We as Bhojanlay.com work with farmers who grow greens, vegetables, cereals, and fruits through Organic or Natural way of farming with no chemical insecticides and pesticides. The project and the company were started 5 years ago with the selling of few greens grown at Kempegowda Organic Farms to relatives, colleagues, and friends. Later, it was scaled up to assist the small scale farmers. At present, we work closely with 6-8 farms and we provide consultation, forecasting and logistics support. The project which started with 2-3 products, at present sells about 50-70 products including the seasonal crops and fruits.

We were approached by many friends, colleagues, and customers to arrange for a farm visit to show them, how the food reaches their plate. However, due to time, weather and crop cycle constraints we were unable to plan. We planned the farm visit for the weekend at our farmer Jagadish's farm which is located near Ghati Subramanya at the outskirts of Bangalore. Jagadish who is an IT professional, out of passion started organic farming with guavas and with ultra-high-density planting, for the same he was awarded by Karnataka Agriculture department. In 4 acres, other than guavas he grows 2 varieties of dragon fruit (pink and white), moringa, and other fruits at the small scale.

I, Dilip (Co-Founder), Franziska Naduo and Kishore visited the farm in the afternoon and it started to drizzle once we entered the farm. We sat with the farmer and we were welcomed with freshly cut dragon fruit and guavas. Later, Jagadish explained how he is growing the fruits with the organic method by just using Jeevamrutha, panchagavya, and neem fertilizers. Guavas yield in the first year was more than expected and it was well-received in the market for its taste and the quality. The samplings are pruned and made not grow above 4 feet in the ultra-high-density method and above-mentioned fertilizers are fed every alternate week and he says that maintaining the plants in this method is very easy.
Next, we moved to the Dragon fruit plantation aged about 18 months. The plants do not require much care as they belong to the cactus family, and they require very less water like 8 liters per plant/week with no fertilizer/insecticide requirement. The first crop yielded about 8 tonnes and it's very profitable in nature as the fruit price is good in the market. For his methods and technicalities, he is been consulted by many farmers who want to grow the fruits. The visitors were educated about the farming techniques, growing, and harvesting also, we were asked to harvest the fruits and it was a feast for the eyes to watch the entire farm and to enjoy it far from the chaos of everyday life.

- Chandan K, Co-founder