Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
Greens Revolution Based on Nammalwar and Masanobu Fukuoka Agricultural Practices in India
K. Prabhakar and K.Sadasivan
Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. Family farming represents an opportunity
to boost local economies and promote well-being of small farmers. Small and marginal
farmers with two to three acres of landholding find farming economically not viable and
take the extreme step of suicides due to the debt burden. Yet, how to convince farmers to
grow organic food and use technology and sustainable business models to produce
chemical free food?.How Philosophy of Gandhiji, Masanobu Fukuoka and research of
Kumarappais used for the commercial enterprise model. The case describes how Jagannathan as an individual entrepreneur along with his team have changed the mindset of
farmers and helped them to professionalize their family farming.
Key words: Agrarian crisis; family farming; organic agriculture;business model
About Entrepreneur and his Team
R. Jagannathan (RJ) discontinued his graduate studies because he did not like the method of teaching in college. He did not believe in the existing system. He was looking for
an opportunity which was disruptive in nature andcalled for revolutionand total transformation, probably destroying present order and creating a new society in economic and
societal domains.This was his dream. His role model was Mahatma Gandhi (MG). He is
wondering whether he can alone make a difference. He read the following passage,
which is as follows“Begin with yourself and do that first which is easiest for you to do.
Each person can examine articles of food, clothing and other possessions that he uses
from day to day and replace foreign makes or our city makes, by those produced by the
villagers in their homes or fields with simple inexpensive tools they can easily handle
and mend”.MG providedexamples of how to replace a toothbrushwhich is made of plastic in a Bombay factory. Instead of toothbrush,MG recommendedBabuli twig. He further
stated that a person can, cutthe other side and use it as tongue-scrapers, and it is
cleaner and cheaper than the unhygienic factory made tooth brush.
Start Up Phase
RJ started an office in his village Pakkam in Tamilnadu. Time moved at a slower pace in
this village. There were three rooms in the office; one hall, with a room with two plastic
chairs and a kitchen. Herbal Tea, decoction of medicinal herbs was served to the
guests. The place was brightly lit by the evening sun and there were two young women
working with their laptops squatting on the floor. There were a set of diverse books in
the library room. Some of the books in the library were: “A life Less Ordinary” authored
by Baby Halder whose acclaimed autobiography- AaloAandhari (A Life Less Ordinary)
describes her harsh life growing up and as a domestic worker later translated into 21
languages, including 13 foreign languages; Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of
______________________________________________________
Dr. K. Prabhakar, Professor, SRM University, Tamilnadu, India, Email: Prabhakar.k@srmuniv.ac.in
Dr.K.Sadasivan, Associate Professor, SRM University, Tamilnadu, India, Email:ksada@gmail.com
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
India's Geography by Sanjeev Sanyal; Indigenous Peoples Food Systems & wellbeing
Interrelations and Policies for Healthy Communities; host of material on organic farming
by green activist Nammalwar; Gandhian Economicsii by J. C. Kumarappa; First Edition
of Nutritive value of Indian foods – Balasubramanian S. C., Gopalan C.,B.V. Rama
Shastri published by the National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research published in 1980; Works of Swami Vivekananda; Pictures of G.Nammalwariii
(GN)and his books on organic or natural farming.Nammalwar was deeply influenced by
works of Fukuoka who is author of several Japanese books, scientific papers. His influences went beyond farming to inspired individuals within the natural food and lifestyle
movements. He was an outspoken advocate of the value of observing nature's principles. RJ said internalization of ideas from these books had given rise to his thought
process.
School for Tribals
In 2003,RJ started Siragu Montessori School, for children who were scheduled tribesiv
and by caste norms they were made to beg on the streets. Traditionally carrying on the
practice of begging, this community never had any real opportunities for breaking out of
their economic situation. Siragu meaning wings in Tamil and it was started with the objective of providing quality education to first-generation learners. In the academic year
2013-2014. The strength of the school was five hundred and thirteen students The students were not charged any fee. Seven of them cleared Indian Institute of Technology
Entrance Test and four of the alumni were working abroad. The school followed unique
syllabus that was embedded with agriculture. The mathematics, science, history, all related to immediate environment in which the school operated. This assisted children to
appreciate learning and excel in academics. The decision was taken by RJ since hehad
disliked education that was not in tune with the cultural and physical environment. The
school was run with voluntary help by different individuals and NGOs and by his friends
who were educated and willing to spend time with less fortunate. This washis passionate project. The successful experience of the school, made RJ to believe that he can
find a solution concerning the agrarian crisis.
