Seema Deokar: Daughter of the Soil

Since 11 decades, Deokar Farming & Products, a business owned and run by the Deokar family based in Washim (Maharashtra), has been committed to enhancing agriculture-based livelihoods. Today, the venture is spearheaded by a woman – Seema Deokar.

Having a passion for farming early on in life, Seema Deokar took it up as a full time livelihood with Deokar Farming. She recounts, “The Washim district in Maharashtra has no proper roads and transport connectivity combined with a perennial water shortage posing a huge problem for the agriculture sector here. We don’t have water dams, big river or water canal system, water source is only borewells or wells. Our farmers have to decide their yearly plan of crops plantation when the actual monsoon season starts. We grow mostly grains or pulses crops because it requires minimum water supply as compared to fruits and vegetable farming.”

Challenges of natural farming

Basically all farmers here work on a no profit no loss basis only managing to recover their living expenses and needs from their farms. She continues, “In 2013, I and my family then decided to take up natural farming just to save the money on fertiliser and  pesticide. I used to post my videos and photos on social media and then started getting enquiries for my farm produce. Our customers liked the raw produce and quality so we started selling produce directly to them with no involvement of local mandi agents, commission middlemen, etc. Later customers requested us to get certification for an acknowledgement of the product. That’s when our final journey started towards organic farming.” Her vision was to show farmers how organic farming can become profitable in the future so they need to come together to make it big.

Speaking about the challenges she faced in the initial years, Seema said that it was a very difficult and challenging decision, because in natural farming production output is comparatively less and physical effort is much more.

Seema Deokar credits her success to the support and efforts of her husband’s family and their continuity in organic farming practices. She laments that in India even now there is no specified organic market at the village level to sell organic produce and even rates have not been decided by the government. The farmer has to sell produce to the customer at his own risk and rates.

She points out, “Organic farming is not a one time practice; most farmers start organic farming but fail to keep it in continuation because it is difficult to convince consumers about the authenticity of organic produce and it’s very difficult to sell without any certification. Subsequently, farmers lose their interest in organic farming.”

The cost of certification

How difficult is it to get organic certification in India? Seema Deokar informs that It is not difficult but certification from APEDA – NPOP category is very costly. She says, “An individual farmer will not be able to bear such expense for certification. Besides, this is not a onetime expense; every year farmer has to pay a yearly certification fee and their travelling, accommodation, food and other extra costs from their own pocket. Every year audit and inspection is also done by the certifying agency.”

There are two government bodies offering this certification, APEDA and PGS-India Organic. Seema opines that the government should cut down or provide subsidy for this cost. It will help and motivate farmers to take up organic farming. “Certification plays a very important role in this sector. It is like an acknowledgement or award to the farmer. It helps the farmer to keep the continuity in farming production every year. Nobody can commit that a well packed or designed product is organic. It completely depends upon how that crop has been cultivated by the farmer. Nowadays certified organic sellers are more in the market as compared to certified organic farmers, this difference is very huge,” she reiterates.

Deokar Farms mainly produces grains such as Moong (Green gram), Soybean, Chickpeas, Black gram, Pigeon peas (Tur/Arhar), Turmeric, Wheat, some vegetables like chilli and tomato. All whole products are certified under APEDA’s National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) certification system. The farm has one more year to go for complete certification.

Commenting on getting a fair price for the products, Seema informs, “We sell our products in the domestic retail segment and avoid bulk supply. In retail consumer market, I get a fair price and repetition of orders. Actually compared to conventional farming, we save on fertilisers and pesticides so this adds to our profits.”

Sharing her future plans for the farm, Seema says, “Very soon I am planning to start processing of raw produce, as customers’ demand for our products is increasing. My focus is to plant old varieties of Indian seeds in millets and pulses category. Especially because these pulses/seeds have better nutritional values and delicious taste. But, after the Green Revolution in agriculture, India developed hybrid varieties of all crops. These new varieties helped increase the production, but we have missed out on the taste and nutritional benefits of our ancient grains. We want to bring that back.”