Often, challenges pave way for opportunities, and Bhibhu Sahu’s story is a testament to that.
Originally a primary school teacher, Bhibhu, a rice mill owner from Kalahandi in Odisha, quit his job in 2007 to start a paddy business. Carrying on rice trading for the next few years, he decided to enter the rice mill business in 2014 and was selling rice commercially by 2016.
But rice mills produce large amounts of rice husk, which is usually burned in the open and is hazardous to the environment, in turn adversely affecting health. To solve this problem, Bibhu began exporting the rice husk ash to steel companies across the globe, and now earns lakhs from it.
“Kalahandi is the second-largest producer of rice in Odisha and produces around 50 lakh quintals annually. There are over a dozen para boiling companies who treat rice in mills, and the quantity or husk generated is enormous,” he says.
He adds that his mill generates around 3 tonnes of rice husk every day. “The husk is…