Dear Sri Guru,
I do not know about Dragon fruit much.
With good wishes, g.p.rao, farmer
Dear G.P.Rao sir,
Is there a way to invite forum experts into a particular discussion such as this wherein we may want to get expert opinion on some point like in this case we need some brief info on dragon fruit which may conclude a particular point in the discussion? My intention is only to give the discussion a logical completion/conclusion at least to the readers.
Though I understand that this option would pledge the privacy of individual whom we wish to invite.
Thanks
Guru
Dear Sri Guru,
Very simple. I advise you, pl plant 5 or 10 Dragon plants, as per recommended system. See the growth, see the fruits, take them to market, see the result, calculate the in and outs of farming, yields, price, and economics of the crop.
If it is encouraging, profitable, extend your dragon plant area, advise to our forum farmers about the facts and we all can go about its farming.
If you want plants, you can contact Sri Shivanapura Ramesh, Teja Nursery and farms, of Devanahalli.
Wish you the best, g.p.rao, farmer
@guruprasadaketi
If it is to invite a forum member, you can simply put a @ before the member name for an email to be sent to the member (like I put before your name above).
ground nut can be sold in gujrat.i can help you find buyers.
watermelon or anything in fruits and vegetables you can send to azadpur mandi in delhi.for that i can help as i live near to mandi.its the largest fruit and vegetable market in asia.
@kashmirsapphire:
Thank you sir. May I request to have your contact number or a mail ID to contact you for future.
Regards
Guru
Well done…try to market with frnds and family
Dear @khannae ,
I do sense your sarcasm in your comments( as its free, as you said). I am not here commenting without my share of experience.I couldn’t reply in time as i couldn’t access forum for some time.
If you have read the thread, I have shared my thought about direct marketing when i didn’t even have the harvest quantity. Yes,direct marketing doesn’t mean it will be or can be started night before you start harvesting. Just like farm development marketing is an effort that grows with time. And its a proactive step and not reactive step.
I am against Mono crop and I am against encouraging Mandi people. After burning my hands with perishable produce, I have chosen non perishables so that I can continue marketing year long.
I have shared what I do, and you decide what you want to do and what you can do.
As you suggested as many factors will influence the success or failure of the direct marketing approach,I am not denying it. For every problem there could have been 100 instances of failure but there will also be a person who can make it success. If you are confident of being that 100 thats your choice.
Finally as you have asked for my approach.
if you are looking at selling 15000 kg of Water melon.
if average size of water melon is 5kg we are talking about 3000 pieces to be sold.
If we can approch 5 apartment complexes where we have 500 - 1000 units it can be sold in less than 3 days. Each apartment complex allows people to setup stalls for a fee.
if your wholesale price is 5rs a kg, you can sell at least 10rs a kg( when the market is at 15/kg). And even if there is 30% over heads for transportation and stall costs. You can be making 40% higher profits.
and not just more profits , You can have a customer base for future produce, not just for water melon but for many other varieties.
Think Possibilities man of course by considering probable problems/issues. Also please share ideas and discuss don’t comment just because its free.
Dear @natureworx
again comments are free but facts are sacred
kindly go through my post i have not just commented,shared my thoughts with reasonable and logical backup
“For every problem there could have been 100 instances of failure but there will also be a person who can make it success”
my concern is not for “a” success , but for many failures, as it is numerically,economically logically more important
forums are all about agreements/disagreements/positive thoughts/negative thoughts ,culmination of different ideologies
Members of this forum are mostly absentee/weekend/ farmers , having time constraint, but full of enthusiasm
My idea/thoughts for such members is
Absentee farmer should make good profits(keeps his spirit high) but as a matter of fact chances are less likely
If there is no profit see to it that there is no loss
If there is loss,minimize it
Those who know about direct marketing will know its problems
“Supply should meet demands but demand need not meet supplies”
hope everyone agrees on that
Now this demand depends on lot of factors viz;
1 geographical location and climate
2 population
3 culture
for example
Watermelons: climate :demand for watermelons increase greatly during summer
population:more the better
culture: Indian, In and around Shivarathri there will be spike in sales of watermelon
chrysanthemum during Varamahalakshmi fesival,vinayaka chathurthi
marigold during deepavali
coriander,wintermelon during dusserah in karnataka
sugarcanes during sankranthi
goats during Bakrid
when supply exceeds demand then prices starts falling
ex: price of winter-melon before Ayudhapooja will be very high,but just after Ayudhapooja, people can get wintermelon for 2-5 rs and sometime pick it for free from abandoned lots
sugarcane during sankranthi
crackers just after deepavali
But regular farmers know this(better than absentee farmers)
Now lets discuss selling directly to apartments(no sarcasm/fun just pure discussion- once we arrive at solutions for this problem we are having an idea thats can answer many asked/unasked questions)
That’s a great idea, will fetch good money for the hard work our farmers are doing
Will it work for absentee farmers?
