How would it be to picture yourself as the board of directors, a CEO, and departments like logistics, retailing, sales, and marketing?
This is what most farmers felt after joining the F2F network. Sharath, along with Yogish and Mahesh, created a circular economy for farmers to buy and sell produce from one another.
You may wonder, but we are in 2023, a long way from our first agricultural revolution. Does agriculture have the power of a corporation? Yes, it does, Our economy is known as the agricultural economy for a reason, with 58% of our population (82 crore) depending on agriculture for their livelihood, it can be a very powerful and profitable corporation. Sharath saw this potential and started an F2F network.
F2F is a Farmer to Farmer network that enables farmers to sell their produce to other farmers across the country through farmer-producer organizations (FPOs). Through this network, farmers can buy fresh groceries and household supplies from other farmers.
These FPOs are formed as private limited company by the government with farmers being the shareholders and CEOs of the company.
These FPOs are formed as private limited companies by the government with farmers being the shareholders and CEOs of the company. with an average of 1000 farmers for each FPO.
Building a business is never easy, every business has its own challenges. But here, every FPO is a new business they are building. So, there is always a new challenge and a need for solutions. The major challenge now for the FPOs is the need for leadership. Sharath says, “The biggest challenge we are trying to overcome is bringing out the sense of belongingness in FPO CEOs.”
Another challenge they have faced is the clash between retailing and logistics. To be a retail success, you need to provide multiple options, which is logistically impossible when you are just starting out.
These challenges weren't able to stop the F2F network; instead, they served as stepping stones. To bring out the sense of belongingness and increase the potential of businesses, Sharath and his team trained CEOs of FPOs on various business topics over the past 3 years. To provide multiple products, they grew the network and gained licenses like FSSAI and APEDA.
Today, They are actively working with over 30 FPOs across 13 districts of Karnataka and planning to reach 70 FPOs by end of 2023 with average of 500 farmer shareholders in these FPOs. When asked about how Swipe helped him in his journey. Sharath, much to our delight, said, “After exploring various options, I came across Swipe. All the online stores we use for the network are Swipe online stores, Swipe provides me with catalog support, which makes my job easy and also helps me monitor all the stores remotely. Our team likes it and we would love to use only Swipe for our new FPOs.”
F2F is impacting the way we look at agriculture and how it functions. Swipe is proud to be part of the F2F journey as it goes on to impact the country's agriculture through farmer-producer organizations.
Visit the F2F online store only on Swipe.
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