Organic red lettuce, brinjals, potatoes, grapes, capsicum… The list is endless. These are few of the many fresh farm produce that have been put up for sale on Twitter. The six-week lockdown has badly affected several sectors due to the various restrictions imposed around the country. Among those hit very hard are the farmers, who have been forced to find ways to sell their produce without the usual supply chain support, directly to the customers.
Harvesting Farmer Network (HFN) does exactly that – connect farmers who are looking for means to sell their produce and consumers who are looking to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. The handle, which was formed a few days ago, is run by Ruchit Garg, a seasoned entrepreneur. The 41-year-old from Chandigarh is involved in agriculture related business opportunities after returning to India following a stint in the US.
After coming back to India, Ruchit started a company named Harvesting, essentially a virtual support group for farmers looking for advice on crops and agricultural practices. “The primary work we do is to monitor the entire crop land at a global scale through satellites and provide inputs to government agencies. This helps them understand the ground realities better,” Ruchit says in an interview to TNM. For example, if your crop is turning yellow, you can post that on the app and there are other farmers who can help you out, he explains.
During the lockdown, Ruchit realised that many residents in his own apartment complex were looking to buy fresh fruits and vegetables but didn’t know how to procure them and from where. “It then struck me that I do have a huge network of farmers on hand who want to sell their produce. On the other hand, we have communities who are not able to buy daily essentials. I just decided to promote the details of farmers and the produce available online, so that interested buyers can contact the farmers directly and buy from them,” he says.
Initially Ruchit tweeted about five or six details such as the location, quantity, crop name with pictures and videos. These tweets garnered traction and soon requests began pouring in from across India about vegetables and fruits available for sale. Moreover, a few companies also contacted the farmers to buy produce in bulk based on HFN’s tweets.
“More and more people are tagging us, and companies like Ninjacart have also expressed interest in procuring produce from the farmers directly,” he notes.
Interestingly, HFN is still a one-man team with Ruchit handling the details and communication aspects in between his meetings.
The public response to HFN has been nice, Ruchit says. A cursory scroll through the network's Twitter page is evidence of the overwhelming response as almost all the tweets with the details of produce and quantities have responses from interested parties. HFN also has a few inputs from farmers from the tribal areas of Odisha and Manipur.
“A few IAS officers have also reached out to me saying that they can arrange passes for farmers who want to deliver their produce. It is a community effort where everybody is trying to help each other,” Ruchit explains.
Many other apps have also approached Ruchit asking for permission to add farmer information on their apps, which could help them get more customers. “We have told them to go ahead and do it. Ultimately the goal is to help the farmer in whatever way we can,” he says.
One of the major issues anybody who visits the HFN page faces is that it is difficult to look for state-specific produce, since it involves scrolling through hundreds of tweets. Having identified this problem, Ruchit says that he is setting up a website just for HFN, in which farm produce can be searched based on the location where it is available.
“My goal here is to present farmers in a way that consumers can connect with them directly. We will also make arrangements to show the process behind growing the produce, the farmers’ journey, etc. so that it would pique the interest of the consumers,” he explains.
When asked whether HFN would continue its work even after things return to normal after the lockdown, Ruchit answers with an emphatic ‘yes’. “We didn’t have an idea that we would be doing this even 10 days ago. Now that we have seen that it is getting a good response, why not. Farmers have it really hard in life, they are underserved. Most of the money goes to the middlemen leaving only a negligible amount for the farmers,” he says, adding that HFN’s aim is not to eliminate middlemen but to maximise returns for the farmers, who put in a lot of effort to grow the crops.
Ruchit also has the gruelling task of filtering out frivolous information from HFN’s profile, which includes big farmers who cultivate crops in an area of more than 100 acres. “With active feedback from people, we differentiate between big farmers and small farmers while posting details on Twitter. It is an ongoing process. We want to help everybody, but small farmers are the ones who need the most help,” he points out.