Pashu-Palak : The Cattlepreneur

The dairy industry grapples with a myriad of challenges, from sourcing milk to ensuring its quality and sustainability. Conventional methods relying on village and block-level collections often lack traceability, transparency, in-transit adulteration and quality control issues. Additionally, factors such as small cattle holdings, ever fluctuating costs of cattle feed, high interest burden on the shoulders of small holder farmers from middlemans and the looming specter of climate change exacerbate these challenges.

Moreover, concerns like pesticide residues, water contamination, and the use of harmful chemicals (oxytocins) during milking persist as unspoken problems within the industry, which every brand selling milk or milk based products want to find answers or address the concerns , but hardly anyone has been able to gone to the root cause with large scale. Of course small milk brands or gourmet milk buys (unorganized) can provide single farm products, but they suffer lack of technology for pasteurisation, cleanliness and basic hygiene.

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Central to these issues is the delicate balance of milk pricing, which must remain competitive while accommodating consumers from various socio-economic backgrounds. However, this pressure often results in compromising practices, such as the use of antibiotics or substandard farming techniques, to keep costs low. Using cheap milk powders (SMP) and other materials (adulteration) is a big cause of concern for #AtmanirbharBharat , #FitIndia and #VikasitBharat.

Entry of Cattlepreneurs and Cattle Townships (Milk Cities) ?

All things are difficult before they are easy. — Thomas Fuller

Enterprising Startup brands like #Pashupalak and #Greto are spearheading a comprehensive approach to address these industry-wide concerns. Their model though a baby-step today, will become a new normal in near future , emphasizes a single-farm, single-source milk production paradigm, ensuring a fairly decent size ecosystem of 20k to 50k cattle strength with both traceability and quality.

A model which fosters micro cattlepreneurship , job creation and pooling of resources to create mega scale infrastructure platform in asset lite model.

Leveraging bulk purchasing power for quality feed , making fuel and integrating advanced techniques like embryo transplants and optimized cattle care practices, they aim to produce antibiotic-free milk while championing animal welfare. Demand for Cruelty free milk is rising with aspiration and affluent Indians in 50 Metro cities of India. Thus there is huge potential for setting up 50 Cattle Townships in next 5 years and 200+ in next 10 years time frame , fostering circular economy, sustainability and great win-win-win model of Cooperatives , Consumer branding and Micro Entrepreneurship based gated townships which can be developed on large tracts of wastelands and degraded lands. This will improve the quality of soil faster and create lakhs of new jobs provided adequate support is extended by State and Central government and Equal grant is offered by Global Impact investment agencies to meet the technology and cattle needs & feeds.

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Recenlty I got an opportunity to deep dive into this innovative business model, vision and mission from Shri Ajay & Abhishek Rao, the promoters of Greto and Pashupalak. Their vision extends beyond mere milk production or procurement. These brands are committed to fostering a sustainable ecosystem around dairy farming. They are investing in breeding programs, tagging technology, and disease control measures to safeguard the health and well-being of cattle. Furthermore, they offer a diverse array of value-added products such as ice cream, yogurt, pre-biotic and pro-biotic beverages and ghee, catering to varied consumer preferences.

They have also built a cricket league with the brand Greto to add the sports angle to their business plan. India is a cricket country and Greto Parlors selling good food & beverages , daily needs can be a game changer in pure food or clean label F&B business ecosystem which can later add other things like Bakery, Millets, Tiffins and Fresh Food made from regional, seasonal and local ingredients.

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A pioneering initiative is the establishment of India's inaugural Cattle Township near Delhi - NCR , which seeks to foster micro-entrepreneurship opportunities for cattle caretakers while providing a sustainable income of approx 30k per pashu palak ( with 5 - 10 cattles) partly funded and fully insured, Brand will source additional income through the sale of waste products for feed and fuel. Pashupalak, co-owned by cricket luminary Shri Yuvraj Singh of YouWeCan Ventures , Abhishek Rao spearheads this initiative, aiming to build a scalable and socially impactful business model that prioritizes both profit and purpose.

?Watch Inaugural Video of #PashuPalak

Moreover, these new age dairy brands are setting new industry standards by embracing collaboration with multiple stakeholders and startups in the dairy sector. They provide a reliable and scalable platform for growth, inviting innovation and collective problem-solving to drive positive change within the industry.

?In essence, brands like Pashupalak and Greto represent a transformative shift towards sustainable and ethical practices within the dairy industry. By addressing key challenges while fostering collaboration and innovation, they are paving the way for a brighter and more resilient future for dairy farming. Trend setting is not a easy task and it is like making a road from the thick forest. I found them very open to ideas, collaboration, curiosity and flexibility to pivot their model to make it asset light and investible. I would like to call them #CommunityCommerce Trend setters.

