Jams and teas from the hinterlands of Narayanpet

WE Hub through its Project Her & Now helps 89 entrepreneurs, 11 from Narayanpet district, expand reach

Hyderabad: Till about 2018, Mudunuri Varalaxmi was clueless about the importance of a fruit that was growing on their farm. Even her two children were not keen on eating it.

Cut to one year later, Varalaxmi is an entrepreneur who is making Rs 50,000 per month, all thanks to figs (anjeer) growing on her 12-acre farm. After experimenting with different products with fig, Varalaxmi was able to make varieties of jams, dried anjeer, chips and tea powder with the leaves.

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Hailing from Magnoor mandal in Narayanpet district, the tenant farmer along with her family has been growing the teardrop-shaped fruit and a chance encounter with Collector Hari Chandana Dasari changed her life.

“The Collector informed us about WE Hub which helped us in licensing, packaging and marketing. While in 2019, we were only selling our products to close family and friends, now these are available in QMart and also on Amazon. We sell two types of jams – sugar and jiggery-based, anjeer powder and chips,” said Varalaxmi. She plans to build a semi-automated manufacturing unit in Narayanpet district.

Not just Varalaxmi, the district is also home to another self-made entrepreneur Megha Sripada Rao Kulkarni. Her journey started with an idea to help women get gainful employment in the village and that led her to start Gowri Naturals. The enterprise makes tea powders that have about six to nine natural ingredients like ginger, pepper, fennel seeds, and turmeric, among other things.

“We work with 10 women from an urban self-help group in Narayanpet district and are generating Rs 15,000 as profits. Our tea, which is sold in sachets, is all-weather ‘kashayam’ and can be consumed at any time of the day. Through the help of our Collector and WE Hub we have been able to sell our tea bags in supermarkets in Narayanpet district,” said Megha.

WE Hub through its Project Her & Now has supported 89 entrepreneurs, out of whom 11 are from Narayanpet district.

“From Narayanpet, we have 11 aspiring women entrepreneurs registered for the programme at WE Hub. We are glad that through the training sessions and mentor support, over eight months, our entrepreneurs could move towards digitisation and also had an opportunity to set up new enterprises,” said Hari Chandana Dasari, Narayanpet District Collector.

“WE Hub has been working with the entrepreneurs to support them during the pandemic. It was encouraging for us to see the entrepreneurs’ determination as the sessions moved to the virtual medium. Entrepreneurs being digitally literate is a great achievement which was possible due to enablers and leaders,’’ said Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WE Hub.

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