by Venkat Iyer
On the consumer front, people started realizing what we were trying to do and were very appreciative of the whole exercise. To bring the farmers and the consumers closer we had a small get-together at the end of the second season so they could interact with the farmers directly and understand the issues. The same was true for the farmers since for the first time in their lives they were actually meeting those who consumed what they grew.
As we were making efforts to educate the farmers and try and convert them to grow organic food we realized that there was a major effort required on the consumers’ end too. We were giving them local vegetables and we started getting calls from many saying they had never seen the vegetable we had sent and had no idea how to cook it. Realizing that there was a lack of awareness we started inserting a small paper in each packet given to the consumer. This insert had a recipe for the vegetable that was included on that day. Every week a new recipe was included and we got an encouraging response from the consumers who had tried out the recipes and were amazed that a vegetable which they had never seen before could taste so good.
By the end of the second season we had decided that we would have to slowly move out of the daily functions of this process since all of us had our own farms and it was difficult to invest so much time into this. We also wanted the entire activity to be self-sustaining rather than be dependent on a few committed people like us. We appointed two persons from the village itself to monitor the farmers on a daily basis. They would go to each farmer’s field and see how he or she was progressing. In case they ran into some trouble they would call Gaurang or me and we would rush there and try to sort out the matter.
The sorting and packing was completely voluntary and we realized that getting volunteers on a sustained basis was not easy. Also the entire exercise was a strain on Ubai as he had to be there every week for the sorting. We tied up with a women’s self-help group from a nearby village and started paying them wages to help us sort and pack. The loose informal group that we had started off with was to become more formal and after discussing various options we decided to form a company.
The work would soon no longer be dependent on volunteers but staff members of the company. We had on board all the friends who had initially thought of this idea. It was a strange feeling that after so many years of leaving the corporate world I was set to be the ‘director’ of a company. A full circle.
But, as time would reveal, it was not to be. I was not going to be the director in any company. We ran into a lot of legal issues in forming the company. Also, the organic market had grown since the time we started out. There were more players in the market now and they were giving the produce at a competitive price, though we still had our doubts on the organic label they attached to the produce.
We also got a lot of feedback from the consumers and there were many who did not seem happy with the basket of vegetables they got every week. We conducted a survey with our customers to find what they wanted and to also understand what was wrong with our model. The survey was extremely useful and the collation of data gave us the following results.
The consumer in Mumbai wanted:
To choose the vegetables that they wanted
To decide the quantity that they wanted each week
To have the choice to refuse a supply due to various reasons
The survey also revealed that the consumer wanted to have vegetables that we could not grow in our area like potato, cabbage, cauliflower and onion.
Initially we thought we would try and keep our customers happy by procuring what they wanted from other sources. But there was the issue of transportation and also the quality and organic check. The distances from where we could procure these other vegetables would be too far for us to monitor on a regular basis and we would have to rely on their input that they really were organic. Besides, after spending so much on transport, we would be left with less money to pay the farmers which we were not comfortable with.
Finally, after a day of brainstorming, we all decided that we would have to abandon the tokri scheme and look for other alternatives to help the farmers sell their produce. It was clear that we could not leave the farmers high and dry after having worked with them for so many years to convert them to organic farmers.
We all did feel bad about terminating the tokri scheme, considering that we had put in so much effort and energy to set it up. But then when we looked at it rationally we felt that maybe it was the best we could do. We could not satisfy the Mumbai consumer by compromising on our quality and fair price to the farmer for that would have defeated the very purpose of setting up MOFCA.
We searched around and finally managed to tie up with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) group who agreed to pick up the vegetables from the farms at a good price. We also found an individual who was doing home delivery in Mumbai and was willing to pick up the vegetables from the farms.
The current situation is that we have around fifty farmers in the area growing organic vegetables. We are still struggling on the marketing front as the produce is far more than what the two vendors we currently have are able to pick up. There is a need to tie up with other vendors who can pick up the excess produce. There are new players in the market but they do not promise a good price and also expect the produce to be delivered to their doorstep.
While the problems are aplenty, we have still not lost hope. We have a commitment to the farmers and are determined to find a solution to market their produce at a fair price so they continue their organic food production and ensure that the land at least is not ravaged while they try to make a living out of agriculture.
15
Are You Happy?
One of the most frequently asked questions to me is, ‘Are you happy?’ Many of the visitors to the farm ask me this. I could reply that if you stayed in a place like this you could not be anything but happy. Of course, it is important to understand what happiness means. It has different meanings for different people. For some people (and till recently for us too), earning lots of money, travelling trapped in a tin box with air-conditioning and an FM radio, sitting in a superb office, getting a six-figure salary, going on holidays to exotic places, owning the latest gadgets, shopping at the mall every weekend, eating at the best restaurants and watching soap operas on television every evening gives them happiness.
