The Change Towards Sustainable Agriculture Is Being Led By Smallholder Farmers
It is no secret that the agrarian sector is the lifeblood of India’s food security and economy, nor does the lack of basic amenities in this vital industry surprise anybody. But, unfortunately, such is the calloused state of the country’s conscience that the limited discourse around the challenges faced by the better part of the industry, the smallholder farmers (those with less than 4 hectares of holdings), takes place out of tokenism and with insufficient details.
On the other hand, consumption in Indian society is on the rise, demanding more and more of the agriculture sector. The biggest trend in the consumption pattern is moving towards sustainable food, for which a certain societal elite is willing to pay a premium.
Some smallholders, committed to taking advantage of this trend, are moving towards sustainable farming to get the best price for their tireless efforts despite the challenges they face. Intending to bring a more drastic shift towards sustainability among smallholder communities, here are a few challenges they face and potential remedies for the problems:
Smallholder farmers grow modest amounts of produce on small land holdings. They grow traditional crops which are sold at lower prices than their input costs for local consumption.
Compared to commercial farmers, smallholder farmers have fewer resources and less scientific and technological knowledge. They lag behind in areas like digital literacy, crop selection, regenerative farming and many more.
Regenerative agriculture can minimize greenhouse gas emissions by rebuilding soil organic matter and sequestering carbon. However, the transition phase often results in higher expenses and lower yields. While farmers may want to change, the perceived risk is high, and adoption is not occurring at a scale fast enough.
Smallholder farmers must be trained extensively in cost optimization, farm management, storage, and digital solutions in agriculture to maximize the yield without compromising on eco-friendly practices. Today, this lack of training poses one of the biggest problems, hindering smallholders from adopting efficient farming practices.
An effort towards the goals
Incepted with a vision to bring substantial change, Harvestify has become a renowned for-profit social enterprise dedicated to the socio-economic development of marginalized smallholder farmers. Seeded in 2014, Harvestify enables producing and processing sustainable Non-GMO agriculture grains for leading food product manufacturers.
Similarly, through a unique training plan delivered by its twin initiative, the non-profit Ek Sankalp, Harvestify has created a two-fold training procedure for a smallholder farmers network to educate farmers in batches of up to 100 at a time.
With Ek Sankalp, farmers receive training in sustainable agriculture followed by revenue-generating strategies, which allows them to earn a premium by selling their produce at designated auction locations under government supervision.
At Harvestify, the authenticity of trade is established through unique barcodes and QR codes generated against tax duty on the purchase price of every crop sourced from the farmers.
To further maintain traceability across operations Harvestify recently built a blockchain-based traceability tool to trace the real-time data of sustainable agriculture and supply chain operations and they are now working on its commercial implementation.
At the helm of both organizations, Harvestify and Ek Sankalp, lie the vision and zeal of Mr. Ram Naresh Singh. About sustainable farming in India and the efforts of his organizations, he said, “India needs a countrywide revolution in agriculture, which will take us on the track of sustainable living. The positive impact on agriculture will have to begin right from the smallholder farmers who need to be trained in a variety of sustainable farming methods, farm management, suitable storage practices, strategies to lower their input costs and digitization. Following the training, for which Harvesity and Ek Sankalp toils incessantly, farmers will be equipped to change their socio-economic position and receive a 20–28% premium without worrying about market volatility.”
Today, through the constant efforts of Mr. Ram Naresh Singh, Harvestify and Ek Sankalp have jointly been able to build a network of 12000 smallholder farmers in India and have grown their reach to 200 smallholder farmers in Uganda.
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