India’s fresh food supply chain is the most fragmented in the world — built on the shoulders of millions of farmers, who grow; millions of laborers, who harvest; millions of middlemen, who distribute and millions of retailers, who sell these vegetables & fruits to billions of consumers — moving the humble tomato from farm to our home, every day. Our nation’s fragmented food supply chain is the largest employer in the world — 58% of India’s workforce involved in Agriculture.
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The COVID Crisis and lockdown has affected everyone in many ways, but it has ruthlessly affected the farmers, who keep the world fed.
So what’s the problem?
The lockdown broke our fragmented/multiparty supply chain, leaving the farmer with no ways to harvest, distribute and sell the produce
- Most of the city markets / Mandis are closed or heavily restricted
- Most of the middlemen have stopped operating due to uncertainty and risk
- Huge waiting time for vehicles and risk of contamination in the crowded market
- Major cases of inability of the vendors to honour the buy-back guarantees
The farmer has no one to go to. The painful and obvious solution is to leave the produce unharvested to rot in the farms. For many farmers, the losses increase, if he attempts to harvest and distribute during these uncertain times. Beyond the monetary loss, the emotional and social pain he goes through to see his labour of love just waste away under the sun keeps him off the farm for months and years.
But, what if, you can harvest the entire farm without stepping out of your home?
. . .
At Ninjacart, we think it is possible. Our supply chain and technology can be put to use in partnership with YOU to minimize the pain (if not completely solve) of these farmers for the next few weeks. We can come together to harvest these unharvested farms.
Launching Harvest the Farms (HTF)
Under the HTF initiative, you can buy from the farmers, who are struggling to find a buyer, directly at a cheaper price, while Ninjcart takes care of the supply chain cost, so together we can feed the feeding hands.
How does this work?
- Ninjacart identifies the vegetables that are excess in supply and going unharvested in our farmer network
- We offer to buy these vegetables from farmers at a nominal price, where the farmer recovers the cost
- We offer these vegetables to customers at a lower price to increase the demand, so produce across farms are not left to rot in the farms
- Since we already ship other products, these products can ride along at very marginal cost in our supply chain (we will fund the supply chain cost for HTF products)
How to participate?
- Customers can buy these products from Ninjacart Powered* stores on Zomato, Swiggy & Dunzo across major cities — Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Pune and Chennai.
- Customers can go the Zomato Market or Swiggy Grocery section or Dunzo App, search for nearest Ninjacart powered stores*, view products on offer and place order
- We are working with local authorities to launch in Hyderabad soon. Follow us on social media for updates
- Support: In case of any queries/issues/suggestions, drop a mail to care@ninjacart.com
Connect more farmers
In case you come across a farmer, who is struggling to sell the product, We will be happy to reach out and explore how we can help him through the “Harvest the Farms” Initiative. Mail the details to care@ninjacart.com or request call back at 080-4711-2110 or DM us on twitter
P.S: This would not be possible without the courage and support of our thousands of employees, drivers, labourers, volunteers, government officials & other supply chain partners. We stand deeply indebted to each and every Ninja out there making this possible.
— Thiru, Co-founder & CEO, Ninjacart
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* Local grocery stores partnering with Ninjacart for sourcing
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