The Mahila Jagat Lihaaz Samiti (MAJLIS) is engaged in organic farming on its farm in Pandutalab village in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh since 2015. Even though this farm is now fully organic and produces over thirty different varieties of crops over the three seasons these are mainly for conserving the seeds of these indigenous varieties and selling them to other organic farmers who may want to sow them. The common farmers around the farm of the organisation are not interested in doing organic farming. Primarily because preparing organic manure is time consuming and therefore expensive as compared to the subsidised chemical fertilisers. Also the organic produce sells at the same low price as the chemical produce in the local markets and so the farmers lose out economically when they do organic farming. The only way to make organic farming economically viable is to sell the produce to relatively affluent people in the cities who are prepared to pay a premium for the organic produce. In that also there is a problem as most of the produce going under the rubric of organic is of dubious quality. So the consumers also are sceptical. On the supply side it is very difficult to ensure that the farmers do not cheat and apply chemical fertilisers on the sly.
Finally, last year two farmers in Bisali village were convinced to try organic farming by telling them that we would finance the cost of preparing organic manure and also buy their produce at a higher price to compensate them for the labour they put in at the statutory minimum wage which was Rs 200 at that time. Normally with chemical farming in the Adivasi areas of Western Madhya Pradesh the farmers earn only Rs 100 per day from the work they do on their own farms. So we had about 2400 kilograms of the Lok 1 variety of wheat which is a well established hybrid variety to sell at the end of March this year. We did not use the local varieties of wheat because their yields are less and their taste is a little different and has to be acquired and so everyone may not like them.
The cost of the wheat, graded and cleaned of all dirt and chaff, after paying for the organic manure and paying the farmers the statutory minimum wages for their labour turned out to be Rs 35 per kilogram. Whereas graded and cleaned chemical wheat is available in the market at Rs 25 per kilogram. So obviously this wheat would not sell in the local market and urban customers had to be found.
A commercial entity https://kansariorganics.in/ was set up to market the wheat and also some other produce like Sorghum, Maize and Pearl Millets from our farm and an online store was set up for this. The first problem that we encountered was the last mile delivery to the consumer. Searching the internet showed that this was very expensive. Even Amazon with its economies of scale charges Rs 50 a kilogram for home delivery. After many enquiries we found that delivery by registered parcel post service provided by India Post was the cheapest option with the cost coming to Rs 40 a kilogram inclusive of packaging charges. Thus, the cost of the wheat home delivered in distant locations would be Rs 75 a kilogram which is a substantial premium over the chemical wheat. Initial testing of this delivery system revealed that the relatively affluent people would like flour instead of wheat as they do not have the time to go to the miller to grind the wheat. So we launched our online store with Lok 1 wheat flour at Rs 80 per kilogram. Even though this is quite competitive with other such flour available on the internet nevertheless this is quite expensive.
Initially, there were a spate of orders and we succeeded in clearing 150 kilograms or so of wheat by the middle of April after which lockdown was imposed in Indore due to the COVID 19 second phase devastation. India Post also stopped taking parcels of goods other than medicine. So the marketing operations came to a halt. In fact there are still a few orders that are pending to be processed. In the same time the same amount of about 150 kilograms was sold in Indore even though the price in Indore was much less at Rs 35 a kilogram. Considerable amount of publicity was done through social media but it had little impact. it was argued that the advantages of eating wheat flour that does not have chemicals and so being healthy far outweighs the extra cost of Rs 10 per kilogram but that has not cut much ice.
Thus, there are about 20 quintals of wheat left and that means that till the next harvest in coming march on an average 2 quintals need to be sold per month. This depends on how well the products are marketed in the coming months. In case the wheat is not sold due to lack of demand another problem will crop up. It will get infested by insects. Those who deal in chemical wheat use pesticides to prevent insect infestation. However, this cannot be done with organic wheat and so it is necessary to ensure that the wheat is sold off completely.
So it was decided to keep only about 10 quintals in stock for future sale through the online store and the rest has been distributed to needy Adivasi families in Alirajpur. MAJLIS bought the wheat from KANSARI ORGANICS and transported it to Alirajpur for distribution there. The photo below shows the teachers of the RANI KAJAL JEEVAN SHALA in Kakrana taking the wheat to Alirajpur.
So the economic viability of organic farming is a problem. Even when the produce is sold without any profits and only the costs incurred are charged from the customer. In fact let alone earning profits, the costs of setting up the website and online store and the work put in by the staff of MAJLIS, who are playing an important mediatory role in connecting the farmers to the consumers have not been factored in to keep the price as low as possible.
Under the circumstances, the only way ahead is to gradually shift the whole nation from chemical to organic agriculture over a period of years. For this a huge amount of awareness building has to be done among the policy makers, farmers and consumers.
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