When the lockdown was announced, Santosh Kumar, a horticulturist from Moka village in Ballari district, was left with about 12 tonnes of harvested sapota on his hands. No transport was available and the price for his produce was rapidly falling.
In Bengaluru, people were unsure of the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. At the same time, they were watching reports on television and social media about farmers being forced to leave their produce to rot in the fields. In such a situation, the Bengaluru Apartments Federation (BAF) with support from the Horticultural Producers Cooperative Marketing and Processing Society (Hopcoms) is helping farmers in Karnataka connect directly with residents across the city.
The initiative was started during conversations the BAF - a body representing some 725 apartment complexes in the city - had with the BBMP, to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the early days of lockdown. “We need to consume fruits and vegetables, while the farmer needs a market. We found this beneficial mutually,” says Arun Kumar, the Vice-President of BAF.
The Hopcoms, which has 250 outlets across the city, started servicing the apartments with mobile vans, whose number now stands at 40. Between them, some of the mobile units cover 60-70 apartments every day.
Most Hopcoms vans arrive at the apartments twice a week, with the bigger apartments (having more than 500 units) being visited more frequently.
Despite a fall in demand at its outlets and from institutions like factories and resorts, Hopcoms’ sales have doubled over the course of the lockdown, from an average of 45 tonnes per day to nearly 95 tonnes per day, says B N Prasad, the Managing Director of the farmers’ cooperative.
During lockdown, the cooperative is also sourcing its produce from some farmers who are not its members. “Still, we cannot absorb all the produce that the farmers have grown,” Prasad says.
Other apartments have also reached out to farmers directly, like the Whitehouse Apartment in RT Nagar.
Initially, the Hopcoms started by covering watermelon and muskmelon farmers in distress, which did not take off, as residents demanded more fruits and vegetables. Eventually, the residents could purchase a whole range of fruits and vegetables, from farmers as far as Kalaburagi, Ballari, Yadgir and Shivamogga.
Farmer Producer Organisations and some enterprising cultivators from districts around Bengaluru are reaching out to apartments in the city on their own.