Vishal Jadhav has always been very
concerned about nature, which is
one of the reasons for which he
developed a love for it. It created
a will to do something for nature. Moreover,
his family being into agriculture, he had seen
many problems faced by marginal farmers,
just like his father at one point in time.
“Through the years, I have witnessed how
he [Vishal’s father] sows crops with hope
in his heart but the situations change
during harvest. Markets are saturated and
profits are affected by many factors. In
any corporate or industry, employees get
paid according to their performance, but
unfortunately our conditions are not the
same. In the families of farmers, every
member engages in the work, from the
children to the eldest, but most of the
time, they incur losses or minimal profits,”
Jadhav shares.
A different road
Jadhav talks about his change in career
path. “Due to our plight, my family wanted
to educate me and wanted me to get a well-
paying job. I tried my best and got admission
in an engineering college, that too through a
bad financial situation. However, in my 2nd
year of engineering, I got connected to an
organisation for a Sustainable Agriculture
Development Programme where I joined
as a volunteer. Through this programme,
I met different organic farmers who had
successfully implemented organic farming
in their fields with very less production cost
and are running them with good profitability.”
The problem arose when it came to the sale
of their produce. They didn’t have access
to the organic market where they could
get fair prices for the fruits and vegetables
they grew.
Jadhav wanted to work for the environment
as well as farmers, and this was the
perfect opportunity, so he decided to develop
the supply chain to link farmers to the
organic market.
Convincing his family to start a new line of
work was nowhere close to easy. Marketing
the produce to a wider consumer base was
also a big challenge initially, but Jadhav
kept going and searched online for people
from Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi and other
metro cities to increase the demand. The
trials and tribulations didn’t end there.
Transportation costs being high, sending out
small amounts of products was risky. Jadhav
recalls the time when customers used to pay
him and the farmers lesser money because
they received the perishable goods in an
altered form.
Although discouraged by these problems,
his motivation was built again by stronger-
willed farmers, increased number of
customers, a strong team, and efficient
division of labour. Being closely connected
to the farmers for creating an unofficial
yet authentic farmers’ group also helped
Jadhav a lot. The logistics and packaging
have improved to maintain good quality
as well.
In 2018, Jadhav, along with other farmers
associated with Ecokisan, started an
organic farm to popularise the concept
in their district. “We started awareness
about organic farming and selling organic
fruits and vegetables through WhatsApp
orders. By seeing our work, many farmers
started engaging in organic farming. With
government institutions initiating organic
missions around Nashik, the movement
picked up and more farmers came on
board while bringing customers along.”
They have come along a long way, with the
e-commerce app Orgofarm to make selling
easier. Furthermore, Jadhav wishes to
see a fair market for everyone, especially
for the tribal farmers who cultivate
crops without any harmful pesticides or
fertilsers. He wants to develop the value
chain for organic products domestically
as well as internationally.
Each one teach one
Jadhav agrees to tell us a bit about the
famous Kesar Mangoes of Nashik. “The
Kesar Mango is specially grown in the
tribal region of the district. The regions of
Peth, Surgana, Trambak, etc in Nashik are
blessed by nature, so all the crops grown
in the region are 100 per cent natural. We
onboarded these farmers in our Ecokisan
FPC and certified them as per NPOP organic
standards of organic farming. The Kesar
Mangoes were also registered on mango
net, required for export. We completed our
first international order in May.”
Ecokisan FPC supplies organic food prod-
ucts like millets, pulses, grains, vegeta-
bles, and fruits in Gujarat, Delhi, Karna-
taka, Haryana et al. Other than the Kesar
Mangoes, Jadhav wishes to export other
products too.
Commenting on the role of the government
in the organic farming sector, he acknowl-
edges the support to farmers in certification
and the infrastructure setup, while sug-
gesting that the lab checking facility prices
should be lowered for them. He also ad-
vocates for training and awareness cam-
paigns in support of organic farming. It
can be started as a chain, he says, where
“some farmers are first trained, and they
continue the learning process while they
get paid for their efforts at teaching/train-
ing others.” This would be a motivating
factor for everyone to get into the organic
sector as they would have guides to take
their doubts to, and the teachers would get
extra income
