Aman Kumar, a TISS graduate, returned to Unnao in Uttar Pradesh to create Nutty Village, a social enterprise focused on empowering smallholder farmers by transforming locally grown groundnuts into value-added products like peanut butter and energy bars.
When Aman Kumar walked across the stage to collect his master’s degree from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai, his heart was pulling him back to the fields of his hometown in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh. It wasn’t the offices in a city that called to him, but the dirt paths winding through the village, the patchwork of farmland and the farmers who toiled day after day, earning a piffling sum for their hard work.
In those fields, a vision began to take root. This would eventually grow into Nutty Village, a social enterprise that is quietly reshaping Unnao’s agricultural landscape — one groundnut at a time.
Located in the plains of the Ganga, with the sacred river flowing close by, Unnao should have been on the map for its agricultural prowess. But it wasn’t. A rural town surrounded by hardscrabble villages, it was home to smallholder farmers struggling to make a living. Among their crops are groundnuts — peanuts to some in the world — grown in fields largely unrecognised by the wider market.
While the farmers worked tirelessly, they earned as little as Rs 35 to Rs 40 a kilo for their groundnuts, barely enough to cover their costs.
When we started this venture, people didn’t even know that Unnao had such a vast crop of peanuts,
Kumar said. “They were surprised to learn that groundnut farming happens here at all.”
His concern for Unnao’s farmers had begun when he was at TISS. It was during a problem-mapping exercise that he and his future co-founder Sushant Barma stumbled upon a crucial realisation: the key wasn’t just in growing the groundnuts, but in transforming them.
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In urban areas, peanut butter and plant-based protein products were booming — with consumers willing to pay a premium for organic, preservative-free options. What if the farmers of Unnao could tap into that market by creating these value-added products themselves?
Nutty Village was born in 2019, seeking to bridge the gap between smallholder farmers and the marketplace, empowering them not just to grow crops but to benefit from the value-added products derived from them.
Kumar and Barma began small, initially selling vegetables to local restaurants, but their encounters with peanut farmers near the Ganga pulled them in a new direction. They realised that with the right resources, these farmers could do more than sell raw peanuts at a low price — they could produce something far more valuable.
Together, they formed groups of local farmers, many of them women, and trained them in organic cultivation methods. These women tended the crops and became part of the value-added process.
Nutty Village provided the infrastructure and training necessary for de-shelling, sorting and grading the nuts. Then, in a small but bustling workshop, the groundnuts were transformed into peanut butter and energy bars — products free from preservatives.
The name Nutty Village captured the essence of the enterprise: a product born from the ground, nurtured by the community. But the true essence of the venture lay in its mission to create a fairer food system, one that didn’t exploit farmers but empowered them.
We are working with small farmers at the grassroots level to ensure sustainability,
Kumar said. “Our goal is not just to sell a product, but to create a system that benefits everyone — from the farmer to the consumer.”
What also sets Nutty Village apart is its business model. It operates on a blended finance model, creating producer groups of women farmers and providing them with seeds, organic fertilisers and the knowledge to farm sustainably. It’s a system that doesn’t just support individual farmers — it builds a community.
By promoting groundnut and millet cultivation, Nutty Village has also contributed to biodiversity. These crops, often grown in rotation with others, help restore soil health and reduce reliance on water-intensive crops like wheat and rice.
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“Groundnuts are an excellent source of protein not just for consumers but also for the farmers themselves,” Kumar said.
Nutty Village has garnered attention for its innovative approach. It has been invited to participate in food expos, received grants from organisations like United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and earned accolades from both Startup India and StartinUP.
The UNDP grant, in particular, was awarded for their efforts in creating a transparent and traceable value chain from farm to table, ensuring that consumers know exactly where their peanut butter comes from and how their purchase impacts the lives of farmers.
The enterprise is now expanding into other value-added products, including energy bars and plant-based protein powders.
Last year, Nutty Village sold products worth Rs 2.5 lakh. This year, they are on track to earn around Rs 18 lakh in sales, an increase made possible by expanding their presence on e-commerce platforms.
Farmers associated with the venture have already seen their incomes rise by 30 percent, and as Nutty Village expands, it hopes to bring more into the fold. A group of 50 farmers is currently supported by the enterprise, and plans are underway to connect with farmers from 60 more villages under the Namami Gange scheme, which promotes natural farming.
Yet Kumar’s ambitions stretch even further. He dreams of replicating Nutty Village’s model across India, with different crops and in different regions, creating a nationwide network of smallholder farmers who can produce and sell value-added products that are as good for the planet as they are for consumers.
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The lead image on top depicts Nutty Village founder Aman Kumar interacting with a farmer family involved in the cultivation of groundnuts and Thai guava. (Photo courtesy Team Nutty Village)
Unnati Sharma is a Village Square Fellow ’24. She works as a journalist, writer and translator.
