Swadeshi Mandi!

WHY SWADESHI MANDI?

When the Prime Minister said go ‘vocal for local’, he meant that products be made competitive vis-a-vis global brands. It didn’t mean that one must only buy products that have a logo ‘made in India’ on it,” Emphasizing on a self-reliant, or ‘aatmanirbhar’, India, the government has asked that products not just be made in India, but also for the promotion of local brands, manufacturing, and supply chain. Government has also started many initiatives e.g.it has decided to support produce such as mango in Uttar Pradesh, kesar in Jammu & Kashmir, bamboo shoots in North-East, tapioca in Tamil Nadu, Odisha must take the benefit to promote best of its farm products in the national and international market. Officials also said “We must try to take maximum benefits out of the`1 lakh crore financial support to be extended by NABARD for agriculture infrastructure projects.

Now coming to the point of Indian origin startups, India has the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world; expected to witness YoY growth of a consistent annual growth of 12-15%. India has about 50,000 startups in India in 2018; around 8,900 – 9,300 of these are technology led startups 1300 new tech startups were born in 2019 alone implying there are 2-3 tech startups born every day.

“SHETKARI APLYA DARI” is also a startup run by farmers in Nashik District of Maharashtra. . These farmers grow vegetables and fruits at small scale. As their production capacity is not huge, selling their vegetables through distributors cost them more. As that includes the cost of transportation, brokerage etc. So through this current initiative people directly connect with farmers. This way farmers also get the profit benefit as distributors cost gets minus. Farmers can get actual share of money. Word of Mouth is impactful marketing strategy here. As in small towns people know each other well and communicate amongst frequently so farmers reach to many people quickly. Customers also get product satisfaction as they buy organic fresh vegetables at low cost. As a part of future plan farmers have decided to make an union to sell organic vegetables instead of selling through distributors. Farmers are currently in discussion with APMC seeking support to move further in this business. Farmers also brought technology in the business as they are taking larger orders through WhatsApp and calls.