Many of us wish for change to occur, while others wait for the change to happen. But there are truly only a few, who take matters into their own hand and create a change on their own. The same goes for M. Basawaraj and Shrinivas Reddy.
Belonging to a remote region of Telangana, where there is hardly any access to bulky, technologically advanced machinery, it was impossible to imagine that these two would be able to set up their own successful oil mill by utilizing the resources and techniques which had been long forgotten due to industrialization.
This is the story of their selfless hard work and dedication in order to bring positive changes in the lives of people.
The turning point
We all have experienced a moment in our lives that impacted us so intensely that it changed the way we view or perceive things around us. A similar incident happened with Basawaraj and Reddy when they both were working as school teachers. While teaching they came across at least 6 students under the age of 7 years who were diabetic. This instilled a feeling of doing something for the lack of nutrition in food that we consume due to heavy alterations done in them while manufacturing it. In the year 2016, they started farming and initially focused on growing millet as it required less amount of water compared to other crops which were less ideal for their water-scarce region.
Their journey
The road less traveled is always difficult to take, which is why in the first year of farming they were not able to do very well as none of them belong to a farming background and lacked experience resulting in the exhaustion of all their savings of last 15 years. But they kept going and soon started cultivating mustard after learning about oil mills and how the whole process of oil extraction with the help of bulls worked.
This idea took off and they started seeing results, but their work didn’t end there, their aim was to provide employment and generate more awareness regarding this technique so that it could become decentralized and more people could set up their own mills. This is why they also started providing free training to people twice a month about not only the method and process of oil extraction but also the ways to market their products.
Till now they have trained more than 300 people and almost 50 of them have started their own mills.
Results and future plans
The initial investment that was required to start the oil mill business was rupees 1-1.5 lakh. They currently have a total of 6 ghaani which they are looking to hike up to 10. One single ghani gives a profit of Rs. 25,000/month which makes their total monthly profit around 1.5 lakh rupees. Right now their main goal is to expand this knowledge to as many people as possible in order to sustain this practice.
Their efforts prove that one can find a way to accomplish whatever one wants at any stage of life, under any circumstances. Nothing is impossible!
