How Farmcity Came To Be

Why we gave up everything we knew and plunged headfirst into a field we knew nothing about

“When I grow up, I want to be a farmer,” said hardly anyone ever; not in our immediate circle of friends, at least. It was never on our cards either — Wes being right at home in front of a laptop working on his next business idea; and me constantly-whining-but-secretly-loving the buzz of corporate life in the city. So the decision to dive headfirst into the field of agriculture was surprising, even to us.

It wasn’t as if we picked up our shovels one day and felt an instant connection with the earth. Nothing quite as romantic as that. In fact, all we wanted to do at first was to develop a delivery app — totally original and definitely motivated by #firstworldproblems. Spoilt by apps such as Munchery, GrubHub, and Amazon, we found ourselves missing the convenience of having almost anything we dreamt of delivered right to our doorsteps. That was 2015, and we couldn’t believe that while San Francisco had one too many food delivery apps, Mauritius had none! At the same time, we realized that fresh vegetables hardly accompanied any meal — one was hard pressed to find even a stalk of leafy greens in your bowl of mine bouille if you ate at the local food courts. It didn’t help that Wes wasn’t in the pink of health then, so healthy meal options was something we truly needed but struggled to find. (Thank god for Mum and Dad, and their daily, home-cooked nourishment!)

So we naively decided to combine our needs and wants — Fresh vegetables + Home Delivery = winning app idea, no? Less-than-reliable internet coupled with the lack of digital payment options did not deter us — what we don’t have, we’ll build. Since Mauritius was a stopover on our way to Singapore anyway, building an app, we very wrongly assumed, was something we could achieve quite easily on our break. It was an idea that was quick to execute, and one we could continue working on even from Singapore…right? (Gotta hand it to naive optimism, eh?)

About a month of ideation later, the rain came — 2 whole weeks of torrential rain inundated the island of Mauritius. We witnessed first hand how much prices of vegetables could skyrocket in a day. As the government announced measures to increase vegetable imports in order to maintain food security, we watched as families made the switch to canned vegetables or chose to forego vegetables altogether because of their limited budget. As we tried to wrap our heads around the absurdity of the situation, we couldn’t help but wonder:

“Weren’t the vegetables in the markets harvested pre-rain? If so, why was there an immediate increase in price?”

“The rainy season isn’t new, in fact, it is the hallmark of a tropical climate. So why weren’t more farmers prepared for it?”

“Isn’t there more that could be done to increase the resilience of farmers and consumers alike?”

“Isn’t affordable and healthy food a basic human right?”

We drove around the island seeking answers. We spoke to family and friends, friends of friends, farmers, businesses; and we began to get a clearer understanding of a very flawed food system.

On the farmers end, we discovered that the majority of them are ageing, are misinformed about agrichemical effects, and are unlikely to implement newer, transformative techniques. Regulations surrounding use of agrichemicals is vague and hardly enforced; thus misuse is rampant. For example, farmers are so afraid of losing their crops to pests and diseases, they take to spraying their crops liberally with pesticides even before any hint of a pest infestation, “just in case”. If the directions call for 2 parts pesticide to every litre of water, they add double the dosage because then it will be stronger. They disregard Pre-Harvest Intervals (the time set aside to allow pesticide residues to degrade before harvesting) because their entire livelihood depends on the goods looking their best when they are sold, and there is simply no room for any bug-bitten fruit or leaf. So reliant are they on agrichemicals, they have taken to referring to chemical pesticides as ‘medicine’, and fertilizers as ‘vitamin’; without realizing the damage they are causing to the health of themselves, the consumer, and the environment. The most horrible aspect of such a flawed system is that farmers — despite assuming most, if not all of the risks — are beholden to distributors and auctioneers. ‘Net 90' at supermarkets are common — which means farmers receive payment only 3 months after they have handed over their goods. Even then, we have been told that some supermarkets refuse to pay for unsold goods, returning them to the farmers ‘because they are rotting’. Isn’t that crazy? The wholesale auctions aren’t any better. Something like 20 auctioneers control the markets all around the island and it is them who dictate price and payment terms. Farmers rely on ‘transporters’ to bring their goods from the field to the auctions in the wee hours of the morning, where they are then bidded upon. There is no ‘official’ price list, and it is almost impossible to receive an official receipt for goods that have been traded at these auctions. You just have to take their word for it. Needless to say, welfare of farmers hardly factor into the buying price.

