Maharashtra’s Aniket Gharge and Jay Sidhpura began the Indian Farmer Marketers (IFE) Retailer, an internet market to lend a hand farmers immediately promote their produce and value-added merchandise to customers with out the interference of middlemen.
Maharashtra’s Sachin Gore grows sugarcane and turmeric in his 3.5-acre farmland however was once at all times depending on middlemen to promote his produce.
“I used to promote merchandise to middlemen at a fee of 30 p.c. If I give them produce for Rs 90 in line with kg, they promote it for Rs 120-150. So, they have been those reaping the income for my produce,” he tells The Higher India.
Exploitation by way of intermediaries within the farming sector is a longstanding factor. In spite of being the manufacturers, farmers obtain much less source of revenue within the farm-to-consumer provide chain, which is managed by way of middlemen.
A couple of years again, the 43-year-old farmer even attempted to take his lifestyles. “Our scenario was once very unhealthy. We might no longer get enough source of revenue for our produce. I’ve a circle of relatives of 8 to seem after,” stocks the Gove village resident.
Nowadays, the farmer can promote his produce-based merchandise, like jaggery and turmeric powder, in the course of the Indian Farmer Marketers (IFE) Retailer. This on-line market liberates farmers from middlemen’s keep an eye on.
“Right here, we would not have to provide any quantity for fee. We discover the program extraordinarily really useful for small farmers like me as we can not promote such a lot produce on my own. It additionally is helping us promote to puts rather than Maharashtra,” says Sachin, who manages to get orders for as much as 50 kg of produce from the platform.
In the back of the e-commerce platform are faculty buddies Aniket Gharge and Jay Sidhpura. They have got collaborated with no less than 20 farmers from throughout Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh because the release of the platform in 2022.
Getting rid of the hurdle
Coming from a circle of relatives of farmers, Aniket from Vadagaon village in Satara at all times had a zeal for farming. After graduating in pc engineering, he labored in a internet construction corporate in Pune for a yr. On the other hand, in 2017, he took the soar and began his personal YouTube channel to proportion tales of farmers.
“Since my faculty days, I want to talk to farmers and perceive their problems,” says Aniket, who has round 2.5 lakh subscribers on his YouTube channel these days.
All through the stint, he discovered that despite the fact that the federal government promotes natural farming, there was once rarely any devoted market the place farmers can promote such merchandise with out the assistance of intermediaries.
“Farmers earn higher source of revenue with value-added natural merchandise, however no one tells them the place they are able to promote them. Additionally, a bulk in their time is going into rising plants and can not make investments their power in advertising the goods,” he says.
“Due to this fact, they’d promote their merchandise in the community, however regardless of just right high quality, they wouldn’t earn up to they will have to on account of middlemen. So I sought after to create a big market for farmers in order that they are able to earn first rate earning with none interference,” provides the 28-year-old.
So remaining yr, Aniket blended his hobby in farming and tech background to release a market for farmers along side his faculty buddy Jay, who manages product listings at the site. With rarely any funding, they designed the site to lend a hand farmers immediately promote their merchandise to customers and get rid of the lengthy chain of intermediaries.
Past Maharashtra
Farmers succeed in out to Aniket thru his YouTube channel and social media. Aniket then visits their farms to investigate cross-check the goods. Farmers will have to supply FSSAI licenses for the goods. As soon as the registration procedure is finished, which comes to sharing their data and product main points, the goods are indexed at the site.
The accumulated merchandise are saved in Aniket’s warehouse in Satara till they’re allotted to customers according to call for. When orders are available, the goods are packaged from the warehouse and dispatched to consumers by way of courier carrier.
“In case your product prices Rs 100, then we will be able to show the similar. We don’t price anything else rather than the packaging value which is Rs 10. For our customers, we’ve got additionally recorded documentaries at the production and processing of each and every of our merchandise,” says Aniket, who concurrently runs a virtual advertising industry for survival.
Highlighting one of the crucial demanding situations in operating the sort of market, he says, “Occasionally, merchandise didn’t ship on account of carelessness on the finish of courier firms. We need to make more than one calls to make sure merchandise succeed in customers on time.”
On the other hand, “Some great benefits of the gadget are larger than its demanding situations. In a span of a yr, we’re estimated to have just about doubled their source of revenue. This has additionally helped farmers enlarge the buyer base from Maharashtra to around the nation,” he provides. With IFE Retailer, farmers are in a position to promote their merchandise to consumers in additional than 15 states together with Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Assam.
The platform recently has over 25 classes of goods — together with jaggery sweets, air fresheners, pickles, rose jam, millet merchandise, and spices. Up to now, they’ve controlled to cater to about 340 consumers, and Aniket plans to enlarge the e-commerce industry in different states and attach extra farmers to the platform.
It’s with this motivation that Aniket continues to do the paintings regardless of reluctance from his circle of relatives.
“My oldsters are farmers, however they at all times sought after me to surrender farming and earn a good source of revenue in an engineering task within the town. I imagine that I will have established a just right occupation within the IT sector, the place there would were task safety. However I’m lucky to pursue my pastime and be of a few lend a hand to farmers on the identical time,” he stocks.
Edited by way of Pranita Bhat