Chicken Business Takes New Direction HIMALAYAN FREE RANGE

Text by Ujeena Rana

Mowgli Dodhia is a Kenyan who met Gita Dhakal in Nepal and between business dealings they fell in love and got married. Mowgli got into a legal fix and sought help from corporate lawyer, Shikhar Pandit. Shikhar liked Mowgli’s vision of farming hybrid chickens and proposed to join hands as a business partner.

Call it coincidence or design, the three very different personalities came together in an unlikely partnership that is set for business success.

Mowgli is also rewriting and refining his first novel. “It’s a fictional novel that I am working on,” he shares. As most writers will tell you, writing is a systematic process; it is a patient vocation. You don’t hit perfection in one attempt, you shuffle things, go back to the beginning, write, rewrite and rewrite before you get the version you want. He is using this same eye-for-detail and unwavering focus to get the perfect hybrid from selective breeding of indigenous chickens at their farm.

“I was primarily dealing with black rice, Italian tomatoes, basil - the kinds you would not find commonly. I came as a foreign investor into this country,” he shares about his past. But now poultry has taken precedence, and the venture called Himalayan Free Range is spread on 10 ropanis of land.

Gita belongs to a ‘pure Brahmin’ family with not even eggs allowed at home. When she was doing her undergrad studies, she had to leave for Dubai to help with the family’s dismal financial condition. When she was back home after two years, she did not want to return to the 14-hour shift job. Moreover, her studies were being hampered. “My friends in the US and Australia were studying. And here I was in a gulf country working long hours. This really disturbed me,” shares Gita. She was 23 and empowered, and she knew that she would no longer allow others to dictate her life course.

When she madde up her mind to get into the poultry business, her father who is a driver started to collect chickens from different parts and brought them home to his daughter. “I was clueless about local chickens but I wanted to try my luck. With three chickens I started business in March 2017,” Gita narrates.

Himalayan Free Range works with free range chickens that are not kept in controlled temperatures. Mowgli says, “I studied a little bit of poultry farming back in Kenya when I used to live there. I worked with Guinea fowls”. He has also spent some time as an intern at the Agriculture Research Institute in Kenya working with farmers. “In every country, like India, Kenya, Nigeria what they do is breed a type of chicken from the indigenous breeds that can survive all conditions and give more productivity to the farmers. Even though a few experiments had been done with Nepali indigenous chickens, no one has gone full throttle into research as we are,” shares Mowgli.

“Moreover, it takes years of labour, passion, studies, to continue with testing and experiments, and failures and successes. So, grit and focus are integral elements that underscore our principle at Himalayan Free Range,” adds Shikhar.

Normally, you would not expect a lawyer to be versed in poultry vocabulary but spend some time with Shikhar and you know that he knows what he is talking about.

Shikhar had rescued Mowgli from a legal ordeal, and continued to meet him. Mowgli was struggling with the thought of closing down and liquidating his project for indigenous chickens and organic farming. He came to Shikhar again for help. He would then move back to UK. Shikhar recalls, “When I came here and saw the setup, I said to myself that mixing a couple of breeds and testing chickens like a mad scientist cannot just be a hobby. They had a good setup but business was not taking foothold. I saw the potential. I convinced both of them to stay back awhile.” Shikhar helped set up a couple of systems and map out some business ideas. “Mowgli is the brain but you still need to have technicians and professionals. We also hired fulltime staff to help in administration and sales. In the first month itself, we collected a good number of clients. We have about 70 buyers from all over Nepal, all farmers and they buy in lots,” elaborates Shikhar.

When Shikhar joined, they were predominantly agriculture based. “A foreigner comes to Nepal, sees opportunity here, and brings in technology to maximise production and comes up with great products. That sold me and then I saw the chickens. I saw potential. I am a lawyer and I don’t see my business grow at the same rate as this. It was bad because he was going through difficulties but it was good in the sense that it was an opportunity to come together. Everything just fell into place,” shares Shikhar about the partnership.

“What inspired me the most was the excitement to do something new. And also break the market and break the stereotype. Nepal can do something with its own chickens that idea was inspiring enough,” shares Mowgli about his reason to dive into the cross-breeding business.

He calls himself ‘lato’ for not being able to navigate his ways through Nepal’s system and unearthing the ways people work here. So, when Shikhar came on board, he felt as he could now focus on his core competency. He says, “It’s the perfect partnership! I am just a hobbyist. I don’t have business acumen per se”. Shikhar adds, “I don’t know if that is completely true. A lot of people I see in Nepal, all these startups, all these companies which have done well, I don’t think these people started a business; they actually liked what they were doing. They did not take it as a business. It is not a job. Mowgli comes up with brilliant ideas - ideas which are business savvy as well. The problem is, he comes from the West where things work as they are supposed to work. Nepal, unfortunately, is behind in the sense that we say something, we do otherwise.”

He also adds, “I am a corporate lawyer. I only deal with corporate clients so I get to see how businesses are run. I have been back in Nepal for about eight and a half years. I kind of have gathered knowledge on how things work in Nepal and how to secure your interests,” states Shikhar.

