Farmers vs Supermarkets
Location : India
Typical Summer season :
Start: wohoo.Summer is here. bye-bye jackets
Climax: when will rainy season come? this heat is too much. Cant wait for first rain smell.
Typical Rainy Season :
Start: There you go !! finally rains. bring on the paper boats, bhajiyas + tea.
Climax: Tired of this wet weather. Give me some sunshine.
One good rainy season or 1 good rainy day - we indians tend to forget pain of entire drought season.
One good Summer season or a nice weather day - we tend to forget pain of entire floods/epidemic season.
But you know what - Rain or Summer - our dear farmers are suffering whole year.
Why ??
Cant we have Action-item oriented log of what went wrong. Yup i agree things are improving and many people are doing much better job and actual work as compared to me writing a blog.
But hey many good ideas patents have been created by a small letter / post / wishlist. a HONY page has created so much awareness and donations - i am not an iota of what they do but just clearing little bit for writing a blog.
Could you please help me list reasons : why farmers in India suffer and why don't we buy from small vendor farmers.
1. No direct farmer-to-consumer channel ?
today farmers sell to merchant, merchant sell to middlemen/ corporates and then to direct consumers.
why cant farmers sell directly : logistics issue ? Return-on-Investment (ROI) very less ? Renting a space- employee oriented setup requires investment, management overhead . so i am sure many farmers will opt for quicker way out.
2. No fix pricing at vendors shop.
If you go to a small farmers market in india - you wont see price tag. Typically you have to ask price for each item. Price will vary on quantity and familiarity of client. 250 gms of anything is most expensive. e.g. 250 gm of tomato is 20 Rupees, 500 gm is 38, 1Kg is 70. If a regular customer is there - vendor will say madamji you are regular - for you it is 60 rupees.
I think this model is not scalable and actually it hurts lot of ego. I dont want to be fooled during a small errand like buying vegetables. I will like to go to a shop/supermarket where i dont want to haggle, price tag is clear and doesn't vary for each person. Not everyone who buys from mall is buying for nice presentation. They want clarity.
This is my view and hence i need feedback whether lot many people think this way
I have seen so many examples of absurd protest like dumping 1000 kg of onions on road for lack of good price / wasting tomato on road just to protest. It really hurts to see so much wastage and abuse too. Farmers wont waste their dear produce on small provocation. We need to get to basic cause for their protest and suicides. I really salute to people like nana patekar who are working with these guys.
How can we help ?
1. Donations : donating for upliftment of poor farmers.
2. Adopt a family : we can volunteer to teach / tutor farmer/poor kids so that atleast we can strikeout their 1 worry - good education/future for kids.
3. buying directly from small / poor farmers.
4. have more events like cherry picking days / weekly / monthly farmer day where you leave your house and go to them for buying/ teaching
5. teach importance of agriculture from school level
i am just listing some ideas in my mind..please add or correct them.
Typical Summer season :
Start: wohoo.Summer is here. bye-bye jackets
Climax: when will rainy season come? this heat is too much. Cant wait for first rain smell.
Typical Rainy Season :
Start: There you go !! finally rains. bring on the paper boats, bhajiyas + tea.
Climax: Tired of this wet weather. Give me some sunshine.
One good rainy season or 1 good rainy day - we indians tend to forget pain of entire drought season.
One good Summer season or a nice weather day - we tend to forget pain of entire floods/epidemic season.
But you know what - Rain or Summer - our dear farmers are suffering whole year.
Why ??
Cant we have Action-item oriented log of what went wrong. Yup i agree things are improving and many people are doing much better job and actual work as compared to me writing a blog.
But hey many good ideas patents have been created by a small letter / post / wishlist. a HONY page has created so much awareness and donations - i am not an iota of what they do but just clearing little bit for writing a blog.
Could you please help me list reasons : why farmers in India suffer and why don't we buy from small vendor farmers.
1. No direct farmer-to-consumer channel ?
today farmers sell to merchant, merchant sell to middlemen/ corporates and then to direct consumers.
why cant farmers sell directly : logistics issue ? Return-on-Investment (ROI) very less ? Renting a space- employee oriented setup requires investment, management overhead . so i am sure many farmers will opt for quicker way out.
2. No fix pricing at vendors shop.
If you go to a small farmers market in india - you wont see price tag. Typically you have to ask price for each item. Price will vary on quantity and familiarity of client. 250 gms of anything is most expensive. e.g. 250 gm of tomato is 20 Rupees, 500 gm is 38, 1Kg is 70. If a regular customer is there - vendor will say madamji you are regular - for you it is 60 rupees.
I think this model is not scalable and actually it hurts lot of ego. I dont want to be fooled during a small errand like buying vegetables. I will like to go to a shop/supermarket where i dont want to haggle, price tag is clear and doesn't vary for each person. Not everyone who buys from mall is buying for nice presentation. They want clarity.
This is my view and hence i need feedback whether lot many people think this way
I have seen so many examples of absurd protest like dumping 1000 kg of onions on road for lack of good price / wasting tomato on road just to protest. It really hurts to see so much wastage and abuse too. Farmers wont waste their dear produce on small provocation. We need to get to basic cause for their protest and suicides. I really salute to people like nana patekar who are working with these guys.
How can we help ?
1. Donations : donating for upliftment of poor farmers.
2. Adopt a family : we can volunteer to teach / tutor farmer/poor kids so that atleast we can strikeout their 1 worry - good education/future for kids.
3. buying directly from small / poor farmers.
4. have more events like cherry picking days / weekly / monthly farmer day where you leave your house and go to them for buying/ teaching
5. teach importance of agriculture from school level
i am just listing some ideas in my mind..please add or correct them.
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