Padma (left) and friend Kavita Pozhathu love the fresh products they get through Fresh from Farmers

11-year-old Moksha of Brindavan Layout in TC Palya enjoys snacking on guava, mango and papaya sourced directly from local farms. Moksha’s mother Padma carves funny shapes on guavas using simple kitchen tools and the child looks forward to her snack break.
“Priya Haasini, my elder daughter, also likes fruits and eats them daily,” says Padma. Her friend Kavita Pozhathu takes delight in trying out new recipes with the farm fresh vegetables and fruits. The star fruit pickle made by her was a huge hit.
The fresh fruits and vegetables they get thanks to Fresh from Farmers, an initiative to bridge farmers and residents in Bengaluru apartments and layouts. It was launched at Oceanus Greendale apartments in 2016, and has grown steadily across the city, serving numerous communities, including over 250 apartment complexes. The relatively larger apartments/ residential communities involved include Sobha City, Purva Palm Beach, Kolte Patil Mirabilis, Oceanus Tranquil, Keerthi Harmony and Prestige Gulmohar.
“There are today 34 groups, with many communities attached to each group,” says Prabhath Vijayan, a volunteer who initiated the farmer support system in 2016 and has since been working on building support groups in new communities. “It is heartening to see that the system is organically connected in other adjacent areas like Hennur Road, Margondanahalli, Thanisandra Road, and Yelahanka. All these groups were created on request from volunteers of adjacent communities, after seeing the benefits from the system.,” says Vijayan, who had a 20-year-long stint with Nokia as R&D manager before taking voluntary retirement to follow his heart.
How it works
Farmers share their harvest information with community members, through a Google form, and they mention a delivery date. After order closure, the farmer shares the order summary as a PDF (a day prior to delivery), which will have details of all individual orders, price, and a token number along with the farmer’s direct payment app number.
“Based on pre-orders, farmers bring their harvest directly to consumers. The support to farmers gives a great feeling of ethical buying,” says Vijayan.

Fresh fruits attract numerous consumers. “During mango season the farmers get really good ones, ripened naturally, at good prices. Now, pomegranates are coming. They also bring dragon fruit, jackfruit and even rose apple,” he says.
Some farmers transport their produce from distances exceeding 500 km. “This model allows farmers to get fair prices, avoiding middlemen and making more profit,” says Guru Prasad of GG Farms.

That is what motivates Malar Mani Chandrashekar to travel to Bengaluru with the fruits of her work. The smallscale farmer from Kolar is a senior citizen, and sells bananas and lemons.

Sreela Manish, who lives in Kalpa Arowana apartments, says when purchasing directly from farmers, any product related concerns can be addressed during their next weekly visit, where they offer either refunds or replacements. “This level of accountability is rarely available when shopping at local markets,” she says.
Joy of plucking mangoes
Urban children often find farm visits captivating and educational. Nanda Kishore, 15, and Vamseedhar, 10, had the opportunity to explore a mango orchard at GG Farms, conveniently located near their home in Horamavu, as part of a farm-visit programme. “Walking through mango trees was really exciting. To our surprise, there were multiple varieties of mangoes – big and small, sweet and sour,” Nanda says.

Nanda and Vamsee loved the experience of plucking mangoes with their own hands. Bringing half-ripe mangoes home and taking them through the natural ripening process further enhanced their experiences. “Our family would love to do it again,” says Satyanarayana S, their father, who is also a volunteer in the group for Prestige Augusta Golf Village gated community at Kothanur.
Farmer profits up
Sujay Palavalli owns an agricultural property in Andhra Pradesh50 km from Kolar. The eight-acre farm focuses on growing fruit trees. “We grow mangoes, chikoo, jamun and guava,” he says.

Fresh from Farmers allows Palavalli to take pre-orders based on the quantity that is expected to be harvested, making agriculture more sustainable and avoiding waste. “Mono-crop and mandi business is a trap, as the rates are controlled by middlemen and they are very manipulative. However, with this model, the farmers will get compensation based on the retail rate,” he says.

Varadarajkumar, a pomegranate farmer from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, has been able to double his profit after he joined the group. The journey to Bengaluru is arduous, but he says he goes back home with a truckload of joy.
“Fresh from growers” – Prabhath Vijayan
All the 34 groups under this have this name. To differentiate, we keep the community and locality code as a prefix.
Since 2016, virtual groups of community clusters have been functioning in and around the Horamavu area of ​​Bengaluru, supporting farmers. These co-located clusters of residential communities are supporting several farmers from different states including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnaduand Kerala.

Interested members from a new community contact us to copy the system in their location. With their support we build a group there, and farmers will be added there.
Handholding from the community volunteers will be required in the beginning to introduce the concept to their society and support the farmers in the initial round for basic things like where they can stand in the society.
The volunteers from the new community maintain the associated WhatsApp group by adding new members in their community.