Agrarian Crisis
“Farming was a loss making proposition and if farmers persevered, they went bankrupt
or committed suicide”. This was a shocking statement made by the son of a farmer who
was planning to sell his three acre land to real estate agent and work in a nearby urban
centre. Farmer suicides in India crossed quarter million and to be precise 2, 56,913 lives
are lost. Every day India lost 2,000 farmers and numerous farmers took up working as
farm laborers. Pride of farming was disappearing under the shadow of globalization.
Factory farming was proposed and likely to introduce Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMO) foods and large scale investmentwas proposed.Factory farming with large scale
production is envisaged to feed the people of India. These snippets of information
summarize the disquiet towards farming in India by RJ. One day, RJ saw a farmer who
hadtied up a wet cloth round his belly, unable to endure the pain of hunger. However,
the popular belief among the older generation was not to send their children for farming
and make them study and leave farming. This wasaccentuated by the farm losses and
loan burden. The local moneylenders lend money at the sowing season and take away
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
the harvest from the farmer. Thus, if the crops were good the farmer was not benefited
as the moneylender was benefited with higher profits. If the crop failed the loss was totally born by the farmer. If there was a continuous failure of crops, the losses mounted
and pressure of moneylenders leads farmer to take the extreme step of suicide. Farming as a profession which had a prime position in Indian rural villages lost its position.
However, the migration to cities also did not help them, as they were offered menial jobs
with low wages. These facts helped RJ to talk to the farming community to induce them
to come back to farming with profits. He started to thinkof the solutions for the farmers.
Can Family farming be a solution to farm crisis? Family and small-scale farming are
inextricably linked to world food security. Family farming preserves traditional food
products, while contributing to a balanced diet and safeguarding the world’s agrobiodiversity and the sustainable use of natural resources. Family farming represents an
opportunity to boost local economies, especially when blended with specific policies directed at social security and welfare of communities.
Research
To understand the problems, situation and for the solutions, RJ thought of attempting
a survey on income and expenditure of families in and around the small town. Expenditure of two hundred and ten families was documented for one year. The average size of
the family was eight members, including children and elders. Results showed that approximately sixty percent of family expenditure wasfor fertilizers, pesticides, medical
treatment and alcoholtotaling to Rs.1.6 coresv or $2, 62,560 per annum.The study also
showed that several farmers started discontinuing farming due to high input costs and
migrating to cities for livelihood.It was observed that migration also did not deliver economic prosperity as they were doing menial jobs and the subsistence wages paid to
them in cities did not ameliorate their social position.If the price of fertilizers and pesticides were brought down to zero andvillagers stopped drinking of alcohol and medication, 1.6 cores would be available as surplus for villagers. The solution appeared too
idealistic.At this period of time RJ met G. Nammalwarvi (GM) who is an evangelist of organic agriculture.The power of words in Tamil “உணேவம
” (Unavemarunthu or
food is a medicine) and “உணேவேநா ” (unavenoi or food is a disease) provided the
underlying philosophy for him to think of organic or natural farming.Nammalwar is a
strong believer of Fukuoka who called his agricultural philosophy as
shizennōhō (自然農法?), which means natural farming. It is also referred to as "the Fukuoka Method", "the natural way of farming" or "Do-Nothing Farming". The system is
based on the recognition of the complexity of living organisms that shape an ecosystem
and deliberately exploiting it. Fukuoka saw farming not just as a means of producing
food but as an aesthetic and spiritual approach to life and life style based on frugal life
styles.Combining these thoughts,indicate that consumption of food which was poisoned
by pesticides and excessive use of fertilizers,leads to diseases. In contrast, consumption of appropriatefood prevented diseases. At this juncture some of hisvery close
friends joined him and Saravanan who returned from US was fascinated by his ideas.
The words and philosophy of MG on the ills of consumption of alcohol influenced
thoughtprocess of RJ and his team. Gandhi’s profound philosophy summarized in the
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
following words made RJ and his team passionate about organizingtheir work. They
mapped Gandhian philosophy and its economic significance.
