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AMRITA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS COIMBATORE

LIVE-IN-LABS

REPORT ON KOMALIKUDI VILLAGE

IDUKKI, KERALA.

FACULTY CO-ORDINATOR: Dr. S.ARAMVALARTHAN

SUBMITTED BY,

ABINAYA.R (CB.BU.P2MBA15002)

MEENAL .M (CB.BU.P2MBA15063)

NEKETHNA M S (CB.BU.P2MBA15069)

RATHNESH RP (CB.BU.P2MBA15081)

SUBASHINI.R (CB.BU.P2MBA15106)

VIGNESH.V (CB.BU.P2MBA15117)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TOPIC PAGE NO

1.INTRODUCTION 3

2.FINDINGS 4

3.PROBLEMS 4

4.RESOURCES 7

5.SOLUTIONS 8

6.CONCLUSION 8

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1. INTRODUCTION

India lives in its villages, and while the cities have grown immensely over the last 20

years, rural areas have not seen that kind of development. For India’s economy to be strong,

the rural economy needs to grow. Rural areas are still plagued by problems of malnourishment,

illiteracy, unemployment and lack of basic infrastructure like schools, colleges, hospitals,

sanitation, etc. Our villages need to grow in tandem with cities and standard of life has to

improve there for inclusive growth to happen. If rural India is poor, India is poor.

India lives in many generations, and visiting rural areas very easily shows that they lag

behind cities by decades. While we have latest services and products available in our cities now,

villagers are still coping with age old products. The problems the villagers face is also of a wide

scale when compared to that of the problems faced by the urban population.

We as a team also visited one such village called “Komalikudi”, Idukki district, Kerala. It

is a village located in the hills of Western Ghats, 20 kms from Munnar hill station. The village is

well connected with nearby towns and the main mode of transportation is by roads. The village

has abundant water resource.

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2. FINDINGS

2.1 DEMOGRAPHY

The village has about 90 families with a population around 350 people. The

people are mainly daily wage workers in the cardamom fields. Men earn about Rs.300 per day

and women earn about Rs.250 per day. The students of the village pursue their education until

grade 11. The children up to grade 4 go to the Anganwadi and after that the students go to the

school at Bison Valley which is 5 kms from the village.

2.2 OCCUPATION

The primary occupation of the people is daily labour in the cardamom fields. The

secondary occupation is farming. Majority of the population have their own piece of land on

which they cultivate cardamom and black pepper. Apart from that they also grow coffee. Bee

keeping is another source of income. The villagers are also trained in making paper bags, soaps

and handicrafts. The people are also interested in poultry.

2.3 SOURCE OF ENERGY

Few houses were powered by solar and a mini hydel power plant of 5kw capacity

was being constructed during our visit to fulfil the household requirements.

3. PROBLEMS

3.1 PRICING ISSUES

The people who cultivate cardamom, coffee, black pepper in small scale do not

have adequate market at a profitable price. This may be due to reasons such as lack of

awareness about opportunities that are available to sell their products as raw materials at a

better price. Similar condition exists for honey which is collected through bee keeping and from

the forest.

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HONEY:

Pure honey is available in the forest areas of Idukki districts. The tribal people in

Komalikudi village, Idukki collect around 1000 Kgs of fresh, pure honey from the hilly

areas. The primary issue lies on packaging the honey that are obtained from the hills.

At present they sell it at a price of Rs.150/- to Rs.300/- per kg. Which results in total of

Rs.3, 00,000/- . But the current market price of honey is Rs.300/- to Rs.400/- for 250g

which totals to Rs.1600000/-.They are losing income of Rs.1300000/- .They lack in

packaging

Figure1.Snapshot from Amazon.com showing prices of various brands of honey

PEPPER AND COFFEE:

Only once in a year Black Pepper and coffee beans are also being cultivated in

the fields that are owned by the people of the Komalikudi village. During the particular

season, the time when they harvest, they sell these black pepper to the nearby markets

at Rs.500/- to Rs.600/- for 1 Kg only and coffee beans for Rs.35/- to Rs.40/- for 1 Kg. But

in the markets the POWDERED pepper is sold for Rs.2000/- for 1 kg and powdered

coffee for Rs.300/- to Rs.400/-.They incur a loss of Rs.1400/kg in black pepper. They

incur a loss of Rs.350/kg in coffee.

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Figure2.Snapshot

from Amazon.com showing prices of various brands of coffee powder

Figure3.Snapshot from Amazon.com showing prices of various brands of pepper powder

CARDAMOM:

Currently the village is producing around 500 Kg of cardamom during every

harvesting season. They are doing the harvesting four time in a year. It amounts to

2000 Kg per year. They are getting Rs.550/Kg from the traders, so the total revenue

from CARDOMOM amounts to Rs.1100000/- for the entire village every year. The

primary issue lies on packaging the cardamom that are obtained from the hills.

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Figure4.Snapshot from Amazon.com showing prices of various brands of Cardamom

3.2 RELUCTANCE TO TAKE UP FULL TIME AGRICULTURE:

The people being tribes do not believe in saving the money. They earn the

sufficient amount required for a day. Even though they know that agriculture will bring

more income for them, the people are not ready to take up agriculture as a full time

occupation.

3.3 HEALTH AND SANITATION:

The village was lacking sanitation facilities and only a few houses had toilets.

From the health survey we took in the village we understood that people chew tobacco.

3.4 DROP OUTS:

The students of the village pursue only up to grade 11 after which they drop out

of school. Irrespective of the gender both boys and girls pursue only till grade 11. The main

reason behind this is the people’s perception. They feel that they are going to end up doing

the same job that their parents did and they do not feel the need of education for it.

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4. RESOURCES

The village has sufficient water resources which are made use of more efficiently

using the hydel power plant. Most of the houses in the village is powered by solar and a hydel

power plant which can generate 5Kw power is also being constructed to cater to the needs of

the village. The village also has a wide range of medicinal herbs used for treating various

diseases.

Figure5:Picture of the Hydel Power Plant being constructed in the village

5. SOLUTIONS

5.1 HONEY:

If the honey are packed properly and sold, these people would get a high margin for

each pack of honey. Apart from packaging, the honey should also be branded to face the

competitors. Hence we propose a brand name called “AMRITA HONEY” with a tagline of “The

Ultimate Purity”.

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5.2 PEPPER AND COFFEE:

We propose to construct and provide the people with grinding machines for grinding

the pepper and coffee to powder form. The people were also ready to undergo the training for

operating these grinding machines. There is an excess power supply of 2KW to the village from

the mini hydel power plant that is constructed by Amritapuri engineering students and staffs.

This power could be used as a power source to these powdering machines.

5.3 CARDAMOM:

If we are able to pack them properly and sold, these people would get a high margin for

the cardamom by avoiding the middlemen. Apart from packaging the cardamom should also be

branded to face the competitors. Hence we propose a brand name called “AMRITA

CARDAMOM” with a tagline of “The Ultimate Purity”.

6. CONCLUSION:

India is made up of about 80% of villages. The very economy of India revolves around

villages and agriculture. But these villages always tend to fall under the under-privileged

category mainly because all the profits are eaten up by the middle men involved. Like all other

villages the main problem in Komalikudi village is also the middle men problem. We as a group

have brought out our suggestions mainly to eliminate this problem. Another area of focus is the

value addition which can be done to the products by proper packaging and effective marketing.

We as a team hope that these solutions when implemented can bring in better results and can

help the villagers have a sustainable means of income. We expect that these suggestions when

implemented can improve the standard of living of all these people.