Joy of consuming their own grown food, for a healthy life

Hyderabad-based Chandana Gade, founder of 'Seedbasket' is one of India's leading e-commerce marketplace to buy online vegetable seeds, fruit seeds, seeds, grow bags, and other home/terrace gardening products.

Agriculture was not new for Chandana because she and her husband Naveen Gade both are from an agricultural families. Chandana Gade started the website 'Seedbasket' with the help of her husband. "I have started this website at the end of the year of 2016 on realizing poison in our plate with high use of pesticides and chemical used to grow vegetables and we don't want to grow our kids by feeding this toxic food and thought of why don't we start growing our food as our parents do in villages."

The reason behind starting 'Seedbasket':

In 2015 she watched some news in one of the Telegu news channels about the growing of the leafy vegetables under musi river water un-hygienically and highly use of pesticides and chemical and its effects on our health if we eat them.

Chandana says, "When I saw the news at that time only I started feeding my baby with rice and greens and I don't want to grow my kids by feeding this toxic food. The organic vegetable was not available all the time in the market and the price is very high and not sure whether they are organic or not. So I thought why don't we start growing vegetables at least start with leafy vegetables as our parents do in villages in the olden days."

Initially, when Chandana wanted to grow vegetables in her balcony it was very difficult for her because she couldn't find the quality native/desi seeds in small packings and other gardening materials online. She shares, "In this difficult time I found an opportunity because there are many parents like me who want to grow organic vegetables at home especially in urban cities and there is no proper dedicated website for home gardening needs. So, I thought of starting an e-commerce website dedicated to gardening needs and discussed with my husband my Idea. He encouraged me and helped in developing the website and mobile app."

How it started:

It was not an easy task for Chandana, she says, "It took six months to get the website ready and meantime I research the market and seeds supplier and other gardening materials and attended training related to home gardening."

"The main difficulty that I have faced is the genuine and quality suppliers. We procure the seeds from our farmlands and other farmers and reliable vendors from different parts of India," She shares.

Journey with 'Seedbasket':

When Chandana and her husband launched the website, with the right approach to their website, they slowly started getting orders, though small at the beginning. But the reviews were great which has propelled them to put in more effort in this 'Seedbasket'.

She says, "Another reason that has fueled us to start an e-commerce website on online vegetable seeds, is the lack of a proper dedicated website for home gardening which provides desi seeds. Apart from providing native/desi vegetable seeds, we have tried to incorporate all the products that are helpful for home gardening."

Chandana and her team started making profits within six months after launching the website and also featured in many regional (Telugu) Newspapers and TV channels about their startup 'Seedbasket'. Recently they got featured in one of India largest circulated regional agriculture magazine EenaduAnnadata Telugu September 2021. Now it is in the top 3 list of Home-Garden e-commerce marketplaces in the country. So far 'Seedbasket' has supplied gardening seeds to more than 10 thousand happy customers throughout India.

About her website, she says, "In our website, we listed around 200 different types of products with all type of Native vegetable seeds, Herbal, Exotic and Hybrid seeds and seasonal flowers and fruit seeds and other gardening materials with price range starts from Rs. 25/-."

After the pandemic, people became more conscious about health and started growing their food on balconies, terraces, and open places. "Not only from the urban, but we started getting the orders from rural places also. Before Covid, we used to get orders from the Indians who settled in different countries like the USA, Australia, UK, Dubai, etc. who need our desi seeds. After Covid due to many restrictions of exporting seeds to other countries we stopped supplying outside India for retail customers," Adds Chandana.

She further shares, "Everyone wants to start gardening but many don't have the basic knowledge on gardening for them we send manual with information on soil selection, watering and pest control and plant caring, etc. and we send this along with each order to the customers which helps the beginners to start their gardening. We also have a YouTube channel to share more knowledge on gardening."

YouTube: Seed Basket - YouTube

Website: www.seedbasket.in

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