add another city or geography to the Akshayakalpa footprint.
Shashi is very clear about maintaining Akshayakalpa’s strategic approach to marketing, which is about encouraging potential consumers to visit their farms and farmers and educating educate the visitors about good food, cow care, and organic practices. This approach allows Akshayakalpa to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction and loyalty and sees it convert large proportions of those who visit the facilities for the first time into regular subscribers to their products. The company also responsibly focuses on educating and encouraging customers to return the packaging empties for recycling, which sits well with values-driven consumers – read ‘most everyone today.
Shashi also discusses his marketing strategies and the importance of using digital platforms like WhatsApp for communication with target groups. He focuses on attracting consumers to visit farmers and ensuring responsible recycling of milk packets. The company also spends money on educating customers through small videos created in-house by an in-house team.
On the subject of helping India transition to organic milk production, Shashi acknowledges that the government is truly responsive, and he believes that centralizing efforts will empower farmers and create good enterprise for the people.
Shashi flails what he calls ‘the Ai-A2 nonsense!’ in no uncertain terms, for being a marketing gimmick with no science behind its implied claims, arguing that there is no scientific difference in nutritional value between milk produced with A1 protein and milk produced with A2 protein.
So, here are inspiring insights from Shashi Kumar, the visionary who loves farmers and cows and has remained steadfast in his mission to empower farming and to help them provide people with organic milk and dairy products for healthier lives. The man is driven by the importance of integrity over intelligence in hiring — weeding smokers and alcohol drinkers from his hiring because most evils in rural countrysides stem after the ingestion of liquour — and remains always completely committed to quality, transparency, and a positive impact on people and the planet.
