What is Farm Fresh?
In Farm Fresh we are currently working on improving the social and economic status of farmers. Despite Punjab being an agriculture based state, small farmers lead a miserable life. Majority of them are poor and probably succumb to their debts every year. They are constantly being plagued by problems such as inadequate irrigation facilities, small and fragmented land holdings, population pressure, exploitation by middlemen and so on. Low standard of living and lack of basic amenities such as electricity is a common problem. Since launch of project Farm Fresh at Enactus IIT Ropar team has proved its worth. Profit margin has been increased significantly and solar lamps have been provided to solve the problem of electricity.
Business Model
Negating the presence of middlemen, we have established a direct link between tenant farmers and college's mess for buying fresh vegetables. Earlier, the farmers used to sell the vegetables in local market (mandi) from where the mess contractor bought it at exorbitantly augmented prices. With the direct trade between farmers and mess contractors at an average price, both of them have benefitted. These extra earnings were further utilised to improve their standard of living by proving them an alternative source of electricity - the solar lamps.
Project Highlights
- Appreciable amount of profit to both the parties (consumer mess and farmers) till now.
- Socially affected 500+ lives.
- Provided fresh vegetables to messes in each transaction.
- Lighting solutions are provided to most of the families.
Future Plans
- We are currently trying to expand our project to more no. of farmers near new IIT campus, and to other colleges as well as private messes.
- Including Transaction of Milk too in the project (In Collaboration with Ambuja cement Community).
- Increasing Awareness about Agroformer/ Pyroformer among farmers in villages near Ropar.
- To provide more numbers of Solar Lamps and solar refrigerators.