The Legacy of Daniel Family in Organic Production and Processing

Our range of organic products represents the philosophy, vision and belief systems of the Daniel Family. In the 1980’s Dr. Alexander Daniel – an agricultural economist trained (Post Doctorate in Agricultural Economics) from the Gokhale Institute of Economics in Pune decided to make Maharashtra his focus of work. He devoted his whole life to uplift the quality of life for farmers in Ahmednagar District and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra. He provided his skills and knowledge of agricultural economics to the emerging cooperative and political leaders in the region. As a result of his work he was able to lay foundation for the development of farmer’s groups from the marginalized sections of the community. He placed great importance in the formation of women led organizations for production, processing and marketing.

He identified that the root cause of under development of farming communities in Maharashtra was due to the lack of profitability in farm production. He focused on finding strategies to reduce the costs of cultivation and access markets directly to improve profitability. In his effort to reduce the cost of cultivation, he identified that the cost and dependence on external inputs like seed, pesticides and fertilizers was very high which had a serious impact on the profitability of the farming systems. He further noticed that the proclaimed advantages of these supposedly high quality external inputs did not have any considerable impacts in raising sustainable productivity of the farming systems. Thus the existing conventional system of agriculture was pushing the farmer to a state of perennial loss, loss of livelihood and even leading to farmer suicides. This conviction led him to promote the organic system of production as a system of sustainability, productivity and profitability especially among the small farmers he was working with in Marathwada Region. In order to further increase profitability for farm and farm-based enterprises, he promoted producer companies and producer to consumer direct marketing models. Ekologie Forte is a brand, which represents the involvement of such producer groups in the production and processing of organic products. The benefits are shared with the marginalized sections of the community – the actual producers or processors. Dr. Alexander Daniel passed away on 21st December 2005. His family continues this movement of building sustainable livelihoods for the marginalized sections of the communities in Marthawada region of Maharashtra.

Managing Director's Message

A Journey Towards Healthy Living. Ekologie Forte Pvt. Ltd., is a company dedicated for providing healthy food, feed and cosmetic ingredients to consumers. We have been working with organic farmers’ groups across India for the past two decades. The certified organic products from these committed organic farmers are now being marketed under the brand names of Ekologie Forte, Milawat Free, Eko Guarantee, Organiq Kosmetik, Tito’s Organic and Kompleet Feeds. Our range of products represents quality organic produce sourced from small and marginal farmers. We have taken all efforts to produce and process all food without any use of chemicals as fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. All our processed products are free from all synthetic preservatives and additives. We continue to enjoy this challenge of bringing quality produce to the shelves of shops. In addition to our commitment to quality we are deeply devoted to social responsibilities to our producers, workers and staff in the processing and packing units. All the producers are from extremely resource poor conditions and we have taken every effort to provide the best prices to the produce and are continuously providing technical support to these small and marginal farmers. All the work in processing units are mostly handled by physically challenged persons and most of the staff in the company are school and college drop-outs. Undoubtedly we recognize the ecological and social commitment of millions of consumers, which makes enterprises like ours to serve them. We wish to work more closely with all health conscious consumers committed to ecology and social upliftment. We are willing to communicate and interact with them through social media platforms, blogs and we have also special agro-tour programs organised by the company to enable the consumers to interact the farmers directly.