A bridge between farmers and buyers

Added on 04 May 2020

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A young marketing graduate of Basavanabagewadi taluk buys horticulture crops straight from the field and sells them to big shops in cities. At the time when horticulture farmers are struggling to sell their produces, because of the lockdown, a marketing graduate has come as saviour to many such farmers of the district with his registered agency.

Jagadish Sunagad (25), native of Kolhar village of Basavanabagewadi taluk, has already made transactions of over ?60 lakh by directly buying horticulture crops such as watermelon, onion, banana and other vegetables from the farmers.

Having registered his Basavanabagewadi Horticulture Farmer Producer Company in June 2017, the agency acts as a bridge between farmers and the buyers.

With over 1000 farmers already registered with his agency to supply horticulture crops, Mr. Sunagad said that lockdown has given more significance to the agency. "During lockdown, the farmers are anxious as they are not getting buyers. Their commodity is either getting perished in the farm itself, or they are forced to sell at dirt-cheap price. Our agency came forward to help the farmers find a market."

Mr. Sunagad told The Hindu said that he purchases the commodity and sells it back in two ways: locally and to other cities.

"If I procure small quantities of fruits and vegetables, I sell them locally in the taluk where I get many buyers; in case of large quantities many multi-brand shops in Bengaluru buy from me. I receive orders in bulk, so I transport large quantities of fruits and vegetables to them."

He also sells the produce to similar agencies of different districts. "I buy the commodities that I don't have from other agencies. Similarly they buy from me what they don't have. We later sell them to multi-brand shops."

He claimed that so far, he has sold over 200 tonnes of watermelon, over 500 tonnes of onion, over 700 tonnes of banana and over 50 tonnes of vegetables.

Girish Telagi, a banana farmer of Kolhar village, is one such beneficiary of Mr. Sunagad's company. Having cultivated banana in his four-acre farm, he was not finding buyers during lockdown.

"I normally get buyers from Belagavi, but after lockdown, they did not come. My commodity was getting wasted at the farm itself. At that time, I came to know about Mr. Sunagad. When I contacted him, he came to my farm and purchased around 50 tonnes of banana for a good price. He pays money within couple of days itself. Otherwise I would have incurred heavy loss", he said.

Source and Photo Courtesy of The Hindu