User:Xatyam/sandbox

Hills and Valleys is a farmer community owned brand that includes all commodities grown at the hills and similar geographical areas, or commodities that grow in hills and valleys. The range of products include team, spices, herbs, bamboo, paddy, aromatic crops etc. The brand is created by Mindtree.org, social inclusion platform by Mindtree Ltd., and available along with other brands under DOT Next Umbrella.

Formed in 2017, it is a brand managed by a federation of farmer cooperatives and farmer producer organizations (of FPOs), which today is jointly available to 35,000 producers in Karnataka.

Today, Hills and Valleys is the market entrant brand and available in retails stores, corporate immersion spaces and local re-sellers in Bengaluru.

Prashant Mehra, co-founder of Mindtree.org & Fractal Farms; Raghunathan Narayanan, founder of Vrutti - Livelihood Resource Center & Catalyst Management Services; and Neelam Chibber, founder of Industree are credited with the success of farmer & artisan ownership model which is known as DOT Next platform. A platform that believes in building technology, services and brands for bottom of the pyramid producers (farm and non-farm).

Hills and Valleys, as a brand label is available for use for all independent farmers, producer organizations and cooperatives that are 100% farmer owned, including landless farmers.

• Only produce procured directly by member farmers can be marketed under this brand label.
• A minimum of 50% of the retail price of products sold needs to be paid to member farmers for their raw produce.
• The member Farmer Producer Company must successfully clear the “DOT Next Fair Company” accreditation.
• The member Farmer Producer Company agrees to be subjected to audits, financial or otherwise towards compliance of the above criteria.