Hyderabad: City-based Naandi Foundation wins Rockefeller Prize

Hyderabad: The city-based Naandi Foundation has won Rockefeller Foundation Prize as one among the top 10 visionaries in the world for the Food Vision-2050 prize money of $2 lakh.

The prize money was given in recognition for its vision, which, the Rockefeller Foundation in its communication to the Naandi said,"its vision can reveal a path forward to a nourishing, resilient, sustainable and equitable food system for 2050, if not well before. We think the global community can be activities to learn from and take ideas from your vision," it said.

The contribution of the Naandi has been recognised for selecting to the prize money based on its "Arakunomics model" being rolled in the regions of Aravku Valley in Andhra Pradesh, Wardha in Maharashtra and New Delhi, leading to the Food Visions 2050.

The Hyderabad-based non-profit competed with over 1300 entities at a two-level contest that was spread over almost a year. Rockefeller Foundation will be releasing immediately $ 1.5 lakh and the balance of $50,000, after a 3-month accelerator programme that is intended to help it realise its visions.

The success of Arakunomics in Araku region led to Naandi replicating the model to support the livelihoods of farming communities in the village of Wardha-infamous for agrarian distress as well as later in New Delhi, as part of an Urban Farms Co., programme. Naandi hopes to expand its food-print by creating thousands of farm livelihoods by transforming their agriculture over 1 million acres spread across India.

The Naandi board was headed by Anand Mahindra of Mahindra Group, besides, Kris Gopalakrishna who co-founder Infosys, Rajendra Reddy Maganti, Chairman, Soma Enterprises and Satish Reddy, Chairman of Dr Reddy's Laboratories. Its programmes are spread in 19 States in the country and it has so far impacted seven million lives, Naandi said.