In 2021, Bimal Lakra founded Gangpur Ventures in Rourkela, Odisha to create livelihood opportunities for tribal communities by addressing the acute shortage of fodder in the dairy farming industry. The company’s business model addresses this critical need in the region and also, has the potential to scale to other low income states such as Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Gangpur Ventures produces and provides fodder to 13 commercial dairy farms by organizing 87 tribal farmers into ‘Producer Groups’ to cultivate the maize crop, which is then purchased by Gangpur Ventures on pre-agreed terms. This way, the farms are assured of year-round availability of fresh stock for their customers as well as better livelihoods for the tribal farmers.

Bimal Lakra is a social development professional with over 12 years of experience in the field of grassroots development, and has extensively worked with rural and backward communities for their socio-economic progress. We spoke with Bimal to learn more about his vision and goals for Gangpur Ventures. Read the Q&A below for more about his entrepreneurial journey!

Q. What inspired you to start your business?

A passion for making agriculture profitable for the rural communities was my biggest inspiration. I hail from the tribal hinterland of Odisha—Sundargarh district, which is rich in agricultural and forest resources. However, due to the lack of options and opportunities for these communities, agriculture has eventually turned non-remunerative, and people have almost become disinterested in this occupation. 

My mission is to restore their faith in the immense potential of agriculture by commercializing the value chain.

Q. What is the core problem you’re looking to solve?

The vision is to feed every livestock in eastern India with nutritious and affordable fodder by bridging the fodder deficit of our country.

The large-scale problem I am trying to solve is the fodder crisis in our country. This is due to lesser area under fodder cultivation, dependence on the seasonal fodder like grasses, lack of awareness among livestock rearers, and their adoption of other feed and fodder alternatives that are high in cost, but low in efficiency. 

Our product provides respite to the livestock rearing units from the vagaries of these issues. Our product is perennially available at an affordable price and provides much better results in terms of animal efficiency as compared to the results of other fodder alternatives.

Q. What did you do before you became an entrepreneur? What made you pivot? How has that experience affected your approach to this work?

I worked with a regional level not-for-profit for a continuous period of 13 years in various capacities at the senior and top-level management. During this stint, I was able to gain a deep understanding of developmental challenges and impediments at the grassroot level, especially for the marginalized tribal communities.

My profession also provided me with opportunities to gain exposure to the national and international forums of the development sector. Imbibed with both these experiences, I decided to start my own social enterprise in 2021 with an aim to leverage the locally available resources and build a socio-commercial approach of enterprising based on the principles of collectivism.

Q. Have you faced any unique challenges being an entrepreneur? Can you speak about some of these challenges? And how did you deal with them?

The greatest challenge I faced, being a tribal, was access to finance for my enterprise. I belong to a scheduled district and owing to the restrictive tribal land laws, any immovable assets belonging to a tribal person cannot be accepted by a bank as collateral. The banks were also reluctant to take exposure to the agri- sector with unsecured loans with a new company. Also, borrowing from friends and relatives was not very easy. 

The only option was to bootstrap my startup but I had limited resources. However, I operationalised my enterprise and started interacting with my suppliers (the farmers) and the customers (the dairy farms) to offer credit & advances respectively. Winning the trust of my suppliers and customers was the key to my inception days which helped me immensely to keep up the show even if we underwent stressed cash flows. As we picked up and achieved some numbers, it became possible to approach a few banks and avail unsecured loans.

Q. Why did you decide to formulate a business model with such a strong emphasis on social impact?

Not more than two decades ago, the region I belong to was one of the most backward districts of Odisha. I was fortunate to get chances for education and professional exposure. I felt it was a calling to give back to my own community; therefore, I decided to start something of my own which should have a good social impact. 

I was also concerned about the rural economic scenario of this district, where people were forced to migrate due to the adversities of unemployment. They had almost given up hope on agriculture. I decided to contribute in my own way to the betterment of this situation.

Q. What role do you think your business plays in the lives of those you employ or impact?

Our business goes a long way in ensuring year-round employment and engagement in income generation activities for the local populace. 

The farmers working with us presently are migrant laborers. But after becoming our partners and benefitting from the cultivation of maize, they have decided to stay back in the village and earn locally through these types of programs. Earlier the farmers practiced monocropping but with our intervention, the same farmers are taking up cultivation of maize to even 3 crop cycles a year! Through this, there are many other villagers who get employment all throughout the year as farm workers.

Q.What has been your biggest personal take-away in your entrepreneurial journey so far?

The one thing I learnt through my entrepreneurial journey was that one needs to be courageous and willing enough to deal with anything that comes in your way and not have this preference to see the outcomes as you initially planned. There should be a never-give-up attitude that keeps you going, even when the going gets tough.

Q. How did you find out about the Dignified Jobs Accelerator? What made you apply?

I found out about the Dignified Jobs Accelerator while searching for social impact investors. The thing I liked about this program the most was the importance of impact on the community which is similar to my intent.

Another thing I liked about the accelerator program was the six months long module that would help my company position itself properly as an impact business.

Q. What is a piece of advice you’d like to give other aspiring entrepreneurs?

If you have entrepreneurship on your mind, go for it. Now, right at this moment! Now is the perfect time to start.

Upaya’s Dignified Jobs Accelerator, in partnership with Yunus Social Business, focuses on building investment-readiness capacity for early-stage social businesses that create livelihood opportunities in an inclusive and equitable manner for those in extreme poverty. You can learn more about the accelerator here!

Every year the applications for the cohort open by the first week of September. Follow us on LinkedIn for more updates on the program.