It is the era of startups, most of youths in service sector is fed up of their 9-5 desk job and wants a startup of his/her own. However only few of them reach the height of success. Whenever we think of Entrepreneur, we think of Youth living in urban setup and have an App which is going to get him/her a million dollar company. Rural entrepreneurship is still not our topic of discussion. But Mr. Dhanaji Nade is breaking all these stereotypes. He is the CEO, Worker, Manager and everything of his Goat Farm named Krishi Vaibhav Goat farm. He has goat farm of one of the most popular breeds of the goat named 'Osmanabadi'. He is in the 37th year of his life. In the age where people started about their retirement plan, this man started new inning of his life. Three years ago from now, he started his business in the small village named Kasbe Tadwade which is around 55 Km distance from the land of Tuljabhavani, Tuljapur. But it was not at all easy tasks to make a turnover of 10-12 lakhs per annum within three years. In 1998 he was working on the daily wage of Rs. 35 and after that he keeps on changing job but in 2014 when he left his job to start his own business of Goat farming he was getting Rs.50,000 per month from his job but Dhanaji was never satisfied with his job but to support his poor financial condition of the family he was grilling in a job. To put in his words, "Business is in my blood", so while doing the job he has started a business of transport with one bolero car, later he purchased a truck.
In 2003 when he was in Mumbai, he attained the seminar organized on goat farm. There he got lots of information about goat farming. So, he realized that he has all the favorable condition requires to start goat farming, all he is lacking first step to start the business. So he bought 3 cattle in the lean season of agriculture and hand over it to his brothers living in a village. But as the agricultural season came his brother sold all the cattle but by selling also they got profit. So, with the profit of few notes of thousands his first attempt to start business got failed. The similar attempts he tried in 2009 and in 2011. In the later period he himself came to the village to start a business but due to opposition from all around he went back to Pune with a heavy heart. But his mind was still roaming around in the soil of his village
There is phrase saying, ”Behind every successful men there is women”. It is perfectly applicable to Mr. Dhanaji. In that period when all of his close ones were opposing him to do business and he was suffering from mental stress, his wife was always there standing firm to support him in every condition.
Without caring about society and opposition of his family he came back to his village viz. Kasbe Tadwade in 2014 to start full-time goat farming. He started with 20 cattle and an initial investment of ~7 lakhs. At presen, he has given shelter to 150 cattle. According to his documented data, he has sold approximately 2500 cattle. He has not taken any formal education of goat farming but he has learnt about goat by practicing in other’s goat farm. As he is living in outskirt region, the veterinary doctor is not easily available over there, hence he had learnt all the things about health of cattle and now he himself take care of health of cattle including fever and other health problem. He always says Marathi phrase, “Untanvarun Shedya Rakhta Yet Nahi”. It means you cannot do goat farming by sitting on camel. We need to do hard work to get success in goat farming.
He has built small house besides his farm to take proper care of cattle. The ambitions of this rural entrepreneur of the small village attract me the most. His aim is not just to earn money but he is also spreading awareness and helping other farmers to start their own goat farming through organization named “Osmanabadi Shedya Palan Association” formed by him and his other fellow colleagues. Dhanji told us that the people who used to laugh on him are now coming to him for guidance. Talking about his achievements, he recently supplied goats to the Kerala government, one consignment he has got from out of country via Animal husbandry department Maharashtra, many of the eminent dignitaries like many IAS officers, professors of Agricultural university, scholar of this field, etc. has visited and appreciated his work, he has been called for lecture series by many organizations. He is also in the process of taking patent of Osmanabadi breed of goat.
Marketing is one of the major pillars of success for any business. But Dhanaji is still away from mainstream marketing. From very starting all of his marketing is depends on mouth to mouth publicity. But now he is coming in world of E-Marketing. In this he will make his market and also teach other people about goat farming.
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