Table 1: Mahatma Gandhi Philosophy and Economic Significance as Understood
by Nallakeerai Team
Gandhian Philosophy
Economic Significance
The earth provides enough to satisfy every
man's needs, but not every man's greed.
Scale up models with large capital without
sharing value with the producer and consumer is not worth pursuing.
The present policy of competing in export
of beef meat will be disastrous for the
agricultural economy leading to shrinking
farm work.
The greatness of a nation and its moral
progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
What difference does it make to the dead, the
orphans and the homeless, whether the mad
destruction is brought under the name of
totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or
democracy?”
Both communism and capitalism may not
be the solution to the societal needs.
Business man as trustees will be able to
achieve societal growth both economic
prosperity and social equity.
The team considered that there were too many issues so they prioritized them. The
foremost measure was to address issuesof consumption of alcohol.The team convinced
Panchayat leader of Palavedu to campaign in and around thirteen villages for non consumption of alcohol.A plan of action was proposed in 2006 to create awareness of the
ills of consuming alcohol with a little group of villagers using street plays.Every individual was made totake an oath and in the process, by 2008 all the villages became alcohol
free.IlangoRamaswamy, who shaped
village governance model and produced a model village Kuthambakkam mentored the first
step. The social causes addressed by RJ gave him an identify among the farming
community.Having attained success in eliminating social ill, and gaining the credibility
among villagers of Pakkam, the team started working on the business proposition of
organic agriculture.
Research was the central force of the team.They set off collecting information on organic
farming successes.Organization of Rice Intensification experimentation with organic
methods of farmers of Pudukottai districtvii;Puliangudi V.Antony Samyviii work on organic
farming, which provided highest yield of Lemon; experience of organic farmer Rakesh
Kumarix farmers from Nalandadistrict who harvested 108.8 metric tons of potato per
hectare and set a new world record in potato production were interviewed and guidance
was obtained.All the members of team underwent training programmes conducted by
GN.The training plans were not just about techniques, or merely on the philosophy of
being authorized to grow all produce from the farm and use inputs from a farm without
the help of chemicals, it is more of a philosophy of life, living with simple diet that will not
harm an individual. Fortified with the training inputs team RJ approached individuals
who were willing to have organic veggies/rice/green. There is no one to say no to organic food. Nevertheless, the farmers in the village were not willing to put their
stake.The team began working with farmers who started the organic farming and left
organic farming and one farmer who, after intensive use of chemicals for sixty years
found his farm lifeless.The most important aspect wasto convert the farm to organic
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
agriculture, the land had to be treated with or panchakavyax an organic productwhich
had the potential to play the role in promoting growth and providing immunity in plant
system. Panchakavyais prepared with nine products viz. Cow dung, cow urine, milk,
curd, jaggery, ghee, banana, Tender coconut and water. When suitably mixed and
used, these hadan impact on the fertility of soil. The process may take at least two
years to start organic farming.
The farmers who own two to three acres land will not be able to economically withstand two
years of no income and outlay.Therefore, long term crops were not a solution.Short
term floriculture was anotheranswer, but the demand is seasonal and requires higher
amounts of water.The central observation of pricing of agricultural products wasthat
price determinationwas not based on cost of production, but by demand and supply on
everyday basis based on market arrivals. If there was a bumper crop the farmer’s loss
mounted and if therewas a short supply the middlemen madea profit. There was also no
access to market or to consumer sale forfarmers and there was no last mile connectivity.
Considering all these conditions,the team came with an idea of taking up farming greens,
which had a shorter life cycle of 15-20 days and can be harvested with minimum labour
requirements with least price fluctuations. The farm can be organic ready within three
months of treatment with panchakavya. Research of Indian Council of Medical Research had identified many greenswith medicinal properties. Out of these forty five Indian varieties had proven medicinal properties and nutrition value.The name of green in
Tamil which provide indication for which it may be applied.For example MudakathanKeerai (Botanical Name: Cardiospermumhalicababum) was applied for joint pains.Since
different greens are grown in rotation, pest management is minimized; for mono crops
one of the major issues was of pests.An experimental farm was designed in fifty cents
of land, which was equivalent to half an acre.The different varieties of Greens require
different quantities of water.
