In 2009, a group of consumers in Hyderabad, then part of unified Andhra Pradesh, established a cooperative society to source chemical-free produce directly from farmers, reports Down to Earth.
Over the last years the consumer initiative has grown into a farmers’ group.
The cooperative society sells the produce through a farmer-run retail store in Secunderabad and through mobile retail vans in urban areas.
It was a big change when in 2014, all the farmers’ groups under the cooperative society registered themselves as organic FPOs, and the society became Sahaja Aharam Producer Company, Ltd a “federation” of organic FPOs.