Jawar is a commonly grown crop in northern Karnataka and the Jawar roti is a dietary
staple across the region. It is eaten almost daily at homes and local hotels. From Narendra
village in Darwad district of Karnataka is Sumangala Patil, a home-based entrepreneur.
After her daily household work, Sumangala Patil along with her husband Ereya make Jawar roti
in their house and supply them to neighbouring families and petty shops. Traditionally, roti
rolling is done by hand but for Sumangala Patil and her husband who eke out a living
by roti making, a roti rolling machine is a choice to improve their income. With financial
aid from Shreekshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project, Darwad, the family could
buy the machine. However, frequent power cuts during working hours are impeding productivity
and income. Sumangala Patil, while attending a market-oriented livelihood training program
at the community hall in the village, organised by an NGO, Best Practices Foundation, discovered
that she had an additional market which she could cater to if the machine is solar powered.
The foundation advised her about Selco. Selco's Darwad branch staff made multiple visits
to the entrepreneur to understand her business in detail including solar powering the machine,
financials, operations and market. Since Sumangala Patil was depending on the
roti rolling machine and the solar powered roti rolling was the first of its kind, Selco
did not want to modify the existing machine. Had the technology failed, it would have risked
the entrepreneur's livelihood as well as the trust built over time. Thus, Selco invested
in a separate solar powered machine in addition to her existing grid powered machine. This
eventually proved to be a cost and energy efficient machine.
After making 150 rotis earlier, now with this machine, Sumangala Patil is able to increase
that number to 450 rotis a day. At the time of bulk orders, the machine has a capacity
to make 800 to 1000 rotis a day. Through such interventions, Selco is able to address the
unique local needs in livelihood applications.
