Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability

farmer (seller)- citizens(buyer) is good solution for farmers

friends currently i am trying on one project. in this i am trying to link my loan customers to my farmer customers.i am from microfinance field. i have good portfolio of farmers. as a pilot i am working with 25 farmers having good yearly water availability.this farmers are bowed vegetables in the farm. we have discussed with two areas of a city. peoples from the city are show interest in the concept. we are suppling fresh vegetables to the customers at their doorstep. they atre getting fresh vegetables daily and also they are getting it with market rates where market is 4 km away from them. we have adopted co operative system for purchase of seed, water distribution and vegatable distribution. farmers are getting 30 % added value for their production. we are planning to give contract to SHG members for perticuler area of the city with 5% commision on selling. this reduces transportation cost and commision to middlemen in main market.it is looking profitable business in all sense. isnt it?

Tags: corporate social responsibility, csr, green marketing, greenwash, sustainability, sustainable development

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Permalink Reply by GURU on February 1, 2009 at 2:12am

hi marcus
i haver started this work from last 8 months. in last three months i am able to add 100 farmers more in this concept.. currently i am working on creating a revenue model of it as i am proceeding further. keep in touch

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Permalink Reply by Olivia on March 2, 2009 at 2:26pm

Congratulations on your success, I hope your business continues to grow! How do you transport the vegetables to the customers, and is this the responsibility of the farmer or is there a third party that has this job?

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Permalink Reply by Sean Wilson on May 8, 2009 at 3:10pm

Sounds like a great idea. There's a growing movement that makes use of a similar concept here in the USA, called Local Living Economies, that focuses on more localized markets, buying locally, and eliminating the middlemen. While their website is USA focused, you might find some useful information on the site.

http://www.livingeconomies.org/

I can't help but wonder if there are opportunities to further reduce costs if you can find people willing to deliver the vegetables part-time in exchange for vegetables of their own? They in turn would have food for their families or could sell excess produce/vegetables in exchange for cash, but the cash outlay of the farmers is further reduced which allows them to use the money instead to invest in more seed, tools, technology, or buy cooperatively owned transportation to aid in delivery? Just thinking out loud here.

Good luck with your effort! Sounds like a fantastic thing you are doing.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Leader on May 11, 2009 at 10:50pm

Hi,

Congratulations on such a success.

Mr Merrill J Fernando, founder of the Dilmah Tea empire and subsequently the MJF Foundation, and his sons have been doing some great work along these lines in their native Sri Lanka. Mr Fernando also has some very strong opinions about the Fair Trade movement, preferring instead Ethical Trade.

Their website www.mjffoundation.org is definitely worth a visit.

best regards
Ian