Eleven farmers from Maharashtra’s rural parts of Shrirampur Taluka of Ahmednagar District and Junnar Taluka of Pune District lost regular incomes and markets for their vegetables and fruit produce due to the sudden outbreak of Coronavirus in March 2020. They were struggling to find ways to sail through the challenging times. But this bunch of progressive farmers, some of whom have strong academic backgrounds and experiences through their degrees in Agriculture, management, and previous experiences of working in agriculture retail chains, though not to surrender to the woes of the pandemic, rather find a novel concept of supplying their produce directly from their fields to the doorsteps of the people. Initially started by registering orders through WhatsApp and Phones and supplying to a few housing societies in Mumbai and Pune in extreme lockdown times, the group started seeing a spurt in demand with rising orders for their farm-fresh, hygienic, and quality produce. With initial success, the group then decided to take the idea to a larger scale by setting up a technology – platform by creating an App and floating its website to get the orders.
Starting with a mere turnover of Rs 40 Lakhs in the first two months, KisanKonnect has seen over 2,000 farmers connected with them for supplies of vegetables and fruits, crossing Rs 8 crore turnover selling hundreds of boxes every day in Mumbai and Pune.
Source- Krishi Jagran
