Some years ago, with the intention "to give back something to the earth from which we have taken so much, for so long" my wife and I bought land outside Bangalore and developed it into an organic farm.

We decided to depend on the old adage of "being purer than Caesar's wife" as we could not afford the cost of certification. We just took greater care and were more rigorous in ensuring our farm was "organic". And we were successful in not only selling the vegetables, grains and fruit that we grew, but we also made and marketed organic peanut butter, jams and pickles through an NGO based in Bangalore.

Slow Adoption of Organic Produce

In our view, the transition to organic produce consumption has been slow in India mainly because of the lack of focus at the marketing end, as can be seen from the following:

1. Large departmental stores give token recognition to organic products by assigning a shelf or two. And even these are rarely well stocked. So a customer can never get a full range of organic products to serve a complete meal.

2. While the NGOs do a yeomen service to the organic cause at the growers end, they are not able to link as effectively with the customers. Thus the transition to "organic" continues to remain difficult for both the farmer as well as the end consumer.

3. Lastly, organic produce has got identified as an expensive, niche product.

Given this understanding, we recently set up DubdenGreen to market organic, herbal and eco-friendly products. But, having realised the limitations of trying to do everything ourselves - we could never grow beyond our limitations of land, money and energy - we opted to link up with others already into the health space and to work together with them to reach the benefits of healthier products, to a wider audience.

Apart from marketing our branded products, we also opted to have an outlet of our own at Shahpur Jat in Delhi, which would act as a mini-departmental store with a greater focus on organic produce and products.

To Certify or Not to Certify

While we offer certified organic products from our store, we are also working with NGOs and farmers directly, even where they have only recently become organic growers, and we do stock their "convergence" products.

The reality is that much of our traditional farming, especially in the hills, continues to be organic. Though not certified, these farms and farmers have never moved to any form of cultivation that would include synthetic fertilisers and pesticides and can be deemed to be organic. And wherever we are confident that the produce is traditionally "organic", and that the farmers have been following the basic tenets of organic growing over the years, we offer these "organically grown" products under our brand.

Certification is essentially to provide the necessary reassurance and trust that the produce is indeed organic. We believe, dedicated organic stores and brands like ours will help build this trust between the grower and the consumer, until the time certification becomes more viable.

The Range of Products

We now have a reasonable range of branded organic groceries - grains, pulses, condiments, brown sugar, jaggery variants and derivatives, honey, jams, squashes, pickles, tea and coffee. In fact, almost everything for the kitchen! (We also have access to organic fruits and vegetables and are working on the modalities of offering these on a regular basis and in larger quantities.)

Further, we also stock "health" products, which are not necessarily organic - for instance, whole-wheat bread, which is better than maida bread. Obviously, whole-wheat bread made from organic wheat would be even better. And we are working on this.

As a matter of fact, the outlet will soon feature a small cafe, which will serve organic coffee, tea, fruit juices and snacks - pastries, bread, cookies, pizzalets, quiches, and many other things. Healthy food can also be inviting and tasty! Right?

We look forward to the opportunity of providing you good, healthy food and other eco-friendly products.

Do visit us or mail us at dubdengreen@organicbounty.com.

Ganesh Eashwar