Creating a marketing platform for farmers

​Anantapur: The Uppanethalapalle Natural Farmers Producers Mutually Aided Cooperative Society (MACS), which is a federation and network of natural farmers, bagged the Best Natural Farming Practices Award in the twin States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Recently, MACS received the award from Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekara Rao and Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu through Rythu Nestham Foundation (RNF).

Parthasaradhy, a young IT professional turned natural farmer is not only pursuing natural farming in his more than 30 acres of land but is also spearheading a movement for promotion of natural farming. Being an IT professional he is working hard in the farms to rope in all natural farmers on a single platform for the purpose of creating a web of networks of natural farmers for facilitating the ease of doing good business and marketing.

He does the marketing for products such as papaya, pomegranate and sweet lime and also vegetables that includes tomatoes, chillies and onions apart from millets, pulses and rice. The quest for finding marketing avenues to make the natural farming movement a big success has constrained the campaigner to create networks of natural farmers and link them with individual consumers as well as market forces.

Unless the farmers find marketing avenues, the natural farming movement would die a slow death, says Parthasaradhy, the founder of the Uppanethalapalle MACS. Marketing is where everyone had failed and we would succeed where everyone has failed, a confident Parthasaradhi avers.

Kiran Reddy, a farmer of Raptadu village told 'The Hans India' that he is growing papayya in 10 acres of land which is organic. Reddy added that initially he had a hard time trying to find market for his crop. He said that after knowing about the natural farmers’ network of Uppanethalapalle soil, he joined the federation. Now his harvest is being marketed hassle-free in Benguluru.

Parthasaradhy has embarked upon creating networks of natural farmers spread in the Telugu speaking states and were able to communicate with thousands of farmers. The society he registered, is now dealing with marketing avenues to its members either in Hyderabad or Benguluru.

In the Garden city, he has linked his society with corporate malls including Big Basket, 24 Mantra, Reliance, and hundreds of organic shops in the city. He also has an MoU with 10 communities having a minimum of 300 to 5,000 homes who liked the organic products supplied by his society. Most of his individual consumers directly gives online orders and collect them directly from his village godown.

The MACS society is now planning to set up a highway bazaar between Anantapur-Benguluru highway for selling the farmers products and also value added by-products in the form of fruit juices etc. It will also be a collection point for farmers’ products straight from the farms for transporting the same to nearby Benguluru and Hyderbad. Godowns, cold storages and pack houses will be part of the Grand Highway Bazzar, he adds.

Another educated farmer of Anantapur, Prashanth Naidu says that with the emergence of online marketing networks, the day is not far off when the federations of farmers would be able to dictate terms to market forces and not with regard to price fixation. Horticulture Deputy Director Subba Rayudu told 'The Hans India' that very good work is done by educated farmers who are creating massive network of farmers.

The Department of Horticulture is taking many steps for marketing of farmers products. The creation FPO’s and Highway Bazaars are a step in the direction. Quality is the buzz word which all urban buyers are insisting on. The farmers should think on the lines, he adds. The farmers, private buyers and the government departments should work together for creation of infrastructure facilities, which is prelude to upgrade the district into a horticulture hub.

By Ravi P Benjamin