NEW DELHI: The extension of the lockdown has caused problems of procurement for the Centre and farmers across the country are anxious about their crop. To ease their anxiety and with an aim to help sell their produce directly to the customer, Harvesting Farmer Network (HFN) is connecting over 10000 farmers across the country directly to customers through social media.
According to Ruchit Garg, founder of the HFN, the platform has helped farmers from across the country sell over 2 lakh kg of produce in the past 15 days.
The social media account of the platform was launched only 18 days ago. “We need to support small farmers right now, more than ever. A platform for small farmers which allows them to effectively market and sell their produce directly to the consumer is the need of the hour,” Garg said and added that given the good response, a website is in the making.
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Farmers too are happy with the initiative. Ramkelawan Sahu, a banana farmer from Bemetara in Odisha sold a portion of his produce due to the efforts of HFN. “I was having trouble in selling my produce but HFN helped me. Now I have sold at least 40 per cent of it,” he said.
HFN puts out the farmers’ numbers on social media and the details of the produce to help nearby people connect with them. Subsequently, the farmer and the consumer directly negotiate the price of the produce.
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HFN does not charge any money for their services. Another beneficiary of the initiative is Ram Prasad, a fig farmer from Karnataka.
“This initiative helped me as I was able to even cover the transportation cost of my produce. If the buyer is nearby, we don’t charge as much but for distant buyers we include the transportation charge,” he said.
Garg has recently moved back to India from US after 11 years to work in agriculture with small farmers.
“Given the problems faced by the farmers during the lockdown, we moved from giving actionable solutions to helping them sell their produce,” Garg said and added that the initiative has found many takers in the south as compared to the north.