On the basis of experiments,greens were classified
into three groups:
1. Requiring minimum water.
2. Moderate water requirement.
3. Requiring good amount of water.
To take care of the water needs a 10′ × 10′= 100square foot beds were created. In a 50
cent land 150 beds were accommodated. Fifty cents was 21,000 square feet and the
beds occupied 15,000 square feet and rest 6000 was for pathways,where greens which
require less amount of water were planted. To keep the beds in shape tiles made by a
village potter was used. Along the periphery plants which require moderate waterwere
planted and in between the layers, plants which require more water were planted.Water
to all the plants was splashed with the help of sprinkler or with mug manually rather than
drip irrigation.
The social causes addressed by RJ gave him an identify among the farming
community. However, the popular belief among the older generation was not to send
their children for farming, but make them study and leave farming. This was accentuated by the farm losses and loan burden. The local moneylenders lend money at the
sowing season and took away the harvest from the farmer. Thus, if the crops are good
the farmer was not benefited as the moneylender is benefited with higher profits. If the
crop failed the loss totally born by the farmer. If there was a continuous failure of crops
the losses mount and pressure of moneylenders leads farmer to take the extreme step
of suicide. Farming as a profession which had a prime position in Indiarural villages lost
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
its position. However, the migration to cities also did not help them, as they are offered
menial jobs with low wages. These facts helped RJ to talk to the farming community to
induce them to come back to farming with profits. RJ identified twenty six varieties of
greens that are in demand out of forty five varieties. RJ believed that the capital in agriculture is patient capital in the sense, that any proposition require time. He collected data for four years and the aggregated. The outliers are removed and provided the conservative estimates of production, cost and profitability.
Table 2
Harvest estimates of bundles(the bundles are rough standard for each type of green)
1st
Month
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
11th
12th
Total
1st Year
3000
3500
5000
5000
5000
5000
6500
6500
6500
6500
2000
2000
56500
2nd Year
6500
6500
6500
6500
6500
6500
6500
6500
6500
6500
2000
2000
69000
3rd Year
7500
7500
7500
7500
7500
7500
7500
7500
7500
7500
2500
2500
80000
Table 3
Capital Investment and recurring cost per month for fifty Cent Plot in Rupees
Description
Signing Fee
Project Implementation Cost
Seeds and Sapling
Organic Manure
Organic Liquid Manure
Ploughing
Bed Preparation (one time bed preparation)
IRRIGATION
Manure Filling Labor Cost
Seedling & Sapling Labor
Liquid Pest Management & Non Liquid
Pest Management
Total Capital Cost (For one year)
Recurring Costs (Monthly)
Bed Preparation (According to changes
in the requirement of different greens)
Seeds
Labor
NSP Production Supervisor
Harvesting
Organic Manure
Total Recurring Cost per month
Cost in rupees
10,000
10,000
10,000
20,000
4,000
3,000
5,000
30,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
1,07,000
3,000
2,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
3,000
23,000
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
Table 4
Estimated Profitability of organic farming for 50 cents of land (Rs) for one year
Capital
Recurring Net ReveYears Expenses Expenditure
nue
1st Year 107,000
276,000
452,000
2nd year
0
276,000
552,000
3rd Year
0
300,000
640,000
Net Profit
69,000
2,76,000
3,40,000
Profit per
month
5,750
23,000
28,333
6,85,000
19,028
The farmer will be able to recover his capital costs in the first year and will be in a position make higher profits from the second and third year. However, the most important
condition is that the monsoon should be normal and general climatic conditions are assumed. The produce is sold in bundles. It is non standardized and depends on the
green. Consumer purchases the produce by visual inspection. Some of the varieties are
sold for twelve rupees per bundle and some varieties are sold for twenty rupees. On an
average per bundle the farmer is likely to get eight rupees. The net revenue is derived
from the production table. Unsold but harvested are used as animal feed.
Demand Estimation
Estimates of greens sales in Chennai started with the sale in Koyambedu Wholesale
Market Complex (KWMC), popularly known as the Koyambedu Market, a wholesale
fruit and vegetable market situated in Chennai, India. Established in 1996, the market
was the largest of its kind in Asia. The greens were sold as bundles. The total sale was
estimated to be one million bundles per day for different varieties.
Market Gap
Market research was conducted among information technology professionals and people
living in flats to know the needs of the customer.
1. Organic Greenswere not available when required and varieties are not provided in the
organic shops.
