From farm to forkful of food: The real Covid-19 heroes are farmers!

Mumbai, 29th October, 2020: While we, and the entire world, were busy clapping and banging plates and utensils to show solidarity with the frontline Covid warriors — the doctors, nurses and civic workers — there was another group of unsung heroes, our farmers, who toiled day and night without relenting to bring food to our plates. For them, there was no lockdown!

In fact, this was the first disaster in history — whether natural, or manmade — which saw no shortage of food and no break in the supply pipeline. Since February, with the rapid spread of Covid-19, life has been extremely difficult for every one of us. It was an unprecedented situation and fear gripped us with all reason failing.

 Good times, bad times

But while fighting the scourge through the long lockdown period, we enjoyed life to an extent, too, by being with our families, sharing good times and good food. Some of us even experimented with cooking and became successful home chéfs.

Others cooked huge quantities of food to help those who lost their jobs and were in urgent need of help. But, unlike in any past pandemic situation, there was no food scarcity this time around. Despite all the odds, our farmers kept glued to the grindstone, working overtime to ensure that food reached our table in time.

 Through thick and thin

The busiest season for farmers is from mid-February to mid-July as this is harvest time for important crops, such as onion, potato, wheat, sugarcane, mustard and fruits like grapes, pomegranate, banana and others. They also have to prepare the field for the next crop season (kharif), so it is back-breaking work for them! 

Even in normal times, farmers have to face a lot of uncertainties and challenges, such as poor or delayed monsoon, moneylenders’ arm-twisting, not getting the proper price for their produce and many more. And, with the lockdown, there was a severe disruption in their demand from mandies, supply chain systems as also a shortage of labourers. 

 Let’s give them their due – #ThankYouFarmers – 

Despite all this, our farm heroes along with their families took on the responsibility of keeping us healthy and strong and provided us with fresh fruits, vegetables and all the grains that we needed. They kept working without a break, so that we stayed safe at home under lockdown and were able to take care of our children and our elders, too.  

But did these heroes get their share of acknowledgment and appreciation? Let us take this opportunity and salute the sons of the soil — the real driving force of the nation — respectfully for keeping our bellies full all through the lockdown.

Sahyadri Farms, one of India’s biggest farmer producer companies has initiated a cause campaign – ‘Thank You Farmers’ towards bridging the urban and rural communities. The whole initiative is to spread awareness of the fact that the rural communities need the urban communities to understand them and vice versa. The film can be found on the companies social media pages namely – YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

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About Sahyadri Farms – Sahyadri Farms was registered in 2010 as a Farmer Producer Company, in order to solve the issue of scalability, farmer sustainability, and consumer benefit. It’s 100% owned by farmers alone who have equal voting rights regardless of their holding size. The farmer collective is built around the values of food safety, traceability, transparency through the value chain and thorough farmer empowerment. 

We believe that it’s possible to ensure a sustainable income to the small and marginal farmers of the developing world which is sufficient for a life of dignity for them and their family. And we intend to do this without putting burden on end consumers. By removing unnecessary middlemen, better logistics, reduction in post-harvest losses, and providing trust and transparency to consumers, we can achieve sustainability to the farmers and provide quality and assurance to consumers. 

Sahyadri Farms is on the path for creating crop-specific integrated value chains empowered by technology and efficient management.