Farmers to skip middlemen, sell directly to consumers in Bengaluru

Farmers from anywhere in Karnataka can participate in the santhe if they register themselves with the KRRS in advance. The organisers are planning to give priority for the first 100 enrolments.
| Photo Credit: Murali Kumar K

In an unique move to help farmers in an unequal agricultural market, the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS – Collective Leadership) has taken up an initiative to facilitate sale of farm produce directly to consumers in Bengaluru on an experimental basis.

The first such experiment will commence with a three-day santhe (shandy) at Munivenkatayya Memorial Open Air Theatre in Rajarajeshwarinagar in Bengaluru where farmers will sell their produce directly to consumers without the intervention of any middlemen or traders from April 12 to 14.

Farmers from anywhere in Karnataka can participate in the santhe if they register themselves with the KRRS in advance. The organisers are planning to give priority for the first 100 enrolments, as this the first effort. Apart from vegetables, the farmers are also getting foodgrains, jaggery and oil to sell at the santhe.

Just call KRRS if you want a santhe in your locality

“We want to spread this initiative to all areas of Bengaluru which is a major market. We want to do it with co-operation from consumers and residents’ welfare associations. If interested consumers and residents’ groups contact us, we will arrange for holding such santhes on a regular basis in various parts of Bengaluru,” says KRRS leader Chukki Nanjundaswamy, whose idea is to further develop this farmer-consumer forum.

“The main intention is to bail out farmers from price-crash situations by ensuring remunerative prices while consumers get the benefit of quality produce at affordable prices,” Ms. Chukki told The Hindu.

This initiative is being taken up as a ‘farmers’ struggle’, christened nera maaraatada mulaka namma horata (our struggle through direct marketing).

A distorted market

“The farm market is distorted as it neither assures justifiable prices to farmers, nor does it benefit consumers,” she said. “This has pushed farmers into a crisis. About 30 farmers are committing suicide a day in India. In fact, about 85 lakh people have shun agriculture in the country between 2001 and 2011, as per the census report while the latest data is not yet available,” she added.

A file photo of Chukki Nanjundaswamy, daughter of KRRS founder M.D. Nanjundaswamy, with Rakesh Tikait (right), Yudhvir Singh (3rd from right), and other farmer leaders in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit:
Murali Kumar K

She expressed concern that nothing much had changed though efforts were going on for several years to ensure remunerative prices for farm produce through legal sanctity for Minimum Support Prices.

“In such a situation, we have been left with no option, but to explore the possibility of creating a direct farmer-to-consumer markets by ourselves. In fact, its an effort to awaken the conscience of consumers and appeal to them to make it a habit to buy directly from farmers so that they can contribute to fighting agrarian crisis, and save farmers,” Ms. Chukki said, while pointing out that Bengaluru had a sizeable population that had migrated from rural areas and knows the problems of farmers.

“Consumers who can afford can also help farmers in a bigger way by buying the agri produce for needy people. We will distribute such produce among needy people in slum areas,” she said.

Request for promotion

Prominent personalities, including films actors, writers and intellectuals, were being requested to promote this initiative in the interest of farmers through videos.