By Prabhudatta Mishra
Apart type the ‘ahimsa’ philosophy, the financial utility of cow has played a function in its elevated theological status and becoming a reverred animal in several cultures. Well, there are more causes for rearing the animal, other than religious.
The daunting objective of doubling farmers’ earnings requirements action on a number of fronts. A steady supply of added earnings for cattle growers is becoming explored by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) with the revolutionary technologies of ‘Khadi Prakritik’ paint produced out of cow dung. The eco-friendly, non-toxic, odourless solution with anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties, could potentially allow a farmer to earn added Rs 30,000 from one cow annually.
Anupama, a young lady in early 20s living in Sector 135, Noida has 4 cows and 2 buffaloes. She and her family members prepare ‘upla’ — dried and round-sized cake produced out of cow dung — and on some days earn some Rs 70-one hundred/day by promoting the surplus stock right after domestic use of upla as cooking fuel. But the earnings stream is not steady, as the demand for upla is erratic.
Come to feel of it. Anupma could take cue from a couple of farmer households on the outskirts of Jaipur who now make common earnings of Rs 5/kg by promoting raw dung. The KVIC technologies permits use of cow dung as the most important raw material for manufacture of white paint — emulsion and distemper. With an estimated prospective sales of Rs 6,000 crore of these paints in next two years, farmers could anticipate to get Rs 1,000 crore by promoting raw cow dung, which is now largely wasted, according to Vinai Kumar Saxena, chairman of KVIC.
“We sell upla at Rs 1/piece. Up to 5 uplas could be made from one kilogram of dung,” Anupama says. A steady earnings at a marginally greater price from raw dung could be rewarding for her family members, she says, provided the saving on labour and the prospective for steady demand for the material. According to sources, 150-170 kg of dung is essential to create of 500 litres of Prakritik paint.
KVIC has been sourcing the raw material from a cow shelter (gaushala) in Jaipur, rather than from person farmers, ever because the solution was launched by minister for micro, compact and medium enterprises (MSME) Nitin Gadkari in January. Small farmers with 4-6 cows use the dung as crop nutrient and lower the expense of of crop production by cutting down on the use of chemical fertilisers like urea and DAP. Dairy units and other big farmers who are obtaining just Rs 300-500 per tractor-load of cow dung, could make monetary gains thanks to the KVIC solution.
Saxena told FE that that although KVIC is presently paying only Rs 5/kg for raw cow dung procured from gaushalas and compact farmers, it intends to enhance the price to Rs 10/kg. Since the launch of the solution two month ago, KVIC has sold 6,000 litres of Prakritik paint, by way of on the web as nicely by way of retail outlets.
KVIC has priced the distemper at Rs 160/litre and emulsion at Rs 290/litre (white). While acrylic distemper rates of several established brands (in 10 litre pack) are reduce (Rs 55-140/litre) than that of Khadi Prakritik, KVIC’s emulsion is more affordable compared to synthetic variants (Rs 345-600/litre).
“We have chalked out a plan for promotion of these products starting from imparting training to small entrepreneurs to appointing dealer networks. We are scaling up operations to popularise the products,” Saxena stated.
Currently, KVIC’s Jaipur-based 500-litre per day facility is the only production centre, which is most likely to be upgraded to 1,000-litre per day capacity by finish of May. Besides, there is also program to set up six more plants of 500-litre capacity every in Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in April, he stated.
KVIC is confident that major players in the Rs 60,000-crore domestic paint business would think about investing in Prakritik technologies in due course.
To set up a plant of 500-litre per day capacity, an investment of Rs 20 lakh is essential, which will be funded by government scheme for the MSME sector. Each such plant could provide direct employment to 11 individuals. “KVIC is charging one-time royalty fee of Rs 1 lakh to offer the technology and also the facility to sell through its pan-India network of over 8,600 retail Khadi outlets,” Saxena stated, adding that as several as 3 lakh individuals will get employment in next two years due to this solution.
Prakritik is also ‘healthy product’ as it is devoid of plastic or synthetic components. It is also no cost of heavy metals like lead, mercury, chromium, arsenic and cadmium.