2. Authentic medicinal information and nutritional values were not available.
3. Different recipes not available.
4. Home delivery was ideal.
5. It took one hour to clean two bundles of greens.
6. Prices kept fluctuating and not sure about the price.
7. Different families living in a set of apartments require different varieties of greens based
on demographic needs.
Distribution
The business model was built on proposition of local production and local consumption with
maximum benefit to the farmer and the consumer. The farmer with his family undertook the
agricultural operations and took total responsibility of growing the produce. However, the
alternatives identifiedhere;
1. To serve the mass market through the sixty organic outlets in Chennai and other supermarkets. While the first alternative serves the needs of the people, there was no connection
with the final consumer. The intermediaries may not be able to serve the consumer as
expected by NC.
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
2. The other alternative was to meet needs of information technology employees through
the outlets in their campuses and need of families in apartments. Each apartment generally
had one hundred to two hundred families. Delivery of product will be easy and customer
relationship can be managed with relative ease and word of mouth and visual impact will be
high in apartments.
3. Farmers to consumers and intermediariationby creating a platform where the farmer
knew the demand and produced according to the demand and able to realize the value
added with the help of the platform. Test marketing showed good response from these two
segments.
Multisided Platform
The segments weremulti sided platform patterns that had a distinctive structure. Each of the
segments had its own value proposition and associated revenue stream. While the IT
professional segment required greens that were cleaned and processed and willing to pay a
premium as the professionals saved their time of approximately forty five minutes required
for cleaning, the apartment segment did not require the cleaned greens. This value proposition was not immediately viable due to labour shortage and time for operations.
Launch of Nallakeerai.com
Nallakeerai.com was located in Pakkam village. It was registered as a private limited
company with the following logo.
வளமானவ வசாய
ப
க
The logo reflected the olden days of selling farm produce. When they sold their produce
in Santhai (a weekly market or bazaar where farmers sold their produce and consumers
purchased). Tharasu means (balance or weighing machine) designed by the village carpenters with wood that is seasoned which gives correct weight graduated on it. The exchange process should have Nanayam meaning both buyer and seller should have
uprightness,
honesty,
probity,
honour,
truth
and
punctuality.
வளமானவ வசாய
ப க means prosperous and copious agricultural families. Most of the UlavarSanthai (Farmer’s markets promoted by Government of Tamilnadu) did not do well because of lack of alignment of the farmer’s ecosystem of working
with that of the market timing. The farmer was not in a position to spend time required to
market his product in the Farmer’s markets and he or she had no idea of the demand of
his produce. There was no connection between the consumer and the farmer. NC found
an opportunity to help farmers. Building customer base and farmer base and bringing
them together with the help of technology was a fulfilling business proposition.
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
Also Facebook profilexi was created and positive feedback from consumers and others
created a brand image for the organization.
Farm to Consumer Model
The farm to consumer model was considered to be viable and implementable with the
resources.
The key resource required for this business model was creating a platform. Key activities
identified were: platform management, service provisioning and platform promotion. Once
the platformwas created, then maintaining and developing was the only cost involved. The
platform was created by way of the website www.nallakeerai.com with the expertise of the
team. The site required registration of the customer with all details of residence and he or
she can place orders through the net.The consumers were provided with information on the
nutritional value of the greens, medicinal properties, recipes both in Tamil and English from
authentic sources such as the Tamilnadu Agricultural Universityxii of Coimbatore. The cost
structure of obtaining orders substantially reduced and online payments ensured excellent
cash management. The orders placed on any day are supplied within four days. The online
orders were aggregated and two employees at the farm planned the supply of products. The
customer value was delivered with novelty of providing twenty different varieties of farm
fresh organic greens, to suit to the requirements of each family. The requirements differed
due to the demographic profile of the family. For example a family member with diabetes
was likely to order greens that are suitable for him or her. The cost structure varied from
three and half rupees to seven rupees. However, the overall cost still remains to be approximately Rupees five and sixty paisa. The average profit per bundle was eight rupees.
There were five thousand customersregistered inNC. Their green purchasing habits of family
data mined and demand was estimated for each variety and provided to farmers to plan their
product mix. The farmer entrepreneurs were happy that they achieved their aim of being self
sufficient in production and consumption.. The Team felt that they were living with nature and
were in control of themselves was a great success of the venture.