Yes, during festival season for a particular product
No ,during rest of the season for that particular product
watermelon again
now lets assume 5 apartment complexes each with 300-400 houses(not every city is tokyo/mumbai)
that comes around 3000-4000 kgs per apartment complex
each fruit 3-4 kgs(most people prefer this range of fruits, neither bigger nor smaller)
that comes around 1000 fruits/complex
so one has to sell 2-3 fruits/house(people with experience in direct marketing kindly throw some light about feasibility of this thing)
or 1 fruit/day for 2-3 days
consider one seller and an assistant, logistics, rent for the vehicle alternatively absentee farmer himself can do this
logically 2-3 days multiplied by five apartment complexes ,comes around 10 days minimum
can a working class(absentee farmer) afford this?
show some light and help everyone
(personal example: my per day average remuneration is 3000,so was my friends. For competive exams we had to go to delhi .They booked train which takes 3 days from kerala ,to and fro 6 days in train one day exam total 6-7 days. I booked flight 1 day prior to exam and return flight same day of exam
total two way flight charges were around 12000(3 hrs from Cochin), which they thought too costly
now true economics
train fare both ways 3 tier ac 2500x2=5000
food 150x5= 750( you know quality of food served in trains)
so total Rs5750
they thought they saved 6250
but actually
they also lost 3000x4=12000(they took 4 days extra off)
so total 5750+ 12000 =17750
i think like this)
thank you brother
Dear @khannae & Dear @natureworx,
First of all, a big Thanks for a very profound, in-detail brain storming on PROs & CONs of Direct marketing & I hope that this discussion was & will be limited only to brain storming ;-).
Honestly, I am benefited to visualize a lots of Can-Be & Cannot-Be’s. On one side, I strongly wish that direct marketing becomes a feasible reality regardless of the factors deterring it. On the other side being the owner of the crop, I know that the volume co-incidentally fell within the brackets conducive for this discussion when the fact was that I was expecting 12,000 plants x 2 fruits x 2.5 kgs = 60,000 kgs i.e., 60 Tons of watermelon. Hope I am not exaggerating. And to be freakingly optimistic, I am planning to go for twin row system planting contrary to my previous system of single row planting(60 tons) without considerable loss in yield & quality in the same piece of land (2.5 acres). I do respect the reasons on part of natureworx not supporting this type of mono-crop. Based on the brain storming so far, the possible yield figures of twin row system would further negate the possibility of direct marketing. However, the purpose of this thread will not be served if we choose to stop at this. I am eager for continuing this discussion to result in ‘yet to be comprehended’ possibility of marketing, if not direct, which ultimately promises better returns to the farmer.
At this point of time, I am thinking as to why not the farmer owning such a big volume of produce sell his produce directly to the buyer (let us exclude mandi as buyer for some time). I am sure the middlemen to whim we sell at farmgate will not necessarily take our produce to mandi only. I guess there are other wholesale buyers other than mandis which are more prospective. I hereby request the forum experts to shed more light as to
- what it takes for a farmer to sell directly to the wholesale buyers i.e., any license, tax paying implications, etc?
- who could be those possible wholesale buyers i.e., for example food processing factories, are they licensed to buy directly from farmer?
- If farmers make a community and grow same crop, what are the advantages/disadvantages in marketing & what are the possibilities of setting up community owned processing processing units. Is it practically achievable. Say my area grows mostly onions, tomatoes, watermelons, musk melons, ash gourds mainly in bulk. How can as a community leverage this situation?
- Are there any schemes sponsored by govt to set up processing units (again what type of processing units one can envisage for the above mentioned crops)?
Hope above points are still within the scope of subject matter.
