I had the good fortune of meeting a diverse set of entrepreneurs in Goa and extending my understanding of agriculture and allied sectors.
It is our centuries of colonial conditioning that we don’t think of a few sectors when it comes to ‘allied’ sectors. When we think of value addition or empowering farmer groups, we only look for success in drying, storing and very basic levels of processing.
Meeting Hansel Vaz was a learning experience. A geologist who came back to India to work on a farm and build a global brand from India, Hansel is again a lesser known figure in agricultural circles.
Hansel is doing incredible work in organising cashew value chain, bringing back indigenous rice verities from Goa that are on the brink of being lost. His work and influence on others trying to work on integrating these commodities and building powerful local brands is unparalleled.
Hansel, by definition, believes in incremental change. He believes our policy makers and ecosystem destroy what is artisanal in favour of ‘disruptive’ and visible change.
He was instrumental in making me see how grower communities should be disenfranchised from final product and how our top down approach and chasing of ‘uniform’ produce anger and distance growers.
A lot of us in the agritech sector are highly impatient and are quick to separate the educated from the uneducated farmers. We are impatient that unless we have our way, things will fall apart and fast.
Hansel has a ‘startup’ brand that many want to buy. He told me why he doesn’t prefer a complete exit but would like someone from the family to stay on to make sure the original brand value is maintained.
It would be great if we can bring such people into our agri and allied sector discussions and learn how a few commodity communities are organising better than others.
India’s decade of building global food and liquor brands is coming. The era of bulk exports has to make way for niche finished product exports. The wave is coming. Question is how many boats will it lift and are you on it?
