A Case Study of a Young Evolving Social Enterprise: Under the Mango Tree

Abstract

This case study looks at a young sustainable hybrid social enterprise Under the Mango Tree (UTMT) comprising primarily of UTMT Company (For-profit) which is a market-focused, customer-centric, and profit-driven business enterprise and UTMT Society (Not for profit) which focuses on alternate livelihood options through technical and capacity building, credit linkages and institutional development. The present focus of UTMT Company is on penetrating with innovative marketing techniques the niché gourmet food sector with unique single and multi flora honey which have been sourced from various small producer groups and beekeepers society. UTMT Society focuses on building the capacities of small and marginal farmers by providing technical training and handholding in beekeeping. Pollination is one of the crucial functions for increasing agricultural productivity that has been traditionally neglected by Indian policymakers; bees being one of the most important pollinators play a crucial role in the process. Drawing from this understanding the Society has evolved a unique blueprint for its work which is the 'Bees for Poverty Reduction Strategy (BPR)' which has been piloted in the tribal districts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. A complete replicatable empirical model is in the process of being developed. UTMT as a hybrid social enterprise aims to develop a model within the next three years wherein the producer would hold a substantial stake, the evolution of which is being influenced by various diverse stakeholders. The focus of this paper would be in understanding the BPR strategy at two levels, firstly understanding the uniqueness of the strategy and secondly analyzing the effectiveness of the strategy in the evolutionary context of the entity wherein the role of the Society is also changing. This study would provide in a capsule a unique allied agriculture holistic livelihood strategy which aims at empowering every small farmer by increasing incomes as well as productivity.