For us, it is different. The open sky, the beautiful scenery, our pets, the crisp vegetables, the fresh fruits and eating what we grow gives us happiness. The joy of seeing the seed you planted push out of the soil and in a few weeks turn into a huge plant is something that can never be experienced in a city mall. No Nat Geo Specials you saw would come even remotely close to seeing a buff striped keelback catch a toad and eat it in front of you, a hissing cobra just a couple of feet away or the swaying mating dance of two rat snakes or the Russell’s vipers.
I do agree that we only have basic comforts and sometimes things can get a bit rough. Things that we take for granted in the city like water, electricity, communication and access to shops are all a struggle in the village. Even the lack of quality medical aid close by is worrying, especially after our encounter with the cobra and the viper. These are worrying aspects and they tend to linger in your mind, but like everything else they fade away and soon enough you are back on your feet soiling your hands with mud and carrying on with your immediate tasks.
Some people who visit me comment that I have gone back to the primitive way of living. They say this is like being a caveman. My reply to them is that we do not live like cave people. Our kitchen is well equipped, we have a gas stove, piped water, a bathroom and an erratic power connection. We have installed a battery backup which helps during power cuts though it can take the load for only a few hours. We wear good clothes, bathe regularly and keep our hair trim. We have our Internet connection and check our mails and social media sites regularly. In India, 65 per cent of the population depends on agriculture and lives in villages. Does that make us a country of cave
men?
The trick is to balance what we want to do and use gadgets and technology to the extent they are useful. I can’t but mention how some of my colleagues at IBM went for a holiday in Goa with their laptops. One of them sat on the beach and worked on a proposal that we had to submit while his family frolicked in the water. I wonder what kind of a holiday he had. It’s not that I have no use for gizmos or technology. The desktop at the farm is useful and it’s a relief that finally network connectivity is available at the farm.
Sometimes I think all we wish to do is travel in comfort, work at a secure place and return back to our flat-screen television sets at home. We have lost out on love and sensitivity. This is because we have moved away from nature itself. By building a cocoon around ourselves, we tend to forget that it is nature which has created us. Only a flash flood or an earthquake brings us back to the reality that there exists a force unseen which needs to be respected.
A few people said that I could consider such a transition since we did not have any kids. I don’t dispute this. All I can say is that this was inevitable and would have happened even if we did choose to have kids of our own. My ideas on education differ and I would prefer to have my kid trained in identifying each plant in the area than spend time imitating some silly Bollywood actor’s antics on screen. Besides, right now, the farm and the pets seem like our children. We have given them all we have got and they do need tender love and care as much as a child does. What we get in return cannot be measured.
Our decision to not use chemicals is another bone of contention. Most educated and well-read people feel that these are scientific methods developed by renowned scientists. What harm would these chemicals cause anyway? There are a large number of studies which show that these harmful chemicals do enter the human system through food that has been grown using them. It is also proven that in the long run these chemicals can have a detrimental effect on health. One particular study also found the presence of urea and lead in breast milk. It is also true that these salts are retained in the soil, thereby reducing the fertility of the land and leading to loss of yield. I could see this happening in our village, a case in point being our groundnut harvest.
I am no scientist nor have I done years of research. All I can vouch for is that the food grown on our farm tastes better and lasts longer compared to what we buy from the market. The ladyfinger grown at the farm does not become sticky when cooked and the rice we grow has an aroma that no rice from the local grocer has been able to match. The idlis my mother makes from our urad dal are softer and fluffier. People who use the oil we sell call back and tell us that they like it a lot and it tastes better than commercially available ones.
The seeds we use are the same the rest of the village uses. The water we use is the same too. The only difference in their produce and ours is that they use chemicals while we do not. Nature has a way of fighting for its own. Once, one of our lemon trees was completely destroyed by the lime butterfly caterpillar. Not a single leaf was left on the plant. A few weeks later, after the lime butterfly had emerged, new leaves appeared miraculously. We got our lemon tree back and were also rewarded with a large number of lime butterflies on the farm.
There are of course some occasions when it may not be enough to sit back and watch Mother Nature. On one occasion, a vicious white grub-like insect attacked our mango tree. These tiny insects get into the trunk of the tree and slowly eat it inside out and huge trees can die in a short while. I tried a concoction of jaggery and water and poured it into the hole made by the insect. Within a few hours, friendly ants rushed into the hole after the sweet solution. It was a matter of time before they reached the insect. The ensuing battle must have been bloody and long but we could not witness it as it was deep inside the trunk. The fact was that the ants emerged victorious since the next day onwards there was no drilling by the insect.
