Laxman Paudel, a resident of Dang, used to serve as a policeman. During the decade-long insurgency (1996-2006), he was forced to quit his job due to pressure from the Maoists.

He struggled to eke out a living for him and his family. He then worked as a vendor selling wrist watches in the tourist town of Pokhara. His business wasn’t that good. So, one of his friends suggested to him, sell spices instead.

“When I started the business, I had invested Rs400,” Paudel said. He added, “I used to sell black pepper syrup, turmeric powder, flour and other household materials, going  home to home.” His wife used to accompany him by selling fruits from a traditional Nepali bamboo basket.

His friend who introduced the idea of selling spices, sent him to India to train at a spice production factory. After his return, he founded Kalika BM Agro Company in 2009. Now he produces fibre flour, barley, black pepper syrup, and grounded pulse.

A few months ago, he participated in a fifteen-day fair in Butwal, where he showcased his products. At the fair his products sold like hot cakes. Paudel said he made a profit of Rs1.85 million in the fair. He sold 7, 000 black pepper syrup bottles at the fair.     

Paudel had initially started his business on a leased land in Butwal but now at Nawalparasi’s Tulsi Nagar, he’s expanding his business on his own land.

Paudel participated in a two-month AgriBusiness Boot Camp 2017 recently hoping to expand his enterprise effectively. The program was organised by Nepal Entrepreneur Hub. 25 businesspeople and 50 participants along with Paudel took part in the first ever boot camp to promote agricultural business. The camp was supported by the World Bank and INFO DEV. The co-sponsor was Business Oxygen (BO2).

At the boot camp, the 25 business people have been learning to harness their skills to uplift their enterprises. The organisers believe that they will be able to help the selected agricultural businesspeople towards sustainable development. Moreover, the camp will help startup companies to execute their projects both financially and structurally.  

Nepal Entrepreneur Hub’s Bijendra Joshi believes that the participants will be able to acquire required skills to boost their companies. Also, the participants will be taught by business experts on various topics such as import, supply chain, value added tax, market-focused expansion, the process of law, buying, distribution, investment, and partnership.

The selection process for the boot camp was strict to pick out the best of best.

Businesspeople and those who had new ideas along with startups were invited to fill out forms separately between February 12 and March 10. Altogether 641 had filled the forms, including 383 startups and 258 businesses. Both groups went through a pre-judging process round where only 65 startups and 46 businesses were selected.  

The selected 46 businesses then went through “speed dating” on April 1, where only 20 were selected. Furthermore, 25 participants, 5 startups, and 20 businesses participated in the “AgriBusiness Boot Camp” from April 21 to 27. Every day the participants were trained in the supply chain, packaging, value production, customer segmentation, branding, finance, and sales and distribution. On the last day, participants gave their presentations. The judges selected  the top 20.

Nepal Entrepreneur Hub’s official Susan Karmacharya said that co-sponsor Business Oxygen will invest in seven outstanding projects. “This boot camp is a first of a kind in the world and even the World Bank plans to replicate the experience in other countries,” she said.