Based in Hyderabad, Safe Harvest sources chemical-free produce from smallholder Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) across nine states in India, including Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh.
Safe Harvest was established by eight civil society organisations—CHIRAG in Uttarakhand, Samuha in Karnataka, Covenant Centre for Development (CCD) in Tamil Nadu, Chetna Organic in Telangana, Watershed Support Service and Activities Network (WASSAN) in Telangana, Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS) in Madhya Pradesh, Samarthak Samiti in Rajasthan, and Satvik in Gujarat—as a response to the challenges faced by marginalised smallholder women farmers practising chemical-free farming. Across India, these farmers do not typically receive a fair price at local mandis as their produce would often be clubbed with what is grown using chemicals. Safe Harvest is creating an alternative market channel for these farmers.
Currently, their offerings include everyday groceries like rice, jaggery powder, khandsari sugar, pulses, millets, nuts, whole spices, cold-pressed oils, unadulterated wild honey, poha, and daliya. They also retail seeds like basil, sunflower, chia, and pumpkin.
Safe Harvest works with farmer collectives who have adopted the Non-Pesticidal Management (NPM) farming philosophy. First developed by farmers in Andhra Pradesh in the late 1980s, NPM advocates for farming without the use of expensive chemical inputs. Here, farmers use mechanical or organic interventions instead of synthetic pesticides. For instance, partner farmers use bio-inputs, pheromone traps, sticky paper—also known as fly paper that attracts mites and aphids—and farm-made compost that enriches the soil and manages pests. These techniques not only help maintain biodiversity but also keep farms profitable by reducing input acosts and maintaining yield quantity.
Safe Harvest helps their partner farmer collectives to purchase and process produce from member farmers, which it then markets. For instance, Ram Rahim Pragati Producer Company Limited, a profitable FPO of over 5,000 Adivasi women farmers, goes beyond simple aggregation, and undertakes processing and packaging too.
The Locavore Bite
TL Bite offers a glimpse into how a partner producer runs their operations, and reflects their core principles and values. The idea is to provide insights into their practices and highlight their positive efforts descriptively. We have identified seven key areas of assessment – origin and source of ingredients, composition and integrity of the products, workforce policies, production practices, community-related initiatives, approach towards preserving or celebrating traditional knowledge and the materials used in packaging. While this assessment may not be entirely comprehensive, we hope it helps you make an informed decision about why you might want to support them, and the ways in which to do so.
The information below offers you a snapshot of where Safe Harvest stands on these parameters. We have put this together based on several rounds of conversations with Aditya Maruvada. Click on a piece of the pie below to find out more.
Why We Love Safe Harvest
- Rigorous testing for chemical residues: Before sourcing, every product is tested batch by batch for over 231 chemical residues at third-party independent labs in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. This includes testing for heavy metals and arsenic in rice, which can be absorbed from groundwater usage, and aflatoxins, which can develop in groundnuts and chillies due to improper storage.
- Chemical-free supply chain and storage: Once sourced from farmer collectives, the produce is processed—separately from produce containing chemicals—and then moved to cold storage, from where it is shipped to Hyderabad for packaging and final testing. Safe Harvest stores the produce in hermetic bags known as ‘cocoons’ which are then flushed with carbon dioxide, helping get rid of any residual insects or pests, minus the use of chemicals.
Supporting FPOs financially: Safe Harvest acts as a guarantor for working capital loans taken by their partner FPOs, which means that in case of a default, they take the responsibility for repayment to the bank. These low-interest loans, otherwise hard to obtain, support FPOs financially, allowing them to continue sourcing chemical-free produce in peak harvest season, which they then sell to Safe Harvest. The FPOs then use this money to repay their loans.
Why do you think it’s important to create alternative supply chains in India for higher quality produce?
“Growing crops without chemical inputs is only one half of the story. Immense care needs to be taken to maintain the integrity of pesticide-free produce from the time it leaves the farm until it reaches the consumer. This is crucial to prevent contamination. The pesticide-free produce therefore needs to be harvested, transported, milled, stored, and packed separately, necessitating the creation of alternative supply chains.”
—Aditya Maruvada, Brand Manager
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If you would like to learn more about Safe Harvest, or try their products, check out their website. If you’re interested in supporting them in other ways, please contact us at connect@thelocavore.in.
This is a paid partnership with Safe Harvest. At The Locavore, we strive to keep the practices of a producer transparent and honest across all forms of partnerships.
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