Nature has an entire range of chemical substances available in various plants that grow around us. One of our coconut trees kept fruiting but none of the fruits survived. A bit of research revealed that this could be because of the lack of boron, a chemical substance. The option was to use boron, which is available in the market, or turn to nature for help. We read that one particular plant, calotropis, which grew wild around our village, was rich in boron. We just plucked a few stalks and put it around the coconut tree and that has made a dramatic difference.
We also realized that this kind of a setting and lifestyle does not work for everyone. One of Meena’s cousins had visited us with his family. The entire family was having a roaring time at the river when we noticed that her cousin was missing. I went back to the house looking for him only to find him sitting in his car, reading the day’s paper with the radio on full blast. Here was a guy who just could not adjust to the open space around him. He still needed his tiny tin space and loud music to keep him happy. There are different kinds of people in this world.
Whenever I speak to people about my experiences at the village and the new lifestyle we were leading, they would all ask me about the returns from the farm. Did you manage to ‘break-even’? What is the kind of ‘return on investment’? Some have even gone to the extent of trying to work out the interest I would have earned if I had put the money we invested into a financial instrument.
I have no answers to these questions. There is no money and there is no profit. All we have is a piece of land that we love and it gives us enough food to keep us both from being hungry. There is a lovely house to live in and the air is pure. We have pets we love and it’s a joy living with them. The people in the village are nice and we are part of the community. I think that is more than ‘break-even’. Where in the city would we be able to buy this kind of space and peace?
As for ‘return on investment’, the fact that we now lead healthier lives is itself a major return. Yes, I do agree that our income is low and we do have to be a little careful in our spending as compared to the IBM days when we could spend without care. Over the last few years we have realized that this did not actually affect us and we still did not miss any of the things we did earlier. It is a clear indication that all those things were not exactly essential and we could live without them. It is just a question of adjusting your lifestyle to suit your pocket.
After staying in the village for years, I also realized that you did not need much money to survive. Anyway there was hardly anything one could buy or spend on at the village. The nearest theatre is a good 40 kilometres away and there is no shopping mall around for miles. All you can buy are essentials that you need to survive. Of course, the local transport is expensive, but when at the farm we hardly travel around on a daily basis. There is an occasional expense in the form of a broken fence or a burnt-out motor but these are manageable.
Many have commented that I have taken early retirement. In reality it is far from it. The daily chores of watering, weeding and cleaning have to be done on time and they occupy a major part of your existence. Besides there is no household help and all the cooking, cleaning and washing too have to be done by you. Instead of an air-conditioned office you have to work in the hot sun soiling your feet and hands every day. At the end of the day instead of a flat-screen idiot box you have to contend with darkness and nature’s theatre. Working on the farm is a full-time activity and the physical labour more than compensates for the lack of intellectual stimulation. It is only a question of time before you start enjoying the new lifestyle.
One other thing that rankles many people is the reason I wished to do this. They could not understand why a corporate executive would wish to dig his hands into cow dung and stoop to physical labour. There are many reasons for this. The chief among them is the fact that this gives me tremendous satisfaction. It is the closeness to nature that brings joy and cheer in my life. Besides I rediscovered the feeling of living in a community at the village. It brought back pleasant memories of my childhood and my years at the railway colony.
I do agree that people migrate to the city due to poverty. Many re
ally don’t have a choice. But in a sense I was convinced that for some it was not life and death but the need for more money, better jobs and more materialistic comforts that pushed them into the city. They are prepared to undergo tremendous hardship and live in abysmal conditions in the city. However, people who lived in the city have settled down very well in villages and I was inspired and guided by many friends who had already done this. It is also true that at the village and farm I found peace and tranquillity. It is evident from my well-being itself that this kind of lifestyle has had a positive effect on me.
I read somewhere that the wellness of each individual is based on five parameters. They are the financial, the emotional, the social, the physical and the spiritual. When all the parameters mentioned are in balance one can say that one is completely ‘well’. Currently, in the city, the most important is the financial parameter. It is presumed that the rest will automatically follow. It is unfortunately true that money can never buy you friends or health or mental peace.
Over a period of time, after staying in the village, I realized that this financial aspect of life was slowly but surely creeping into the villages too. Here too people are looking only at money and ways of earning it. I could see boys like Hemant moving away from farming and hoping to make millions. Why was this happening? Was it because of the flawed education that we were imparting to these youngsters? Was it the failing yields from the land that made them turn away from agriculture? Was it the media portrayal of farming as a poor man’s occupation? I am still not able to arrive at a single answer to this question.