11/08/2026
๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ: ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐บ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต ๐๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฎ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ด๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐.
Today, at the South-South Knowledge Exchange on Productive Use in Dairy Value Chains, our Country Director, Edgar Kapiza Bayani Snr, together with participants from Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Nepal and India, visited Akshayakalpa Organic Private Limited and Akshaya Kalpa R&D Centre in India.
The visit offered a powerful lesson in how a dairy enterprise can build resilience by looking beyond milk production alone.
Co-founded by a Veterinary Doctor and an Engineer, Akshaya Kalpa was born out of concern over declining interest in agriculture. Climate uncertainty, volatile market prices and changing food systems were pushing farmers away from agriculture and towards the cities.
The founders decided to act.
Their vision was to rebuild farmersโ confidence in agriculture through a systems-thinking approach of combining production support, organic quality control, farmer capacity strengthening and market access.
They identified dairy as a particularly promising enterprise because, unlike many agricultural commodities, it can generate income on a daily basis.
The company established an R&D unit to test ethical and sustainable dairy production practices, including animal housing, handling and feeding. It then worked with farmers and deployed extension workers to scale these practices.
The results are remarkable.
From processing just a few hundred litres of milk about 10 years ago, Akshaya Kalpa now works with more than 3,000 farmers and processes over 200,000 litres of milk per day into 61 different organic products. The company is the first enterprise to receive certification for organic dairy products and supplies its products across four states in India. Farmers receive premium prices and can earn the equivalent of about US$1,000 per month on average.
But perhaps the most important lesson is what happens before the milk reaches the shelf.
Akshaya Kalpaโs model connects soil health, fodder production, animal health, housing, feeding, milking, hygiene, chilling and processing. Farmers are encouraged to use manure to enrich the soil, producing nutritious Napier grass for animal feed, which in turn supports quality milk production.
Milking is done using machines that are carefully cleaned, including with hot water generated largely through solar geysers. The resulting nature-based production system also contributes to healthier dairy herds and reduces the need for chemical treatments that could compromise organic milk quality.
The key message for Malawi is clear: renewable energy is important, but it is only one component of the dairy value chain.
This is particularly relevant to the Advancing Productive Use of Renewable Energy in Dairy Value Chains in Malawi project. While dairy farmers in Malawi lose an estimated 41% of their milk due to power outages or lack of reliable electricity, simply addressing the milk-chilling challenge will not, on its own, deliver maximum returns.
We need to look at the whole ecosystem. From production and animal health to feed, milking, milk handling, aggregation, chilling, processing and markets we should identify where renewable energy can create the greatest value.
As CEM undertakes ecosystem assessments and operationalises renewable energy solutions with selected Milk Bulking Groups (MBGs), and as we strengthen the capacity of producer associations and farmer groups, these lessons from Akshaya Kalpa will be an important part of the conversation.
Productive use of renewable energy is not just about powering equipment. It is about strengthening the entire system around the farmer.
A big thank you to SELCO Foundation for hosting this valuable South-South learning exchange, with support from International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
