From village to global markets, UP's daughters lead organic food revolution, create jobs for rural women

Inspired by the vision of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, two women from Uttar Pradesh have launched a successful millets-based organic food startup. Their journey reflects the growing role of women-led businesses in the state and the push towards self-reliance and sustainable farming.

After creating a strong presence in the Delhi-NCR market, the founders are now preparing to expand their products to Gulf countries, where demand for organic and healthy food is rising rapidly.

The startup is led by Shikha Singh Chauhan and Soumya Singh, both alumni of Delhi University. Instead of choosing conventional careers, they returned to their villages and started working with local farmers and women. Shikha Singh Chauhan holds a postgraduate degree in Food Technology from the National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, while Soumya Singh has a BTech in Food Technology from Delhi University.

More than 15 rural women are currently employed in the unit, handling production, processing, and packaging. The initiative has created steady income opportunities for women who earlier had limited access to employment.

The founders work closely with small farmers, training them in natural and chemical-free farming methods. Raw materials are sourced directly from farmers ensuring fair prices and removing middlemen from the supply chain. This transparent farm-to-fork model helps consumers get clean, nutritious and organic food products.

The startup received support through the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) of the Uttar Pradesh government. This helped expand the processing and packaging unit, increase production capacity and strengthen the women-led agribusiness model.

The company supplies a wide range of products including organic pulses, spices, ghee, millet pasta, millet noodles, multigrain items, sattu chilla, and khandasari sugar from Baghpat. Apart from Delhi-NCR, products are also being supplied to NAFED. The founders are also working on developing special products for government nutrition programmes.

With global demand for organic and millets-based foods growing, the next focus is exporting to Gulf countries. The startup is upgrading packaging and quality control to meet international standards under the "Made in UP" brand.

The success of this millets-organic food startup highlights how government support, sustainable practices and women empowerment are shaping a new entrepreneurial identity for Uttar Pradesh - one that is ready for global markets.