On the consumer’s end, we realized that access to nutritious vegetables is a significant challenge for the majority of people. By the time these vegetables make their way from the auctions to the local markets, they would have spent a fair amount of time sitting on dirty floors, piled into heaps on the backs of trucks, baked in the sweltering heat as they are loaded and unloaded, and losing essential nutrients every step of the way. Alternatively, one can also shop at the supermarkets for ‘better quality’ produce. However, unless one’s pockets are deep enough to afford imported vegetables, one was relegated to the limited variety of local vegetables displayed on supermarket shelves. These are usually ‘branded’ vegetables produced by some of the bigger conglomerates in Mauritius, and are perceived to be responsibly cultivated and therefore, safer to consume. Inevitably, this expectation comes at a price: less expensive than imported vegetables, but not cheap either. Also, since proper cold chain management is rarely respected, it is not uncommon to find wilting and bruised vegetables in the produce aisle. While there is a growing number of people concerned with the food that they consume, access to nutritious vegetables is severely limited by purchasing power and quite simply, a lack of choice.

By January 2016, Wesley and I were convinced that we needed to do something about what we had learnt. Like one of those things where once you’ve seen it, you can’t ‘un-see’ it? Exactly that . Our initial idea of a vegetable home delivery app seemed so insignificant in the larger scheme of things. No more #firstworld problems, it was time to solve #realworld problems.

So began our intensive research into sustainable farming solutions. How could we farm in a manner that checked all of the following boxes:

• water efficient
• energy efficient
• chemical free
• nutrient dense
• economically responsible — farmers can make a decent living from it
• socially responsible — whole of society benefits
• community oriented

The deeper we delved into agribusiness, the clearer it became that there was no way around it — if we were serious about changing things for the better, we had to design a whole new food system.

So what is Farmcity really? Farmcity is an efficient, grassroots-based food system that increases access to nutritious vegetables for everybody.

How will we achieve that? Farmcity is first and foremost a farm, where we will cultivate our own produce in our proprietary greenhouse. We have designed our greenhouse specifically for tropical conditions — to keep heat out, to reduce the entry of pests, and to harvest rainwater that is abundant in the tropics. Together with natural farming techniques, we will be able to cultivate crops without the need for agrichemicals, and in a manner that takes full advantage of what nature has to offer. Next, we plan to operate on a direct-to-consumer model. This means our harvest will be delivered directly to consumers, without the need for middlemen. This will enable us to keep our prices reasonable, reduce unnecessary food miles, and maintain maximum levels of freshness for our produce. Finally, at the heart of it all, is the community. We are deeply committed to building a business that adds social, ecological and health value. This means a dogged insistence on hiring members from the locality, so that we can contribute to the health of the local economy. It also means building partnerships with other changemakers who share our vision in creating a new food economy steeped in collaborative infrastructure.

So that’s the long-winded story of how Farmcity came to be. It hasn’t been without its share of challenges, but that is a story for another day! We are just at the beginning, and we are so grateful for all the encouragement we have received along the way. Even if our days are now consumed by the endless list of things that need to be done to get Farmcity up and running, we couldn’t be happier. Looking forward to delivering our first harvest to you!

2021 Update:
4 years after we first wrote this story, Farmcity has weathered many storms, pivoted aplenty, and are really proud to say we’ve emerged even stronger than before. Part 2 of our story takes place in Singapore, and you can read it here.