Upali Dhonkheda Farmer Producer Company Limited

Upali is a small spot in Sillod, and that is where we do our work. Janardhan Shejul let us use his place at G No. 31 to get this company started. We are mostly a group of local farmers who decided to team up because doing things alone was getting too hard. In Sillod, everyone knows everyone, so it felt right to organize ourselves this way. We deal with whatever the season brings, whether it’s cotton or grains. The office is really just a room where we meet to talk about the harvest. Sometimes the rain doesn’t come when it should, which makes everyone a bit stressed, but we manage. We aren't trying to be some big corporate entity. We just want to make sure the folks in Dhonkheda and Upali get a fair shake. You can usually find someone hanging around the gate if you have questions. It’s a very local operation. We write things down in notebooks and try to keep the accounts straight. It's honest work. Sometimes we sit around for hours just debating the best time to sell. It isn't always pretty, and the building could use a fresh coat of paint, but it works for us. We just keep our heads down and focus on the farming. That's the main thing we care about at the end of the day.