OOO Farms in Rajkot – Growing Their Produce Not Sourcing Them

OOO Farms is an accidental social venture and a movement engaged with more than 63 tribal hamlets in Maharashtra and Gujarat, working with about 2200 indigenous families to safeguard indigenous farming practices, native seeds and tribal communal culture.

 Through our many treks to the Sahyadri Mountains in Maharashtra, we discovered that tribal farmers had stopped growing indigenous food and had switched to hybrid varieties after being convinced that a higher yield and thus a higher income could be achieved. However, they quickly discovered that the yield tends to decline over the years and the use of external chemicals spoils their land. 

 To encourage the tribal farmers to continue growing native varieties of rice and other grains, we began to distribute native indigenous seeds free of cost to them. After a year of free seed distribution, tribal farmers approached us to help them sell the excess harvest that they were growing after saving enough for seeds and food for their families. Thus, OOO Farms was born to bridge the gap and to create a dialogue between tribal farming communities and urban consumers by bringing indigenous and native varieties of rice, wheat, millets, lentils and pulses, corn and groundnuts to the urban plate. 

 OOO Farms grows its produce and does not source them. People need to understand this difference and only then a true change will come about. Working on the sustainability of the food systems around us in the last 4 years, OOO Farms has distributed 13,000 plus kg of free seeds to tribal farmer communities based on what they want to grow and not on what a consumer would like on their plate. This is an important distinction to understand since it promotes self-determination and conservation of native and local food. 

 We also work only with farmer communities not with individual farmers, thus strengthening harmony over the competition. We hold regular Gram Sabhas in villages to discuss seeds requirements, soil health issues and other problems that the farmer may encounter. Over the past four years, farmers have been successful in creating seed banks in their regions, thus promoting seed democracy. Most farmers that we work with see a profit in their earnings owing to no cost in buying seeds as native ones are regenerative, require zero costs for chemicals and fertilisers and are an improvement of their farmlands.

OOO Farms was the first to create a Wild Food Economy, where tribals need not depend on rain and irrigation for water and can earn through foraging. We also teach in a school, a subject called ‘Graam’, designed to make children interested in the village and village businesses. 

Know more and shop: https://ooofarms.com/