Jurelli is the name given to the hybrid chicken that Himalayan Free Range has created after years of selective breeding. Nepal’s first indigenous pure hybrid is what they claim it to be.

The team works on three kinds of indigenous chicken breeds: Ganti Khuile (the one with naked neck), Dumse (the one with frizzled feathers) and Sakini (a term broadly used to cover every single breed of chicken in the country). “These three breeds are the chickens that we have been selectively breeding,” informs Gita.

Mowgli is a vegetarian therefore he had to trust the taste buds of his business partners and others to make changes in chicken feed to make the meat more palatable and to make the meat’s texture better. “I also had them participate in blind tasting. I would put before them a variety of meat and would ask them questions regarding the taste and the texture of each kind,” confides Mowgli.

Ironically, Nepal is one of the few countries which has not explored cross-breeding of the home-grown indigenous chickens.“What Nepal has been doing is to take chickens from India, New Hampshire Chicken (from America) and Australorp from Australia. But the biggest reason why that’s not a good idea is because of the climate difference and the diseases. Big chickens eat a lot and it is difficult for the farmers to feed them. And we are bringing them from outside. They come here, they are not even indigenous. They are susceptible to diseases. So, instead of that, we thought of breeding for Nepal,” briefs Mowgli.

They do not have proper data nor a reliable source to verify the number, but according to Shikhar most industry experts say that imported chickens have 80 to 90% mortality rate. They die easily. “We don’t have real numbers. I don’t know if anyone has real numbers. We realised immunity is a primary element in poultry farming. Somehow, because these chickens (Jurellis) are indigenous, they have strong immunity. Moreover, along the process of mixing, their genetic makeup got more refined and therefore stronger,” explains Shikhar.

Mowgli shares that he has always been passionate about genetics and breeding from a young age. “When I was merely six years old, my dad helped me breed fish and I used to have the best looking ornamental fish, the Gabby. Selective breeding has been my passion from a young age. My dad very patiently taught me about cross-breeding when I was at home, sick and I could not attend school for three months. Dad used to look at aquarium books and teach me things. Luckily, fish lay eggs every month so I could learn easy and my dad and I could experiment. With time, the hobby took a gigantic shape of passion,” narrates Mowgli.

Another amazing resource for him was HICAST, a science journal published by Himalayan College of Agricultural Science and Technology. They publish research articles, reports, studies on chickens and other agriculture related topics. “Besides, Biovac Nepal, has been of great help with our scientific experiments and testing and proof,” adds Gita.

The only way science works is through records. The team has been documenting the progress and changes in their chickens since early days. “We have put tags on their legs. We record how many eggs they lay. We have been working though their generations, and testing and testing, experimenting and seeing how things work,” encapsulates Mowgli about their three and a half years long toil with the project.

In the course of testing and experimenting with different lines of Jurelli, the team also put the chickens through rigorous immunity tests. “Our greatest achievement has been to produce a stable generation. When you breed two chickens, you never know how they are going to turn out. But we are at this point where we know 100% how they will turn out. We have stable Jurelli. We can guarantee how they will turn out. We have hit stability with the 5th generation of Jurelli. Now, we know which lines to cross to produce the perfect chicken,” shares Mowgli beaming with pride.

“From March 2020, we will actually be selling our Jurellis. But that being said, this is not the end,” says Shikhar enthusiastically. Scientists and professors from Nigeria who Mowgli is in contact with say that what they have done so far is great but more rigorous tests are needed to achieve what they have set out for. “We are focusing on improving our Jurelli to continue to get better. We will be selecting the best from the lot and still experimenting to see if we can get the best of the best. We will select the best and again cross-breed them. Our hopes are high and the potential is ridiculous but we need to remember that we are still a startup. We are not pumping money and saying ‘let’s do everything’. It is going to take time. Let it take time. But we have finally come up with a product which is already good,” states Shikhar.

To an untrained eye, every chicken looks the same. But Jurelli is different from the local and imported ones on multiple grounds. From the total 413 local chickens collected from 42 districts of the country, they prepared different lines and ran tests on them. But the current stable Jurelli is from 64 different types from different Dumse, Sakini and Ghanti Khuile that have been crossed. “Three and a half years of mixing all these breeds and finally we have come to the fifth generation where we have consistent traits; the traits we wanted,” shares Shikhar.

The hybrid Jurelli has following characteristics: a strong immune system; they lay 3X more eggs than the local chickens (Local lay around 60 eggs while Jurelli lays 180 eggs in a year); they weigh 40% more ; they can survive a meaner diet; Giriraja and New Hampshire chickens are heavy and therefore slow and can’t run becoming easy prey, not Jurelli; Giriraja need more calories so feed on green produce e.g. spinach in the kitchen garden destroying vegetation but this hybrid just eats bugs and small creatures in the kitchen garden; a five and a half month old Jurelli weighs 2 kgs on average while a local chicken weighs 1- 2 kgs maximum in rare cases.

Himalayan Free Range sells chicks, eggs and sometimes live chickens.
About their target customers, the team says that they are aiming to sell Jurellis to households, general farmers and not to commercial farmers.
The partners say in unison that their sole objective is to breed the world’s best chickens and eventually put Nepal on the map.

