FarmaGrow

1.Most of the time the farmers in Bangladesh don't get what they deserve for their produce.Moreover the consumers also have to pay a lot more for a produce.One of the reasons for this is the appearance of multiple middleman between collecting the produce from the farmers and supplying them to a retail consumer.

Also,for various reasons many farmers are being prone to the use of harmful substances to cultivate which is a threat to the health of people.

2.FarmaGrow will provide resources for a certain group of farmers in a region to produce food in the most organic way possible and then collect the produce and selling them directly from our outlets.the farmers will be payed a good amount as the middlemen are out of the picture.Thus attracting other farmers to collaborate with us. 

3.FarmaGrow will provide healthier and less pricey foods while ensuring  right payment for the farmers

According to a a news published in the Daily Sun on January 6, 2017 farmers were paid 12-15 taka at most where they were being sold at 40-50 taka at different markets.Also where around 40kg of potatoes were bought from them at 700-750 taka ,per kg of potatoes were being sold at 60-70 taka![Farmers Deprived Of Due Price] To compensate for the loss, many farmers are using vast amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides instead of considering organic ways  for larger amount of produce while being aware of the harmful effect on human health and environment. Many of the farmers  are being disheartened and looking for other means of income. 

This huge gap in price is being caused by the middlemen. They make the most profit for them and as a result farmers are not getting fair price and the consumers too have to pay more to buy the food products.Also the middlemen aren't paying enough for organic products and mixing up organic and non organic products and sell them afterwards in a high price. As a result except a tiny portion of people ,most are not being able to consume organic and fresh food products.

FarmaGrow will have field teams working directly with the farmers across the country to understand what barriers they have and work towards solving them.We will form communities of farmers who will uphold their problems towards producing organic foods.

FarmaGrow would help them make aware of why they are getting less payment than they deserve and how to compensate for that they are harming the land they are cultivating and also the environment.

Most of the farmers are aware of the harm caused by the chemical fertilizers and pesticides .Yet to get livelihood they can't avoid those.We will provide them with resources and make them understand how they can get their livelihood while growing healthier foods in a healthy way for the environment.

We will also make the consumers understand the importance of organic foods and how they are healthier through campaigns and advertisement.Which will create a need for organic foods.

This will help both the farmers and the consumers .The demand will encourage the farmers to grow organic foods and people will buy them at a price within their ability.

We also aim to expand our venture and provide various food products like vegetables,fish,meat etc of the best quality .

We are mainly providing two main services

1.FarmaGrow will act as the only middleman between collecting the food from the farmers and selling them.

2.FarmaGrow will set up outlets in different places where the collected produces would be sold.

FarmaGrow will provide farmers with organic manures and procedures such as pheromone traps etc. This will be made available to them as much as the chemical fertilizers and pesticides are. As a result the farmers won't have to worry about getting the materials needed for organic farming at a large scale.

FarmaGrow will build or hire own storehouses to safely deposit the produces collected from the farmers so that they don't go bad and any excessive amount of expense can be avoided to store them.

FarmaGrow will then handle the transport of the produce by hiring transports and afterwards owning vehicles of our own.These vehicles will send food directly to our storehouses.

FarmaGrow's own outlets for the organic products will be situated within a safe parameter from previously mentioned storehouses.This would ensure that the outlets have fresh organic foods to provide for the consumers.

Consumers will buy the produces from those outlets at a fair price.

As FarmaGrow will be acting as the only middleman the amount of profit it makes will be lesser than that of multiple middlemen made.As a result the farmers will be paid a handsome price for their products from FarmaGrow and their economic condition will improve gradually allowing them to focus on farming and not to look for any other ways to make their earnings. The consumers will also get to have healthier and safer food for their families.

Thus the amount of organic foods produced by the farmers will gradually increase as the farmers will be motivated knowing that they will get the right price.Which in turn will result in more organic foods' presence in the market.Health issues due to foods produced using chemical matters will be reduced resulting in  a big step in food security.

In Bangladesh lot of NGOs as well as government organizations are working for quite a long time to encourage the farmers to use organic methods to produce food products.Still there are no satisfactory results.While thinking about FarmaGrow I had this question as it was somewhat related to what I intended to do.

Then I found a research paper by Dr. Shaikh Tanveer Hossain [Organic farming in populated area: Bangladesh – an example of case study] in which he stated,"A separate and unique marketing strategy is urgently needed to be developed for the organic growers."

Which is the main idea of FarmaGrow.The NGOs that previously worked with the farmers couldn't create a separate market.But which 

Thus,I believe my solution is an innovative one.

Most of the farmers in Bangladesh lack support.Recently a farmer has set fire to his paddy field as the price was too low for him to harvest it and sell them.It would cost him more to harvest it than to destroy it [https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/agriculture/2019/05/12/farmer-sets-paddy-field-on-fire-in-tangail]

Imagine,how much despair he might have had to go through to set his own dreams,own livelihood on fire.

FarmaGrow  will work to ensure that these kinds of events can be stopped from happening. 

FarmaGrow  will create a separate market for the organic foods produced by the farmers so that they don't get mixed up and compared with the non  organic ones.So,the farmer can get right price for their products.

Also consumers would be made aware of the organic products' benefits.As there is a separate market for the organic ones,buyers would not hesitate even if the price is a little bit more than the non organic ones.

also FarmaGrow will eradicate the need for multiple middlemen.

These steps would ensure the right demand and price for the organic foods in the market.So more and more farmers would be attracted to producing them.And as the consumers also get aware of the healthier food ,the demand will rise too.Resulting in a situation where the supply and the price of organic foods are satisfying and beneficial to both the farmers and the consumers.

Thus,gradually organic foods will be adequate in the market while the environment stays healthy too because of the organic methods used.Which is a great step towards food security.

