Hassan entrepreneur helps farmers sell products through social media

MYSURU: One of the popular social media initiatives in this lockdown hours is connecting the farmers with the buyers carried out by a group of young activists led by 33-year-old Prakhyat Puttur, an entrepreneur from Hassan. Through his social media page Annadhata-Jeevadhata, Prakhyat, he and his friends helped 145 farmers from across the state to sell their farm products -- onion, cabbage, tomato, watermelon, etc.
Prakhyat, who pursued his MA in history along with his friends Pavan Hegde, Arun Virupaksha, and Sharath Babu, used social media to connect between the farmers in distress and the buyers from entire South India.
"We started this initiative on April 17 after we moved by the plight of one of the friends whose father destroyed the standing sugarcane in 10 acres of land due to no market. We used to collect the farmers and their products details and share on the social media. It helped us to reach the potential buyers. After knowing our service many others started sharing and retweeting our posts which helped us to reach more," explained Prakhyat.
Prakhyat who is running a dairy in Hassan said, for one of the posts even the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) responded. "I was running a free social media page on employment opportunity. Now we all decided to move to a next level and start helping the farmers in different ways including a free app," explained Prakhyat.
Prashanth Kumbar (24), a BA graduate and a young watermelon grower from Samsi village near Kaladagi town in Bagalkot is one of the beneficiaries of this initiative. "I sold 35 tons of watermelon grown in 2 acres of land through this social media posts. I received Rs 7 per kilogram," he said.