11 Maharashtra Farmers Turn Lockdown Into New Business Opportunity, Earn Rs 6 Crore

The sudden COVID-19 lockdown announced in March 2020 left everyone stranded, put life at a pause and disrupted routine business. The situation of farmers in Ahmednagar of Maharashtra was no different. The farmers selling vegetables and fruits to Mumbai, Pune and other neighbouring cities suddenly found themselves with a massive stock of vegetables and no market to sell them.

However, the crisis also brought an opportunity for farmers to experiment with new ideas and find a solution that would work in their favour. The problem demanded individual farmers who were facing the same difficulties to come together. A dozen farmers in the region connected through a WhatsApp group to come up with a plan. In April, they entered social media to establish connections with direct consumers instead of relying on the traditional middlemen and buyers.

Almost a year later, in 2021, the group has swelled to a community of 480 farmers, forming a farmer produce company ‘KisanKonnect’ and engaging directly with buyers to sell one lakh boxes of vegetables and establishing a Rs 6.6 crore entity.

Title n body copied from https://www.thebetterindia.com/252185/ahmednaga...