Thanks & regards
Guru
Dear @guruprasadaketi
i think you got me wrong partially
I AM A STRONG PROPONENT OF DIRECT MARKETING
i was just highlighting practical difficulties one may face in direct marketing of large volume of produce
Having said that large produce doesn’t mean you should not do direct marketing, but timing is important
If you can harvest your watermelon just before Shivarathri demand will be too high, price will be more.
planning is very important to fetch better price
community owned community run establishments are there,at least i have seen few in Kerala,products are directly purchased from member farmers
and if products are not available from farmers then only they purchase from market dealers. Again there’s a catch, most farmers grow particular crop which exceeds demand so many times they cannot purchase from member farmers itself creating politics,rivalry
If you are from Bangalore you will be knowing about METRO hypermarket
most products are sold for much less than MRP
what they do is directly purchase products from Factories,so cutout middlemen and save yourself money and give for less to consumers
Even many retailers purchase from Metro ,works out cheaper for them than purchasing from distributors
to have such an establishment ,we need to have regular supply chain and again multiple crops,vegetables etc
thanks for reading
07838805200
kindly send a whatsapp message or sms if i miss the call.i will call back
Very interesting conversation … The thought is right coz even when I went back to farming it took me one season to realise how we were controlled by the middlemen and how the entire community had accepted that there is absolutely no way around them commission agents sitting in the Mandi . It took me a while but eventually I did start selling drectly to friends in the city and their friends and over the years the number of customers increased ( I was lucky to have a big and vast social network in the city ) . The simple maths is that we as farmers at an average barely get 20-25% of what the consumers pay ( NOTE - Im saying AVERAGE and it can vary a wee bit here and there ) . But obviously I still barely sell about 10% of my crop and I also was lucky that I could travel and stay in the city ( 450 kms from my orchards ) as dad would handle the harvesting but what if dad wasnt there to handle it – would I still have managed it , I dont think so ! As more and more customers kept asking me for other fruits I started speaking to cousins etc who would be growing other fruits and started helping them sell to the same customers . This was done for just about 2 months in a year .
6 months ago I got the idea that farmers have the same problem … travel with produce to city , get permissions from societies , then set up stalls and hope all homes buy from you and if they dont and at end of day you have excess stock then either you incur more cost for staying in city overnight or dump produce or send to local mandi and suddenly the extra money earned will show that one actually lost money and is dis heartening for the farmer . Also when u go door to door then how does one be sure that you actually are the farmer and not someone who just bought from mandi and offering it door to door ( india is known to have very creative people ) ? So there are a lot of challenges for the farmer to sell in the city though in theory it looks as the best option .
So I went ahead and setup a platform where we on behalf of farmers offer produce to consumers in the city … the prices are set by the farmer himself and we help him in determining the minimum order quantity etc and he works out logistics of sending it to the city . We also dont hide the farmer but showcase him so that if there are any complaints he has to answer them ( avoids farmers trying to be smart and sending inferior produce ) , the consumers place order in advance at a pre determined price set by farmer ( so that farmer doesnt have to send extra and thus no wastage ) and so when harvested the farmer sends only that much produce to our hub in the city and we deliver it to the customers the same day or the next day ( depends on when it arrives at our hub ) . We collect payment and send back 70% of the sell price to the farmer ( I believe as a farmer Im entitled to 70% f what the consumer pays and 30% is enough for me to sustain the costs for marketing - delivering etc in the city ) . So yes … the farmer is being able to sell his produce to the end consumer without leaving his farm ( he knows how to grow best ) and still getting consumers to know him and his farm and the consumer benefits by knowing the farmer who works hard to produce the food , they know where exactly is it actually coming from , when it was harvested so how fresh it is and if there is a complaint or question they know they will get the right answer from the farmer himself .
So yes , a personal need transpired into a biz model and am still learning but in under 6 months we can say we have had great success and our customer base has been growing rapidly !! So yes , the solution is not as simple as someone said that one goes to a society and sells x amount at y price and be happy and could work for someone producing 10-20 kgs but not when a farmer producing on a large scale looks to sell directly . Even our platform has some challenges as the A grade sells but the farmer still has to send the balance through his regular channels for now or because he has direct access to customers he can look at making other bye products which then the customer would be more than happy to buy as well and thus giving the farmer more income .
We go meet farmers and get those farmers on board who also understand the challenges we face … farmers who understand the long term vision of such a platform and if we stay united we can make this a viable channel for a lot of farmers as we will soon be planning to set up hubs in other cities too thus allowing the same farmer access to a more wider customer base .
Direct selling is the only hope for us … but we have to stay united as farmers to change a system thats been around for years and will take years to change as well !! Our journey has started and will try till we feel its not going anywhere but for now it seems to have a bright path ahead .
Just Another Farmer 
Dear @khannae
I don’t get into debates, I keep my stupid thoughts to my self to avoid convincing some smart guys around me.
if you are considering the wages for you at what ever salary you are earning in your regular job 
I rest my debate on direct marketing. Not just direct marketing but agriculture itself.there is nothing like Right or wrong what ever works for one, it works. For Many farming itself don’t work as it cant give the kind of salaries one makes by serving others.
