Moa Jamir
For budding Naga entrepreneurs, Neichüte Duolo, CEO and Coordinator of Entrepreneurs Associates, and ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year (SEOP) –India, 2016’ awardee, has good news as well bad news.
The good news is anyone can become one. The avenue for entrepreneurship is abundant in Nagaland if one is willing to go to the basic and have enough perseverance.
However, there is bad news for those looking at entrepreneurship as an instant guarantee to riches and recognition; it is a long and winding road. Ten years is considered an ‘instant success,’ he opined. During the gestation period, doggedness and hard work is the key to witness the seed turned into fruits. Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art, but a practice, he said quoting Peter Drucker emphasising that it does not just end with opening a shop or service, but finding innovative and creating ways to meet customer needs.
Duolo was presenting his vision for self sufficient Naga state at the 7th Morung Lecture on November 9.
It was not a stylised talk on economic transformation one would come across in standard classroom textbooks or glossy vision statement of any government.
Nagaland’s economic regeneration lies with the rural sector, he maintained further busting a common myth that only industries, factories, government jobs, service industry, and jobs outside the State can bring about economic development.
It was not your ‘point and shoot’ motivational speech but based on pragmatic practitioners’ approach drawn from years of groundwork and with real time input.
Duolo’s antidote and vision for transformation is simple mathematics. Starting from ‘nothing’ gives one an advantage as there is nothing to lose.
1000 entrepreneurs can immediately make Nagaland a Surplus Budget state in 10 years time, he reiterated calling for ‘government centric Income’ to ‘entrepreneurial centric income.
He has economics to back his assertions. Take the case of Millets currently available in the market at over Rs 200 per kg. 1 lakhs cultivators producing – 1000 kgs per annum translate into a turnover of Rs. 2000 crores. Job’s tears and Kholar cultivation with same condition adds another Rs. 4000 crores.
Citing another Naga favourite’s dish, pork, he said, 1 lakh farmers rearing Pig @ 4 pigs per cycle can generate Rs. 1760 crores per annum. 1 million Walnut trees @10 kgs per tree and 1 Chestnut tree @100 Kgs per tree equal Rs. 5000 crores annually.
All these crops and products are ideally suited for cultivation in Nagaland and enough market to sell the product. Self-sufficiency is not only about sustenance but transforming one’s comparative advantage to productive exchange with others in the market.
If 50 percent of 1000 entrepreneurs achieve success by 2025 and farmers graduate from Subsistence Farming to Micro Commercial Farming, Duolo said “Self sufficiency is not dream but a practical reality.”
But the hardest work is to come out of the societal mindset hesitating to leave the comfy cocoon of government centric avenue.
A point highlighted by Rose Rekha Dukru, a pioneering farmer Zhavame, Phek has been farming for the last 7 years after completing her studies.
Nagaland is an agriculture state but it is not growing as most educated people refrain from choosing farming as a profession. This is the missing link, she said.
As Duolo stressed, it lies in becoming a ‘rebel’ and taking the plunge. Accepting that there are several obstacles along the way but always trying to find “answers where there is no answer.” This in essence is entrepreneurship.
Do you have the confidence to go back to the basics and be part of the 10000 entrepreneurs?
For any comment, drop a line to moajamir@live.com