Here are 2 stories I have crafted to explain you How Greto and Pashupalak can help Consumers and Farmers. Try to connect with them.

What Consumer want ?

Sheetal, a working mother in Delhi, always strived to provide the best for her family. However, her trust in conventional milk brands wavered after her son fell ill repeatedly. Doctors declared that he has developed intolerance of Dairy.

Desperate for a solution, she did some online research on the India’s dairy industry, procurement systems, processing, packaging and subscription economy. She became aware and later concerned about the quality and sustainability. Skeptical yet hopeful, she decided to give it a try to find out cruelty free, chemical free and antibiotic free milk for her son and her family. She didn’t want to be forcefully declare her son as vegan (intolerant to dairy) because in her childhood she enjoyed best quality of milk at her native in Sirsa, Haryana.

?The first sip of Pashupalak's milk brought a wave of relief. Not only did it taste fresher and purer, but Sheetal also noticed a remarkable improvement in her son's health. Gone were the days of worrying about hidden antibiotics or harmful additives. With each glass of Pashupalak milk, Sheetal found reassurance in knowing that she was providing her family with nothing but the best.

What Cattle Farmer Want ?

Rajesh , a small-scale cattle farmer in rural village of Kurukshetra Haryana, had always struggled to make ends meet. Despite pouring his heart and soul into caring for his cattle, he faced constant challenges from fluctuating milk prices to the rising costs of feed. Frustrated with frequent disease , longish dry period and disheartened by poor breed he could afford , Rajesh contemplated abandoning his family's generations-old profession of milk farming.

?However, everything changed when Pashupalak entered his village with an opportunity to join hands at India’s first Cattle township. Intrigued by their promises of fair prices , infra support, quality care of cattle , micro entrepreneurship model and support for sustainable farming practices, Rajesh decided to take a chance. With Pashupalak's guidance, he adopted modern techniques like optimized cattle care, fair pricing of milk over market pricing and eco-friendly waste management. To his amazement, his cattle flourished, and his income steadily increased, so as his happiness level because he was able to put his daughter in college in Gurugram. It was impossible to continue her education with limited source of income and most of it was getting consumed in feeding cattle.

?Today, as Rajesh watches his healthy cattle graze contentedly the best of feed sourced by Pashupalak through its partner farms , he feels a renewed sense of pride and purpose. Thanks to Pashupalak, he no longer fears for his livelihood but instead looks forward to a future filled with prosperity , increase the number of cattle and dignity for himself and his fellow farmers.

What Retailers and Industry Leaders want ?

Sustainable, Safe and Scalable milk supply chain, near farm processing, Traceability and powder/blending facility meeting international standards and every drop of surplus milk is collected without waste and converted into appropriate value added product. A Digitalized supply chain where tracking and tagging of cattle is possible and consumers trust can be won by providing adequate details through backward integration. Milk Federations and operation flood success can go to 2.0 when profit sharing mechanism with small cattlepreneurs is made possible by leveraging advance technology. Export oriented processing and value processing infrastructure can be developed in CPP Model (Cooperative-Public-Private Partnership) where degraded wastelands across India can be utlized to grow quality fodder (Napier or similar) and nurturing mega cattle townships to build a farm2factory2fork , zero waste ecosystems. Cattle Financing, Waste management practices and advance embrayo and breeding technology can improve productivity and quality. Cow or Buffalo , we must follow highest purity standards and produce cruelty free milk which should become popular across world. Milk from Bharat should be allowed in all forms by developed nations and that is where our Dairy Industry can get fair price and provide fair price deal to small milk farmers as well.

Arjun Vaidya R S Sodhi 雀巢 Pramod Kumar Rai Abhishek Rao Damodar Mall Nayan Jain Ajay Jain Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd. Amul (GCMMF) Vikrant Dogra Jyoti Saroop Rajat Mehta Prashant Chiranjive Jain Atul Gupta MeraPashu360 Vinod Dugar Ron S. Pal Nitin Puri Nitin Jain Rajesh Sawhney Vivek Gupta 达能 ajay konale AMD Industries Ltd. - India Harsh Bhutani Stellapps Technologies Private Limited Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation JB Singh Shailesh Haribhakti [GCB.D] Sandeep Sabharwal Sunil Khairnar P.S. Saini Shradha Munot Shradha Sharma Ravi Menon Henrik Stamm Kristensen Pankaj Agarwal Almarai - ??????? World Food Programme Peeyush Soni Haldiram Snacks Pvt.Ltd. Chaayos Starbucks India Rajeev Ranjan Dabur India Limited

About Author:

Chartered Accountant by profession since 24 years. 8th Generation of Farmer's family. Worked with leading Fortue 100 Multinationals. Consulting Farm2Factory2Fork Ventures & Companies in Good Food and Beverages business, QSR & Microentrepreneurship model design, consulting and developing strategies to achieve the goal.

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