FPO earned Rs 6.5 cr by selling fruits, vegetables amid Covid

New Delhi, Feb 8 Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district based Farmers Producer Organisation (FPO) did a business of Rs 6.5 crore by selling fruits and vegetables during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Around 600 farmers and 2,000 consumers are connected with KisanKonnect, a FPO founded by Sarang Nirmal, through its app. Most of the buyers of the FPO are based in Mumbai and Pune.

Sarang, who was on a visit to Delhi, told , "The idea of KisanKonnect evolved when I saw a lot of farmers struggling to sell their produce during the Covid times. I started taking orders from the residents of Mumbai and Pune on WhatsApp and started delivering them fresh fruits and vegetables."

"It became even easier as the new farm laws by the Union government allow selling of farmers' produce anywhere in the country whereas earlier the farmers had to travel to other places where Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) used to create trouble for them," he added.

As the customers started coming in, Sarang created an app with the same name, KisanKonnect'. He said, "598 farmers are associated with the FPO now. Farmers get more price as the produce is sold directly to the customers without any involvement of middlemen. It is a farmers' organisation so the benefit will be directly transferred to them only."

( With inputs from IANS )