As FarmaGrow is a concept for now it isn't serving any people.But it has great portential to serve a large number of people.

Let's say we start with 20 middle scale farmers.If they produce food organically throughout a winter when vegetables production peaks.We could sell those produce through our outlets and provide for at least 2500-3000 consumers in Chittagong.

Within five years the number of estimated farmers collaborating with FarmaGrow will be 2000-2500  and the number of consumers for the produce would be at least 54,000-60,000 during only the winter season.

This estimation is the minimum we expect to have considering current situations,but we believe the number of people we would be serving would be much more as we expand our FarmaGrow  and make it so that we can sell everything from vegetables to fish,meat and dairy products.Which would be more than possible as we continue to grow

The goals for FarmaGrow within next year is to convince at least 20 middle scale farmers  to produce food organically and set up 3-4 outlets to sell the produce across Chittagong.These outlets would be setup in major shopping points of the city.

FarmaGrow would have it's own storing facility or hire the facility if needed.

Through those outlets we aim to serve at least 2500-3000 consumers during only the winter season.It would hire transportation and distribution agencies to collect and supply them to the outlets.

Within five years FarmaGrow would have 20-25  outlets throughout Dhaka and Chittagong, providing organic produce for 40,000-50,000 people.

It would own three or four storing facilities.

FarmaGrow will have their own transport sector and an online platform to make everything easier.

The first barrier is to negotiate with the farmers.They would have to be convinced that the process they are being asked to apply is beneficial to them and the environment.

FarmaGrow would have to face financial problems when it would set up the outlets in the city.Usually it would cost around 650-700 USD per month for rent for each outlet. Also around 6.3k-8k USD has to be kept given as advance to rent the spaces.

FarmaGrow  will have to get a trade license to do business.

The people in Bangladesh mainly prefer bazars over modern shopping outlets to get their food products.This might cause a problem for a larger consumer number.

The previously mentioned middlemen would be upset and might make some hurdles as they are being left out in the system FarmaGrow works.

Their might be inadequate supply of organic manures and other methods considering how things are now.

Soil tests must be done for individual farmers' lands for preparing them for maximum production.

We would hire people and create field team that would interact with the farmers and make them understand the whole process and convince them to collaborate with us.

If we get the funding from this competition hiring spaces for outlets won't be a problem anymore.

FarmaGrow can get a trading license and an e-trading license as well when it grows .

FarmaGrow will hire middlemen for transport and distribution in a way that there are not more than one middleman in between collecting the produce from the farmers and selling them from the outlet.

The outlets would be situated in such places and in a style that would attract consumers from all income range.Moreover we would make them aware of the prices and the quality of the food through leaflets and advertisements of various forms so that they don't get any wrong idea.

For adequate supply of manure and other methods FarmaGrow will hire people to make organic manure from degradable waste and other easily collectible ingredients.We can collaborate with they city corporation for the supply of such ingredients such as different kinds of bio degradable wastes.

As we are students ,many friends are studying in agricultural study related subjects .We could hire them to work with us under the supervision of senior and experienced officers to collect soil information and other necessary information to provide to the farmers.

FarmaGrow will mainly be  divided into 5 teams: Technical Team, Field Team, Middle Man,Sales team,Production team

Technical Team: this team will primarily consist of 2­-3 senior experienced members and several students or junior staff working under them. This team will work on technical terms, data collecting, sorting and managing.

Field Team: As this is a new idea, our goal is to first reach and share this idea with farmers in person. This work would be done by field team.

Middle Man: In FarmaGrow there will be one middle man in between transportation and supply to ensure less division in money and secure farmers financial situation. 

Sales team: Sales team would handle the sales from the outlets and there would be two to three salesman in one outlet.

Production Team: This team would produce adequate amount of organic manure and other components to provide for the farmers.

As it is a concept for now only I am working on building and improving the concepts.

I was born in a family with an agricultural background.Both of my grandparents and some of my uncle were farmers. So I've experienced some of their hurdles first hand.

Along the way I have acquired the skill to communicate with people about a particular matter and organize them to contribute to the matter as much as possible.

This matter we are taking in hand is a one of great importance to our country as it has mainly an agriculture based economy.As FarmaGrow will mainly consist of youths, they would work their hardest to make this a successful company while helping the farmers be self reliable and securing a healthier food source for the mass people.

The people I intend to work with are friends that have the same thought of improving our economy and helping mass people.

Thus,I believe we are the best-placed team to deliver this solution.

In FarmaGrow, Products will be organic and toxic chemical free, by consuming our product consumers will be benefited. Again, Farmers will be paid their fair price . This way a farmer can secure their family need. It would encourage farmers to produce more products.

By using this strategy FarmaGrow can make a fair platform for trade where farmers get the most they deserve and people can buy for less.This will improve both the farmers' and consumers' economic condition.

Thus the whole nation would benefit from this.

Once FarmaGrow  is funded to start it would gain revenue from selling the organic prodcues.As explained earlier ,they way we intend to produce and sell the food products FarmaGrow can make a considerable amount of profit.Which would be enough to maintain future expenses.

The first and foremost barrier Tiger IT foundation can help is with the fund.To start FarmaGrow we need a lot of funding to initialize the project,maintain expenses for a time such as salaries of workers or hiring transport and storage.Although in time we will be able to maintain our expenses on our own.

And since it is a big platform it would also help us reach a lot of people from different walks of life. Helping us spread the idea far and wide.

Organizations who work for better food management and the ones who do soil test and provide solutions would be of great help for our start.

Also Organizations who could test the produce for nutritious values would help to uphold the produce we would provide.

Transportation related organizations would be of big help at first as we would have no transportation of our own

Different NGOs who have already worked with organically grown foods or such can play a vital role to our advancement.