TIRUCHY: The pandemic has been hard on everyone, especially farmers who find it almost impossible to source labourers and transport harvest to market. To help their cause, two youngsters joined hands with an entrepreneur to sell directly to consumers.
Manoj Dharmar and J Sagayaraj helped avocado farmers in Kodaikanal last month. Encouraged by the success, KR Venkatesan, MD of KRT Motors reached out to them to help lemon farmers at MR Palayam in Tiruchy. Lemons are in demand as they are rich in Vitamin C, which is said to boost immunity.
Through social media, the trio sold more than 300 bags of lemons a day, each bag containing 5 organic lemons at a cost of Rs 20 per bag. A farmer would get Rs 4 per lemon, instead of the 30-60 paise they got if they sold to an agent or wholesaler.
“There are about 100 farmers with 200-250 acres of land. They usually sell their produce to mandis. This year has been especially difficult for them and they have made only 50 paise on an average, which doesn’t even cover labour cost,” said Venkatesan.
The transport, packing and distribution was taken care of by Venkatesan and his staff. Last month, the volunteers helped avocado farmers sell almost 1000 kgs. “In our first lot, we were able to sell 300 kg and in second lot 600-700 kg. The demand was so high that we hired two delivery boys who lost their jobs,” said Manoj Dharmar, also the founder of Shine Treechy.