Breaking new ground
VIDHARBHA in Maharashtra and Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh have been in the spotlight for farmer suicides. But now a quiet movement there to woo farmers to organic farming and fair trade is grabbing attention. At the New Ventures India competition held at Mumbai last month, Zameen Organics presented its business plan to 150 investors. ‘‘Five of them were seriously interested. And the Yes Bank has offered three due diligence services to prepare us for external investors. We are looking for investors who are willing to share ownership with the farmers,’’ says Gijs Spoor, the Holland-born agricultural engineer who set up Zameen Organics a year ago.
Zameen’s aim is simple: give branded fair trade and organic companies worldwide and Indian farmers access to each other. Spoor first came to India 15 years ago with his Dutch parents who were making a documentary on the children of Rajasthan. There he befriended a farmer. ‘‘He was exotic, wearing a turban and cooking food on open fire. Such people don’t come home to Amsterdam,’’ says Spoor. His parents went back to Holland; he stayed back with his farmer friend in Borunda village near Jodhpur. ‘‘I stayed in his house learning to grow organic vegetables and selling them to the Maharajah’s palaces. It was the farmer who inspired me.’’ Spoor went back home after a year to do his agricultural engineering in Holland, and came back to India in 2003.
‘‘Our motto at Zameen is ‘Jo mehnat karte hain unko faida milna chahiye (Those who sweat should reap the benefit)’. And, our aim is to bring together small farmers with ethical brands,’’ says Spoor.
Zameen Organics has already networked about 750 farmers. Within two years, the company began to source lint bales from 6,700 farmers. ‘‘Last year we sold a equivalent of six lakh garments to mainly UK,’’ says Spoor, adding that Zameen’s turnover was Rs1 crore. The company broke even in the first year and it is now in its second growing season, hoping to break new ground. It hopes to have about 30,000 acres under organic farming by 2010.
-Jaya Menon

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