MBA sabjiwala

A son of farmer from the Ahmadnagar village of Nalanda district of Bihar taking an education loan of Rs 5 lakh to complete a degree and topping the elite Indian Institute

of Management (IIM)graduate of the 2007 batch, who then stays away from campus placements and he opted to sell vegetables on the rough streets of this city.It seems very shocking but that’s exactly what 29 years old Kaushalendra  did.

He knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Besides integrating potential business associates, like a roadside vegetable vendor in Patna and a farmer in a faraway village in Nalanda district, he also had to convince his parents, who initially thought their son had taken leave of his senses. He laid the foundation of a farmers’ cooperative, Samriddhi launched by his NGO Kaushalya foundation under which he established a supply chain to deliver fresh vegetables, picked up directly from the fields, to his outlets in Patna and Lucknow, to be sold in specially-designed ice-cooled pushcarts.

Samriddhi has a public private partnership with Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) Patna. Also recently, Punjab National Bank (PNB) has sanctioned Rs. 50 Lakh to the project.

Almost two years later, his cooperative earns Rs 4-5 lakh every month and employs over 1,000 people. Besides working for the farmers, Kaushalendra also keeps the consumers happy by making special efforts. He arranges free home delivery of vegetables, besides offering a kilo of potatoes free with every purchase of 2.5 kg of any vegetable.