Agriculture is the primary occupation in India with 42.6% of the workforce employed in agriculture. It is the backbone of the state of Punjab, where I reside. Since 2020, thousands of farmers from North India (mostly from Punjab) have been engaged in a conflict with the Government over 3 farm laws related to the selling of their produce. After in depth study on the matter and upon interaction with the farmers, I realized that they were selling their produce through middlemen or ‘arhityas’ who facilitate the transaction between the farmers and the buyers and charge a commission for the same. This practice greatly reduces the monetary profits of the farmers who toil tirelessly in their fields. Witnessing this unfortunate tradition deeply impacted me and steered me towards curating a platform like ‘Farm to Folk’. Through this medium, my endeavour is to bring the farmers into direct contact with their prospective customers, thereby eliminating the middlemen and the commission paid to them. This translates into a win-win situation for the farmers who are able to fetch a better revenue for their produce as well as the customers who are able to buy fresh produce at more reasonable prices
VISION
My vision for this project is to expand it rapidly yet in a planned manner so that it provides increased income to the farmers, efficiently caters to the customers while simultaneously becoming a promising start-up venture for me. I look at growing the ‘Farm to Folk’ family to include as many farmers and customers as possible.
THE FARM TO FOLK JOURNEY
My project entailed the use of basic technological skills to operate the app. To equip the farmers with this, I enrolled them in the IT training centers listed as part of the PMKVY scheme whereby the Government provides free skill training to the country’s youth. On my end, I put together an efficient team to take care of all the aspects of this project so that I, along with my team would be able to turn this vision into reality.