Nitin Gadkari launches portal for you to buy groceries directly from farmers along with these benefits

Technology for MSMEs: MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday launched an online farm-to-fork service VedKrishi.com promoted by farmers for selling non-toxic farm produce. The platform set-up by Nagpur-based farmer producer organization VedKrishi Farmer Producer Company will home deliver grocery products including dairy goods, vegetables, grains, and pulses, apart from pickles, juices, sauces, etc. The company will connect farmers directly with consumers through the platform. Registered consumers would be able to schedule their order in advance for one year. Moreover, Vedkrishi will also support other farmers through consultation around best practices in organic farming. However, the online portal is not operational as of now and will take some time to launch services.

“Due to Covid, things are not moving as required to launch this but we plan to launch in around a month or two. Initially, we will expand in Nagpur and surrounding areas targeting to onboard 300 farmers as the initial target, and later we would scale to Maharashtra and then pan India. We are a group of urban farmers who thought of coming together to launch this for spreading our activity,” Ashish Kaswa, Founder Director, VedKrishi.com told Financial Express Online.

While online home delivery will be enabled for consumers but they would also be able to buy products offline as VedKrishi “plan to have regular and fixed schedules of our Shop on Wheels,” according to the website. For farmers, VedKrishi would offer advice on day-to-day farming issues and paid visits to Vedkrishi farms to “understand more about VedKrishi,” the website read adding that it would also help in “sustainable income for farmers.”

The portal once operational will bear resemblance to other grocery portals like Grofers and BigBasket. Moreover, consumers would be able to know farmers they are buying goods from with details mentioned along with the product listed on the portal, Kaswa added.

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Congratulating VedKrishi farmers for establishing the portal, Gadkari also stressed on the need to have economic viability of the model. “We need to prove science with successful economics. We need to reduce costs and improve the quality of the products. With our Vedic science and at the same time organic farming, you exclude chemical fertilizer (based farming). But with VedKrishi, I request you to take success stories to farmers and train them to get productivity and profitability,” Gadkari said while launching the portal via a video conference. Apart from mentoring and guiding farmers on better farming techniques, VedKrishi would also provide farm inputs like compost, biofertilizer, pest control solutions, etc. It would also offer solar dryers to farmers to dry and process the farm produce for zero wastage and through affordable means.