Published Online:December 2024
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Entrepreneurship Development
Product Type:Article
Product Code:ED031224
Author Name:Anil Anirudhan and Sanjib Dutta
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Management
Download Format:PDF
Pages:44-51
The case is about Araku Coffee, a social initiative by Manoj Kumar (Manoj), CEO of Naandi Foundation, an NGO based in India. Araku Coffee was a specialty coffee grown by the tribal farmers of Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh, India. The organically certified coffee was produced by tribal farmers through fair trade cooperatives. The case dwells upon the need for the social initiative for tribal farmers and also focuses on the sustainable and inclusive Arakunomics model of social entrepreneurship that provided the tribals with a sustainable means of livelihood. The case also looks at Manoj’s efforts to convince the tribals to grow coffee through organic farming in a sustainable way. The Arakunomics model was an integrated economic model, which assured farmers of profits and consumers of quality products through the use of regenerative agriculture. The tribals were also provided training in the use of bio-composting with the locally available organic material. The impact of Arakunomics and its success in bringing the tribals above the poverty line with a sustainable mode of living are discussed in the case.
It was during my Aspen Fellowship that the epiphany happened—a social for-profit could add value by processing, branding and reaching global markets. It could scale up and build a replicable template where freedom from poverty, gender equality, sustainability and development is done through equity and markets, not grants and subsidies.