MANDI MINUS THE MIDDLEMAN
Some net-savvy farmers are
going straight to the buyer with discounts and freshness guaranteed
Priyanka Shah's is no aam farm. Yes,
it does grow alphonsos but it doesn't take them to the market via the
middlemen, old school style. Instead, this second-generation farmer goes
straight to that maha-market the Internet.The upshot? Shah gets bulk orders
ranging from 5-20 kg for the mangoes even before they are plucked, at a nifty
price of Rs 90 per kg which is a good bargain for both Shah and her clients.
With a Facebook page dedicated to
Shah Mango Farms, Priyanka has ensured that her 50-acre estate, which also
grows chikoo and litchi, delivers great deals to the consumer. “Our family
business is 50 years old, and it was time to get online. We now have bu ye r s
f ro m Va d o d a r a , Ahmedabad and Mumbai,“ says the business graduate from
Westminster University , who dispatches bulk orders from her Vapi farm to
cities in Gujarat and Maharashtra.“We charge Rs 1,800 for 20 kg of alphonso
-cheaper than market rates. It makes sense to bypass middlemen and directly
access the buyer,“ says Shah, who also plans to start a dairy business website.
Further out west, in Pune,
agriculture graduate Pratiksheet Avinash Malwadkar saw the scope of the online
market for farmers and started his site paneerwala.in last year. “We grow
garlic, sugarcane, chilli and drumstick.However, we used to have 30 cows, and
that is how the business began with milk products,“ says the 28-year-old
Malwadkar. “People think farmers are not aware of the Internet, but there many
who use WhatsApp to keep in touch,“ says Malwadkar who takes online orders for
ghee, paneer, khoya, rice and some seasonal vegetables in and around Pune city
. Besides his own product, he also sources from farmers nearby .
For Prabhal Mohandas, a farmer from
Palakkad, Kerala, taking the brown `Matta' rice online was a logical step.“We
have a website (dakshfarm.com) and an android app (available on Google play). I
get money directly from the customers and there is no worrying about
distributors and middle men,“ says Mohandas who supplies to clients in
Karnataka, Bengal and Mumbai. “Many people sell artificially coloured rice in the
market, so our rice is sought after since it is natural,“ he says. Mohandas
sells 150-200 kg rice per month for Rs 100 per kg, all grown on his 10-acre
farm. While Shah, Malwadkar and Mohandas have independently taken their produce
online, not all farmers see the need to start their own website, but go with an
aggregator who can help find them a suitable bulk or retail buyer online.
MeraKisan.com is one such e-commerce platform for farmers. “We have removed t h
e m i d d l e m e n , “ s ay s Prashanth Patil, founder, Merakisan.com, who
claims to have a database of over 18,000 farmers across India. This
Bangalore-based portal which started operations last year also has an SMS
service and plans to launch an app next month. “We ask farmers and consumers (individuals
or companies) to register on our site for free, and we connect one group with
the other,“ Patil says.
According to a recent report
published by investment bank UBS, the Indian e-tail market will grow 10 times
by 2020 to $50 billion. Ambitious farmers like Sanjay Pawar from Nashik,
Maharashtra, believe they stand to reap a healthy harvest at online aisles.
Pawar, who has tied up with the Delhi-based online organic food marketer `I Say
Organic', says, “I got into organic farming in 1996, but back then we only sold
at a farmer's market in Mumbai.For the last four years however, the online
market has given us steady business.“
Paw a r f a r m s t o m at o e s,
grapes, pomegranates and onions. “I plan to have my own website. The
competition is growing, and the Internet has no middlemen.Rates are fixed,
which is good for us,“ says Pawar, who also plans a website that provides an
`instant cooking package' with vegetables in small packets as well as
coriander leaves, onion, a ginger piece and a garlic pod. “Office-going folk
can buy it to cook a fresh meal instantly at home, without the hassle of buying
groceries in bulk from the market,“ he says.
Akansha Kapoor, marketing manager, I
Say Organic, says it is associated with 10 far mer groups, which include 400
farmers with organic certification, across the country.
Making farmers aware of the demand
for organic produce online and getting the right certifications is the next big
step, says Pawar, who is also a member of a farmer collective in Nashik. “We
are trying to get organic farming accreditation for all our farmers. It is only
a matter of time before they can sell online directly,“ he says.
|
Sharon Fernandes
|
TOI14JUN15
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