I lost my 300,000K USD per annum family income and am here fighting from last 20 Months , with a pocket whole of close to another 100,000K for operations ( not considering the land costs and other capital expenditures). So when I said Directmarketing yields better. I am not saying I can recover all my lost income. I am only comparing the income we could get as a farmer by selling to Mandi and by selling in retail.When on the farm , being a farmer I consider farmers wages for myself.( travelling by flight or bus or cycle is upto that farmers back ground and his past earning or future potential )
What ever may be the quantity and distance , I feel direct marketing is the best approach. As I prefer to sell 25% at retail price and donate rest 75% to the right people than sell entire produce at 25% price and make some other in Supply chain rich.
Dear sir @natureworx,
Me being a neutral reader feel that Mr Khannae though being a little sarcastic in expressing the views in his initial post wasn’t actually having intention to derogate the very idea of direct marketing. This is evident in his previous post where he honestly says in bold “I am a strong proponent of direct marketing”. I believe that the examples he quotes which may not be directly relating to farming, were actually trying to help us conceive an analogy and realize the other similar facets only mathematically.
And I have deep respects for your decision of coming back to farming voluntarily leaving a better paying job maybe to pursue your passion or doing your bit to contribute towards global food chain challenge. From my perspective, ultimately everything will have a tendency to get balanced, in this case to fill in the gap created by farmer migration to cities by farming enthusiasts like us. Though initially we lack the knowledge on intricate nuances of farming which our brothers have mastered the art over the years of experience. On the other hand we have better insight into marketing system out there. I foresee a good prospect for people like us in the field of agriculture provided we consolidate all our energies to find solution to common issues for we have access to platforms like Farmnest wherein we have possibility of reaping solutions to day-to-day issues related to farming. And yes, your thoughts aren’t stupid at all. Personally, I request you to keep expressing your thoughts because there are thousands of needy who are waiting to get educated through thoughtful exchange of opinions, ideas and healthy debates leaving aside arguments.
@Farmeruncle sir:
Thanks for sharing the info that you already are in the path of establishing a parallel channel of marketing which ensures comparatively better returns to farmer. I wish you all the best and hope that you would continue to share improvisations if you happen to incorporate into your system.
I have a question: You said you currently have a system of procuring from farmer and distributing to the needy customers/consumers. Does this system require any license. If yes, could you please educate us more on this aspect.
Also there are attempts by govt towards improving efficiency of current system:
indianexpress.com/article/india/ … -april-14/
Thanks to all. Let us keep the thought process alive.
Best regards
Guru
Dear @natureworx
kindly read my posts fully
we may not like many things, but this debate has brought new ideas
First we should understand who are the participants in this discussion/debate, for whom we are discussing this topic.
Most, if not all participants, are absentee/white collar farmers who are working in some company/ far from their farm land,most of them have a family to take care of, children’s education also to be considered. It is practically difficult for them to dedicate 100% of their time for farming
Why do they venture into farming?
Mostly its for PASSION/ to do something other than their regular job, to get an additional income,they might have seen a better future in farming.
They venture into farming with lot of hopes, they start reading success stories,start calculating profits even before seeing/sowing seeds.
But ground reality will be different from theoretical calculations,not everything goes as per calculations
when they start losing money it will dishearten them, they may lose their passion for agriculture
So this is where they need help and suggestions- a practical approach
As per theory Mr Guru calculated 12000x2x2.5= 600000kgs
but practically he got around 25-28 tons(including sunburn fruits)
next time he will calculate things on the actual outputs (practical experience) and also he will take care to prevent sunburns(practical experience), prevent pests, and he will try and market for better prices based on his previous experience
through our discussion he also know when it is beneficial to harvest watermelon,what are the other options he has.
From all above discussion we know direct marketing fetches better price, for that we need to have multi crop model
how to go about it?
that’s what i am trying to figure out
Multicrop model for absentee farmers?
will it work? how?
As i see it is labor intensive and requires more involvement
discussing on this we may arrive at something, once we arrive at something we will have solid base for direct marketing
One may read 100’s of books on how to swim but when he dives into water he will forget those 100 books and start experiencing which he didn’t read in books
ASATHOMA SADGAMAYA THAMASOMA JYOTHIRGAMAYA…
lets search for light and new ideas
better ideas
a win and win situation for everyone
jai hind