How Shashi Kumar built Akshayakalpa into a Rs 700 Cr enterprise with just 2,800 farmers

When conversations around agriculture happen in startup circles, they usually revolve around technology. The discussion quickly moves to AI, drones, precision farming, supply chains or market access. Shashi, Founder and CEO of Akshayakalpa, believes the country may be missing a far more fundamental problem.

"We are a young nation, but we have ageing farmers."

It is a statistic that has stayed with him as he is building Akshayakalpa, India's first certified organic dairy enterprise. While India's average age is around 30, he points out that the average age of farmers is now closer to 52.

For him, the challenge is not merely about improving yields or increasing productivity. It is about ensuring there are enough people willing to farm in the future.

"What we are trying to do in Akshayakalpa is creating a future for people like 10-year-old, 15-year-old, and 20-year-old. Can they take interest in farming and understand farming? The ultimate idea is to get you into farming."

Why young people are leaving farming

The concern is deeply personal. Born into a farming family, Shashi grew up watching his father struggle with the realities of agriculture. While his father remained committed to farming, he never wanted his son to follow the same path.

"My father is an ardent farmer, but he never wanted me to be a farmer."

Like countless parents across rural India, his father saw education as a way out. The message was simple.

"Study well, get out of the farm."

According to Shashi, that aspiration now defines much of rural India. Younger generations are getting educated and moving away from agriculture, while the people producing food continue to grow older.

"All the young population in villages, they are getting educated and they are moving out of the farm."

The problem, he argues, lies in how farming itself is perceived.

"The way farming is imagined in India is flawed. Farming is not imagined as a profession of choice."

'Cropping is not farming'

One of the most striking ideas that emerges from Shashi's worldview is his distinction between agriculture as a science and farming as a way of life.

"There is no farming school in India."

The statement sounds provocative, but he quickly explains what he means.

"We have agricultural universities. They teach crops. They don't teach farming."

For him, the difference is significant because farming is not simply about seeds, fertilisers or crop cycles.

"Cropping is not farming."

Instead, farming is knowledge accumulated over generations. It is understanding how soil behaves after rain, how local ecosystems respond to changing weather patterns, and how crops, animals and people interact with one another.

"The moment you see a plant, you should have a muscle memory of how to react. The moment you see a soil, you should have a muscle memory of how to react."

"If you go to Chengalpattu and ask them to grow bananas, they don't know. They are paddy farmers. If you go to Tiptur and ask them to grow paddy, they are coconut farmers."

For decades, agricultural systems have often attempted to apply standardised solutions across vastly different geographies. Shashi believes that approach ignores the cultural foundations of farming.

"Farming is culture."

"This culture which has been built into the people, that ecology, the soil, the tree, the animal, the species, everything determines farming."

"We fundamentally believe putting NPK will solve all the issues. There is no silver bullet."

Solving economics before solving agriculture

When Akshayakalpa was founded in 2010, the company was not built around dairy products. It was built around a question: why were young people leaving farming?

"What is the fundamental problem of engaging young people in farming? They fundamentally believe it's economics."

"We need to start thinking of farming as a vocation. Farming as a means to make money."

The company chose dairy because it created regular cash flows for farmers.

"We understood that we need to solve the cash problem first."

Once income improved, Akshayakalpa began introducing other interventions including soil management, beekeeping, backyard poultry, banana cultivation, manure production and farm diversification. The objective was not simply to increase milk production, but to build resilient farm businesses that could generate sustainable income over time.

Today, Akshayakalpa works with around 2,800 farmers across 2,800 villages. The average age of an Akshayakalpa farmer is 32 and around 1,200 are women farmers.

"Last financial year, on average, we paid out ₹1.28 lakh every month to each farming family."

A study commissioned after the British government became an investor found that farmers who earned roughly ₹10,000 a month before joining the programme were earning substantially more after becoming part of the network, with mature cohorts averaging around ₹1.25 lakh per month.

For Shashi, those numbers represent something far more important than business growth.

"They are earning substantial money. Their lifestyles have changed. They're able to send their children to the best possible schools. Housing has changed. They're able to take care of their parents very well."

One farmer. One village. One role model.

Akshayakalpa's expansion strategy is unusually simple.

"We don't work with more than one farmer in a village."

Rather than attempting to transform entire communities at once, the company focuses on identifying one entrepreneurial farmer and helping them succeed.

"That farmer has become a role model for the village."

As neighbouring farmers observe better outcomes, they begin adopting practices that work. Better fodder management spreads. Soil management spreads. Diversified income streams spread.

"Every village needs a role model."

The philosophy stems from a larger frustration about how agriculture is discussed in India."The only thing we talk about farming is negative, unless farming is seen as a viable and respected profession”, he believes younger generations will continue to look elsewhere for opportunities.

Why organic is a process, not a product

While Akshayakalpa is widely recognised as an organic dairy brand, Shashi believes most consumers misunderstand what organic actually means.

"Organic is a process." For him, organic food is not about labels or certifications alone. It is about the systems behind food production. That includes soil health, animal welfare, biodiversity and long-term sustainability.

The real question, he argues, is not whether food looks attractive on a supermarket shelf, but whether it is nutritious and safe.

"What is good for you is not what looks good. What is good for you is what is nutritious."

He also believes consumers need to build a stronger connection with the people who produce their food. Over the years, Akshayakalpa has encouraged customers to visit farms and understand the processes behind what they consume.

The missing middle in Indian agriculture

Perhaps nowhere does Shashi speak more candidly than when the discussion turns to investors and agricultural finance.

According to him, most of the ecosystem is built around agricultural inputs or post-harvest businesses, while the farmer remains the least understood piece of the puzzle.

"A tractor company who sells a tractor to a farmer, will it ensure the farmer makes money? No."

"A seed company who sells a seed to a farmer, will it ensure the farmer makes money? No."

His criticism is not aimed at technology itself, but at the assumption that selling products to farmers automatically improves outcomes.

"Value in agriculture is created at the farm by the farmer."

That, he believes, is also why investors often struggle with agriculture.

"The problem is that analytics doesn't work in that space. There's no data."

Agriculture operates in a world shaped by weather, geography, culture and biological systems. Outcomes are difficult to model and even harder to predict.

Yet despite those challenges, Shashi remains convinced that agriculture represents one of India's largest untapped opportunities.

"Agricultural productivity is abysmally low in India."

Improving productivity, farmer incomes and resilience, he argues, could unlock enormous value not only for rural India but for the country's broader economy.

Looking beyond dairy

Despite building one of India's best-known organic food brands, Shashi rarely talks about milk first. He talks about farmers. He talks about villages. He talks about culture.

Most of all, he talks about making farming worth choosing again.

The future of Indian agriculture, he argues, depends less on convincing consumers to buy organic products and more on convincing young people that farming can be a meaningful and prosperous profession.

That is why, even after 16 years, he keeps returning to the same idea.

"Farming is culture."

And unless that culture finds its next generation, the challenge facing Indian agriculture may be much larger than most people realise.