According to data, more than 600 million – or nearly 50% – of India\u2019s 1.25 billion people are mobile phone users, living mostly in urban areas. While use of mobile phones has increased in rural parts of India in recent years, it has failed to add value to the standard of living and lifestyle of people in these areas – many of whom depend on agriculture for their livelihood. These farmers continue to employ outdated farming techniques and barely manage to make ends meet \u2013 impeded by factors like non-existent irrigation facilities, unpredictable weather conditions and dishonest middlemen linking them to buyers or distributors.<\/p>\n
EkGaon,\u00a0meaning ‘One Farm’ is a social enterprise that connects farmers with distributors using mobile phones, to help them reduce crop loss and increase productivity.<\/p>\n
“The team of lawyers iProbono connected us with offered us exceptional services. iProbono\u2019s team has been quick and persuasive and made sure our work was given priority”
\nVijay Pratap Singh Aditya
\n<\/strong>Co-founder and CEO, EkGaon<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe social enterprise provides mobile subscriptions to farmers for farm advisory services. The farmers on the plan get regular advice on the best crops to sow, ideal harvesting time, weather updates and crop-maximising techniques.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aim is to reduce crop loss and enhance farm productivity,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Vijay Pratap\u00a0Co-founder and CEO, EkGaon.<\/p>\n
Another aspect of EkGaon\u2019s work is to create and establish linkages directly between the farmers, distributors and aggregators of farming produce at township and district levels. \u00a0This helps the farmers obtain a fairer price for their produce.<\/p>\n
EkGaon\u2019s operations cover many parts of India and the services they provide are translated into various regional languages. Their regional offices are connected to non-profit organisations already involved in working with farmers in the respective areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe survey the lands and identify which villages would benefit the most from the farm advisory services provided by EkGaon,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Surendra\u00a0who heads the Mandla office of EkGaon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been an approximate 20% increase in harvested crop in nearby villages and an average 25% decrease in the input costs that farmers put in for crop sowing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Mandla alone, 14,000 farmers are registered to EkGaon\u2019s services.<\/p>\n
Being a link between farmers with village level and cumulative aggregators, it was essential for EkGaon to have safeguards in place for their farmers and producers.<\/p>\n
iProbono helped EkGaon do this – by connecting them to Probir Roy Chowdhury, and his team of associates from J. Sagar and Associates (JSA).\u00a0JSA formed the agreements between Ekgaon and the farmers who subscribe to their services, so that the farmers remain in full control of the price of their crop. JSA also created a legal framework within which the dynamics of the multitudinous relationships that EkGaon has fostered can thrive without them and the farmers having to deal with fraudulent partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to create a sustainable marketplace with this initiative \u2013 enabling a sort of ecosystem like Flipkart or Amazon, where the farmers would have a more direct link with the buyers. Small farmers are usually not able to sell directly; hence this platform would enable them to be on a more equal playing field vis-\u00e0-vis the buyers,\u201d<\/em> says Vijay Pratap, EkGoan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1398,"template":"","case_study_types":[188],"class_list":["post-585","ipb_casestudy","type-ipb_casestudy","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ipb_media_region-india","case_study_types-transactional-support"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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