YAVATMAL district, hitherto known for spate of farmers’ suicide, can now boast of acclaim for efforts poured in by its children to provide solutions to mitigate its acute agrarian crisis. The internationally renowned Forbes magazine, in its December edition, will have Yavatmal’s Shweta Thakare-Mahalle on its cover page. ‘GramHeet’, the company owned by Shweta and her husband Pankaj Mahalle too had figured in the list of 100 companies in Asia published by Forbes three months back. Unlike many others, who after completing higher education, seek cushy jobs in urban areas, Shweta Thakare Mahalle and Pankaj Mahalle decided to stay back in their village Warud (Tuka) in Arni taluka of Yavatmal district so that they can find ways to bring prosperity to their own village and farmers therein.

Their company‘GramHeet’, started 3 years back, was conceived with the primary objective to ensure that farmers get proper price for their produce. Farmers in Yavatmal are caught in the vicious circle of crop loss, low yield and debt. Deep in financial crisis, the farmers often sell their crops at whatever price offered rather than waiting for appropriate price. With a desire to stop farmers’ exploitation, the Mahalle couple formed the company so that farmers can keep their crop mortgaged till they get proper price for their produce and can get loan at easy interest rates besides getting a proper market using digital platform.

Though at the start, marketing of farm produce by ‘GramHeet’ was limited to some villages of eastern Yavatmal, today more than 6,000 farmers of Yavatmal and Akola district are connected to ‘GramHeet.’ GramHeet has come as boon for farmers as it provides a proper, easy and trustworthy method to gauge the quality of the produce, bonus in accordance with the produce, assurance of the weight of the produce remaining same on the day of sale as was on the day of mortgage, ability to sell mortgaged produce at the click of a button of their cell phones etc. The most important among all benefits is having the sale money directly deposited into their accounts without any deduction. Pankaj is now trying to develop ways to ensure that the farmers can hold on to their produce till they get a proper price. He had seen his father and other villages use air-tight baskets coated with mud to store farm produce. However, now the chemicals are sprayed in the produce stored in godowns to prevent rotting. These chemicals can be harmful for humans. So, Pankaj and Shweta have made containers where farm produce could be stored for 1-1.5 years without any compromise on their salability. All these efforts have found recognition with the couple and their company featuring in Forbes magazine for their contribution in bringing positive change into lives of distressed farmers and ensuring their financial progress