Before India's lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19, most women farmers sold their produce by the side of the road. But when traffic disappeared, business evaporated. This microproject will buy a mobile food cart for Akai, to help her restart her farm business by allowing her to take her produce to her customers.
The 80% of working women in India who work in agriculture have been hard hit by the COVID crisis. Those who grow their own produce have traditionally sold it from a blanket spread by a hot dusty road, where the heat is so intense they can't start till 4 in the afternoon, even though they have to quit at twilight. Now, since the COVID lockdown has closed down most street traffic, even this meager living has been denied them.
A food cart will allow Akai to take her produce wherever she can find a market. She will be able not only to take her cart to common market areas, but to hawk her produce as she walks up and down the street and stops at the homes of her customers. And when she is able to take her wares to the door, she also saves the buyer from having to risk COVID exposure by venturing into more crowded areas. Akai will receive our training in proper safety precautions before venturing out.
This is an easily scalable project: we can purchase as many food carts as we can get funding for, and every cart will allow a woman farmer to continue to earn an income during the COVID lockdown and make marketing her produce easier and more profitable long into the future.