Ravi Umrao is CPO of the brand Ayana food and organics, from Kanpur Uttar Pradesh. He sells perishable food, pulses and vegetables online. He says that to be successful you need to be passionate. It's due to my passion that I have reached where I am and I am in the position to explain what I have done, he says. He was born in a farming family, residing in a small village in Kanpur district.
He has studied engineering and law but farming was what he was really interested in. In India, the main profession is farming and 64 percent of the population depends on agriculture. He believes that commercialization of farming has been troublesome as the use of chemicals has been harmful to the crops, soil and us. It has killed fertility, our friendly bacteria and friendly insects. These chemicals have seeped to the groundwater level affecting our drinking water and in turn our health.
How Pollution affects us?
These chemicals pass on to the rivers and other water bodies polluting them, killing the aquatic creatures. These have damaged the environment we live in. These chemicals have entered the food chain and into our bodies and are acting like slow poison. These chemicals have reduced our immunity and we are suffering from diseases like cancer, high or low blood pressure, changing sugar levels.
Ravi wanted to help protect the environment, improve people’s health, for this the farmers should be made aware of the dangers of chemicals, so that they farm with chemical free methods. He brought his ideas to the notice of his family members who did not take him seriously, as they thought that chemicals were fine and chemical free agriculture is not possible. Some of them thought that he was a madman.
Acts of a madman
Despite what anyone thought, he decided to follow his dreams and established a NGO in 2010, which worked with women farmers to produce unadulterated food items. He said adulterated food items are a big problem and he wanted to solve this problem. These women farmers sold what they produced through the NGO, however this project failed.
He faced grave difficulties but he was firm in what he wanted to do and there was no going back on what he had planned for himself. All this was leading to nowhere and he was lacking finances. He went to Delhi and did a job there for 2 years and then he returned to follow his dream.
He travelled to a number of villages and met a number of farmers, sometimes travelling long distances on foot. He did this for a number of years but very few people understood what he was trying to achieve through all this. In the end of all this he came in contact with Kanpur (CSA) University and agriculture department. His mission progressed further and he came in touch of more farmers.
Most of the farmers that he met complained about only one thing, lack of access to the markets. So, he planned about preparing a bazaar (market) for them. Hence Ayana food and organics came into being as a solution to these problems. He faced many difficulties initially as there was fierce competition from big companies with excellent packaging and well-funded advertising. He did not have enough funds to match them.
End of the journey
To sell his packaged produce they needed to focus on preservatives and he started work but on a very small scale. He did not have any manpower to implement what he had planned. He still kept working, struggling alone for years. Finally, he made it with lots of effort. He met many associates along the way but he left them all behind. With his efforts, he has built an income earning network for the farmers and provided natural and healthy food to consumers. He said you must have goals or aims and you should do everything to achieve them. Agriculture sector is huge and has lots of opportunities, you can make lots of money by building your brands, launching them in markets and if you are not able to please connect with those who can. Please click here to see the video yourself.