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
Organizational Structure
CEO
Quality &
Audit
COO
CFO
CMO
CTO
IT
Legal
Head
Head Pro-
Accounts &
Finance
Marketing
Sales
Procurement
HR &
Admin
Branding
Logistics
Packaging
Online
Customer
Support
Figure 1 organizational structure of nallakeerai.com
The organizational structure for NC was based on four pillar approach. It was not the
functional division in the traditional sense. They had:
1. Technical guidance
2. Production planning
3. Manpower support for non farmer families
4. Marketing support.
One of the key dimensionswas technical guidance. For five years, sixty different types of
greens grown were tested in the soil. The data were documented and cross tabulated
with the seasons. Data on demand for different products was cross tabulated and what
can be grown in Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts were arrived at and forty five varieties were finalized. The rotation of different greenvarieties helped to reduce pests was
also identified. The technical team visited the land and after due diligence the production
plan was suggested to the farmer. However, the business model suggested farmer not to
stop with greens. If a farmer had a land of five acres, he was advised not the use the
entire landof greens, as there was no market for such large scale production. The farmer
was suggested to produce vegetables and paddy for which NC has developed chemical
free farming. The integrating farming was the objective of NC and not just greens.
The complete production planning was based on the demand estimates available on the
database of 4000 customers registered with the NC. There were four hundred farmers
presently registered with NC. (Exhibit 1 gives the photographs of NC farms)
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
The team decided not to scale up operations andto give the technology free of cost to
other entrepreneurs. All the farm employees are provided with provident fund, covered
under Workman Compensation Act,1923 and Employee State Insurance Act,1948.
i
Babul (Acacia arabica) occurs wild in the Indian subcontinent and tropical Africa. Babul is used as
datun for teeth cleaning. It has astringent, antimicrobial, antiseptic and germicidal activities. Babul
as datun and tooth powder is very useful in treating bleeding gums, mouth ulcers and other oral
problems.( http://www.bimbima.com/health/post/2013/12/17/babul-for-oral-care.aspx )
ii
Term coined by J. C. Kumarappa for Gandhi’s approach to meeting material human needs. It is used
as an umbrella term for a number of related concepts (or principles) in Gandhian thought. Namely
these principles are:
An economy based on needs rather than wants
[swadeshi] (in the economic sense, localism and material self-sufficiency at the village level)
economic decentralization
cottage industry and the interdependence of small, local producers rather than dependence on mass
production
[bread labor]
simplicity
[trusteeship] (related to the spiritual idea of (nonpossession)
viewing material belongings as having three classes:
1) food, clothing, and shelter (of which it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that all people
have access, to or the society has failed) 2) the tools one keeps in order to do one’s work (which
are one’s personal responsibility to obtain, and which one should hold with an attitude of trusteeship, and
3) Everything else, which is considered to be extra, that is, in the realm of ‘wants,’ rather than
needs, and therefore inessential.
Source E.F.Shumacher Society (www.mettacentre.org )
iii
http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/down-to-earth/article3958140.ece
iv
The term Scheduled Tribes first appeared in the Constitution of India. Article 366 (25) defined
scheduled tribes as "such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or
tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of
this constitution". Article 342 of Constitution of India prescribes procedure to be followed in the
matter of specification of scheduled tribes. (http://ncst.nic.in/index.asp?langid=1 )
v
Ten million; one hundred lakhs, especially of rupees, units of measurement, or people.
vi
http://www.indiaorganic.net/individuals/nammalvar.html
vii
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/organic-sri-motivates-seed-production-by-smallfarmers/article3915171.ece
viii
http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/org_farm/orgfarm_success%20stories.html
ix
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bihar-farmer-sets-new-world-record-harvests-1088-tonnes-of-potato-perhecrtare/373609-3-232.html
x
http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/org_farm/orgfarm_panchakavya.html
xi
https://www.facebook.com/NallaKeerai
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
xii
http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/org_farm/orgfarm_inputs_tech.html
Exhibit 1
nallakeerai.com Farms
Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
9 - 10 November 2015, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-88-7
Acknowledgement:
This case study is inspired by Shri.S.Deenadayalan, CEO & Architect-Organizational Capability, Centre for Excellence in Organization Pvt.Ltd, #14/2, Basement,Rajesh Chambers,
Brunton Road, Bangalore-560025. The authors greatfully acknowledge his mentoring to
write case studies in the areas of social entrepreneurship.