BHUBANESWAR: Soaps made from donkey’s milk by a UP-based start-up ‘Organiko Beautifying Life’ stole the show at the two-day startup conclave at SOA university here on Saturday. The startup has been manufacturing and marketing skin care products made of donkey milk. Its founder Pooja Kaul claimed donkey’s milk comprises several anti-ageing properties, and skin nourishment components and contains healing potential.
After collecting donkey’s milk from the Ladakh region, the startup has been manufacturing different kinds of soap from it. Donkey milk, priced at Rs 1,300 per litre, contains a high amount of anti-ageing, nutraceutical, antibiotic and nutritional substances.
Pooja said the benefits of using this soap could be ascertained within four to five weeks. “We have produced anti-ageing, anti-acne, anti-pigmentation and hydrating soaps from the milk without using any chemicals,” she said. The market price of this soap has been fixed at Rs 500 per cake.
Similarly, a startup funded by Devaram Purohit of Gujarat has been making business with manure prepared from cow urine. He said organic agriculture could be done without chemicals by using cow urine powder as fertiliser. Two young men from Kalahandi - Biren Sahu and Biswabandhu Padhi too drew attention for their startup ‘Manikstu’, which has taken up goat farming to prepare ghee from goat milk.
Speaking on the occasion, managing director of Wow Factors India Pvt Shankar Goenka said the use of drones in agriculture would result in less water consumption, prevent farmers from snake bites and will protect their health.
“More than 50,000 farmers die from snake bites in India every year. Our goal is to introduce drones in agriculture in more than six lakh villages in the country within the next three years,” he said. Managing director of Livelihood Alternatives Sambit Tripathy stressed on educating the new generation about new technologies and ideas to adapt to climate change and increase agricultural production.
The conclave has been organised by Livelihood Alternatives, a social enterprise, in association with the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA)-iSEED Foundation, PACE Foundation and SOA. As many as 60 startups, including 10 from Odisha, working on new technology have joined the conclave. Around 300 farmers from 65 blocks of attended the conclave.