ROOT CAUSE: One of the aims is to help city dwellers understand where their food is coming from and foster a c... Read More

Swamyraj Kulkarni, 40, had never sown a plant in his life. But the yearning for fresh, chemical-free subzi made the IT professional turn farmer in March. The experience has been “eye-opening”, he says. “Now, I know what I eat and grow what I eat.”

But Kulkarni didn’t quit his job and take to the plough. He simply signed up with the startup Farmizen and rented a 600sq-ft plot near his home in north Bengaluru to grow organic vegetables. Every fortnight, he visits the farm with his fiveyear-old daughter and eight-year-old son to work with his farmer-partner Prithvi, who looks after the crops in his absence. There’s also an app that lets him track the status of his crops, and barter excess vegetables with members living nearby.

A number of other initiatives are also taking the headache out of farming. In Delhi, Kapil Mandawewala’s startup Edible Routes, which helps people set up kitchen gardens, has started offering a 2,400sq ft ‘farmlet’ with a free workshop and fortnightly veggie delivery for six months for Rs 29,992. “A terrace is never going to be enough to grow the majority of your food requirements,” he points out. “This also creates a community of like-minded people who are conscious about how they live and eat.”

Gurugram’s Mayuri Sharma signed up with Edible Routes after being unsuccessful in growing vegetables at home due to lack of sunlight. “It is not easy to access organic food yet, and this is also more cost-effective in the long run,” says Sharma, 35. Also, having spent her childhood amidst kitchen gardens, she wanted her three-year-old daughter to grow up knowing the “delight of getting your own gajar and mooli”.

Launched last July, Farmizen has a small but growing subscriber base of over 800 members spread across 14 farms. Founder Shameek Chakravarty, who hit upon the idea after his own stint with farming, says the biggest draw for customers is trust. “In a survey, 67% of our customers said they didn’t trust what was being sold in the market. This is directly farm to fork,” says Chakravarty.

Social enterprise Indian Superheroes is also planning to launch a similar farm app in Chennai, after getting an enthusiastic response to farming workshops in Coimbatore, where participants could rent a farm for a trial month.

Since models and prices vary, it’s difficult to tell whether these services are actually cheaper than buying organic produce. Subscribers of Farmizen pay a monthly fee of Rs 2,500 in return for leasing a 600sq ft plot which yields an average of 5-6kg of vegetables every week.

For Rs 60,000 a year, Delhi’s Organic Maati provides a one-acre plot for a year, and a supply of organic pulses, grains and vegetables, divided equally between the subscriber and the startup.

Yet Deepak Gupta, a banker who founded Organic Maati in 2016, says that urban farmers are also drawn to the experience itself. “It is about the joy of farming in its raw form, with fresh air, the sound of birds chirping, no gadgets, highrises and industries, and plenty of exercise, rather than just consuming the food delivered to your doorstep,” says Gupta.

Subscriber Saurabh Thirani simply wanted to connect with nature. “People like me who work in a fancy office for an MNC feel that gap in our lives even more acutely,” says the Gurugram-based CA, who visits his farm every weekend.

One of the aims is to help city dwellers understand where their food is coming from and foster a closer relationship between them and farmers. The ventures also claim to help farmers get a regular income and a bigger share of the sales by cutting out middlemen, besides encouraging natural farming methods without pesticides and chemical fertilisers. For example, Farmizen has a 50-50 revenue-sharing arrangement with farmers. Chennai’s Valam Organics focuses on community farming, where members share costs, work load, and the harvest based on initial investment. Valam, which focuses on local crop varieties of paddy and pulses, leases land from farmers who, in turn, get a monthly salary and a portion of the yield.

“Farmers get the worst deal in the economic pyramid. If we buy vegetables for Rs 50 a kilo, the farmer gets Rs 2. They are misled by companies into buying irrelevant equipment, seeds, fertilisers and get into a debt trap. The only way to solve this was by giving them financial security,” says Gupta of Organic Maati, which employs landless migrant farmers on a fixed income.

One of them, Phool Chand, 28, from Barabanki in UP, came to Delhi after his family was forced to sell off most of their land in the village. “I earn more money and have a place to stay. The new job has helped me increase my monthly savings by Rs 3,000,” he says.Now, startups let city folk play real Farmville