The team works on three kinds of indigenous chicken breeds: Ganti Khuile (the one with naked neck), Dumse (the one with frizzled feathers) and Sakini (a term broadly used to cover every single breed of chicken in the country). “These three breeds are the chickens that we have been selectively breeding,” informs Gita.

Mowgli is a vegetarian therefore he had to trust the taste buds of his business partners and others to make changes in chicken feed to make the meat more palatable and to make the meat’s texture better. “I also had them participate in blind tasting. I would put before them a variety of meat and would ask them questions regarding the taste and the texture of each kind,” confides Mowgli.

Ironically, Nepal is one of the few countries which has not explored cross-breeding of the home-grown indigenous chickens.“What Nepal has been doing is to take chickens from India, New Hampshire Chicken (from America) and Australorp from Australia. But the biggest reason why that’s not a good idea is because of the climate difference and the diseases. Big chickens eat a lot and it is difficult for the farmers to feed them. And we are bringing them from outside. They come here, they are not even indigenous. They are susceptible to diseases. So, instead of that, we thought of breeding for Nepal,” briefs Mowgli.

They do not have proper data nor a reliable source to verify the number, but according to Shikhar most industry experts say that imported chickens have 80 to 90% mortality rate. They die easily. “We don’t have real numbers. I don’t know if anyone has real numbers. We realised immunity is a primary element in poultry farming. Somehow, because these chickens (Jurellis) are indigenous, they have strong immunity. Moreover, along the process of mixing, their genetic makeup got more refined and therefore stronger,” explains Shikhar.

Mowgli shares that he has always been passionate about genetics and breeding from a young age. “When I was merely six years old, my dad helped me breed fish and I used to have the best looking ornamental fish, the Gabby. Selective breeding has been my passion from a young age. My dad very patiently taught me about cross-breeding when I was at home, sick and I could not attend school for three months. Dad used to look at aquarium books and teach me things. Luckily, fish lay eggs every month so I could learn easy and my dad and I could experiment. With time, the hobby took a gigantic shape of passion,” narrates Mowgli.

Another amazing resource for him was HICAST, a science journal published by Himalayan College of Agricultural Science and Technology. They publish research articles, reports, studies on chickens and other agriculture related topics. “Besides, Biovac Nepal, has been of great help with our scientific experiments and testing and proof,” adds Gita.

The only way science works is through records. The team has been documenting the progress and changes in their chickens since early days. “We have put tags on their legs. We record how many eggs they lay. We have been working though their generations, and testing and testing, experimenting and seeing how things work,” encapsulates Mowgli about their three and a half years long toil with the project.

In the course of testing and experimenting with different lines of Jurelli, the team also put the chickens through rigorous immunity tests. “Our greatest achievement has been to produce a stable generation. When you breed two chickens, you never know how they are going to turn out. But we are at this point where we know 100% how they will turn out. We have stable Jurelli. We can guarantee how they will turn out. We have hit stability with the 5th generation of Jurelli. Now, we know which lines to cross to produce the perfect chicken,” shares Mowgli beaming with pride.

“From March 2020, we will actually be selling our Jurellis. But that being said, this is not the end,” says Shikhar enthusiastically. Scientists and professors from Nigeria who Mowgli is in contact with say that what they have done so far is great but more rigorous tests are needed to achieve what they have set out for. “We are focusing on improving our Jurelli to continue to get better. We will be selecting the best from the lot and still experimenting to see if we can get the best of the best. We will select the best and again cross-breed them. Our hopes are high and the potential is ridiculous but we need to remember that we are still a startup. We are not pumping money and saying ‘let’s do everything’. It is going to take time. Let it take time. But we have finally come up with a product which is already good,” states Shikhar.

To an untrained eye, every chicken looks the same. But Jurelli is different from the local and imported ones on multiple grounds. From the total 413 local chickens collected from 42 districts of the country, they prepared different lines and ran tests on them. But the current stable Jurelli is from 64 different types from different Dumse, Sakini and Ghanti Khuile that have been crossed. “Three and a half years of mixing all these breeds and finally we have come to the fifth generation where we have consistent traits; the traits we wanted,” shares Shikhar.

The hybrid Jurelli has following characteristics: a strong immune system; they lay 3X more eggs than the local chickens (Local lay around 60 eggs while Jurelli lays 180 eggs in a year); they weigh 40% more ; they can survive a meaner diet; Giriraja and New Hampshire chickens are heavy and therefore slow and can’t run becoming easy prey, not Jurelli; Giriraja need more calories so feed on green produce e.g. spinach in the kitchen garden destroying vegetation but this hybrid just eats bugs and small creatures in the kitchen garden; a five and a half month old Jurelli weighs 2 kgs on average while a local chicken weighs 1- 2 kgs maximum in rare cases.

Himalayan Free Range sells chicks, eggs and sometimes live chickens.
About their target customers, the team says that they are aiming to sell Jurellis to households, general farmers and not to commercial farmers.
The partners say in unison that their sole objective is to breed the world’s best chickens and eventually put Nepal on the map.