Keeping it Local

Arogyam Organics works with communities of small and marginal farmers in Tamil Nadu, ensuring that they get access to the best practices, equipment and market support. They get a good price for their produce, and the consumer gets top quality, affordable organic produce.

Working closely with Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, an organisation that has been working with farmers on indigenous organic agriculture for over a decade, Arogyam Organics has put into place processes, practices and systems that ensure that the produce goes from farm to consumer efficiently, keeping costs under control without compromising quality.

The salient features of our methodology :

Answers from indigenous knowledge

CIKS draws on the strengths of indigenous knowledge to evolve practical, cost effective solutions for organic agriculture. These solutions – which include complete organic packages for crops, soil management, pest control, and farm management – have proved to be an extremely effective way for small farmers to turn organic, without the prohibitive costs normally associated. Also, produce grown using these techniques has proved to have qualities and characteristics that are superior in many ways to most genrically availeble produce in the market.

Mobilizing the power of communities

The farmers we work with organize themselves into community groups known as Sangams. These Organic Farmers' Sangams are completely run by the farmers, and assist the members in obtaining knowhow, equipment, farm inputs and loans. The community model opens several doors for small farmers that would be closed to them as individuals. It also brings in collective efficiencies by sharing resources, knowhow and costs

Group certification

The Farmers Sangams get group certification from various certifying bodies, such as Indocert and IMO control, for their produce. This helps bring down the cost of the produce, as obtaining certification would otherwise be prohibitively expensive for small farmers.

Fair trade and marketing practices

Arogyam Organics works with the farmers' sangams to ensure that they get a fair price for their produce, and that the consumer gets the best organic produce at reasonable prices. By keeping the sourcing, marketing and distribution streamlined and efficient, we make sure that there is no unnecessary bloat that inflates the retail price.

This methodology ensures that all Arogyam Organics produce is a result of a stringent process that ensures the purest of top-quality produce at a reasonable cost that is much lower than what is traditionally associated with organic produce. Using an innovative approach that combines indigenous knowledge and practices, a community oriented approach and fair trade and marketing practices, Arogyam Organics is breaking down barriers and taking organic food to the middle-class mainstream.