Indian company Mother Dairy's retail model helps farmers but is under pressure from chains.

Call it the Safal model. For close to 25 years, a large chunk of households in the National Capital Region (NCR) have had access to fresh fruits and vegetables at affordable prices – at rates much lower than what the local vegetable and fruits market or the handcart vendor would charge.

This was made possible by standing the concept of buying on its head. Instead of the farmer coming all the way to markets where the middleman would fleece him and where he had to pay steep taxes, the market went to his doorstep. As a result, customers could get the fresh products daily, making the farm-to-fork concept a reality long before retail chains began doing so in the metros. It is the Safal model that these chains also employ.