Going beyond Organic Food

Safe Harvest works with more than 50,000 Farmers to bring nutritious premium-quality, pesticide-free Food Products to you in India

B Beyond the shaded lanes of Jayanagar, unless you take notice, you’d walk past the discreet lodging which houses the Bangalore-hub of Safe Harvest. Instead, if you walk into it, you’d find an almost hidden Food-hub which procures and distributes the harvest from the best crop growing regions and achieves something that most Organic Food Manufacturing firms don’t — Building a community of small and marginal Farmers practicing sustainable Agriculture and growing Pesticide-free food.

Why Non-pesticide Management Practice, why not Organic?

There are three major sources of contamination (pesticides and fertilizers) while growing a crop. Yes, that means unless tested, not all organic food is completely Contaminant-free. At present, it is not mandatory for organic-certified growers to test the level of contaminants in Food they sell. Not so with Safe Harvest where more than 190 tests are conducted to test the level of pesticides and heavy metals before they are labeled with Zero — and sold to the consumers.

1. Sources of Contaminants Irrigation. Most of the contaminants are from water, where heavy metals are found and can be contaminated with fertilizers
2. Soil overruns — It is not enough to have a 3 year synthetic free-spell to ensure the land is fit for organic farming. Often the adjacent land, which also shares the same water table, contaminates the land at a higher proportion than soil
3. Fertilizers and Pesticides — Pesticides and Fertilizers are the direct inputs added to the soil to ensure crop growth given the limited nutrition of land as well as to prevent pests

Every batch at Safe Harvest is given a code .You can access their MRL report — that is the test report for pesticides, and heavy metals for every food product and be assured of high-quality, uncontaminated food. Moreover, it gives you access to food grown in natural conditions and at regions whose climate and soil is optimally conditioned to provide you “nutrition and taste” — the two most important criteria for us to purchase food.

The #Triple bottom-line promise of Safe Harvest

Safe Harvest is committed to aid farmers to incorporate low-cost methods and educate them on using slow-release fertilizers, or natural crop growing methods by providing them direct training and training through initiatives organized Co-operative organizations.

Educating Farmers on the usage of pesticide-free methods and Environment

The unique organization was created when a group of cooperatives decided to bring sustainable agro-methods to small and marginal farmers in India who face the persistent issue of soil-fertility,issue of water supply, and investment income to actually go ahead and grow organic crops. The next best idea was to create a medium via which they can sell their crops which has no fertilizers of healthy and safe food — this is what Safe Harvest promises — to help farmers sustain.

1. Transport cost: Safe-harvest aids Farmers in transporting farm produce to the co-operatives and other market channels
2. Removes Money-Lenders: It gets the farmers out of the ambit of money-lenders by paying the farmers above distribution rates of non co-operatives
3. Educating Farmers on latest technologies to produce safe food: Provides information to farmers on how to grow crops with natural fertilizers and zero pesticides, access to market structure, organized channels, and benefits of safe environment

The average landholding of a small/middle level farmer in India is 2–3 hectares. They not only face challenges when it comes to scaling and improving their standards of living but also to the access of information and financial channels. These factors are further complicated by those of unreliable monsoons, supply-demand fluctuations and inflation creating a situation of catch-22. Safe Harvest consciously removes the most vital barrier for the farmers to improve their success rate in the market — “information followed by the channel linkage”. This is different from the major organic product organizations whose primary procurement is from large-scale farmers.

Given the fluctuations in Monsoon, farmer suicide rates in India, and the goal to provide sustainable income to farmers, Safe Harvest (www.safeharvest.co.in) (a triple bottom-line organization) has lined up an array of nutritious, pesticide-free food products with an assurance that every product you purchase from them not only provides nutrition but also benefits the farmer and is conscious of the environment.

#safeharvest #pesticide-free food #health #nutrition #climate