Owners of Mountain Love – Uttarakhand
Owners of Mountain Love – Uttarakhand
Apples used in making Mountain Love juice are sourced from 2000+ women apple growers from across 5 districts of Uttarakhand (Garhwal) & Himachal, who are resiliently building a new collective identity as that of ‘Owners of Mountain Love’.
Prior to their association with Mountain Love, these women were able to grow only limited produce due to inhospitable weather conditions and geographical limitations. Not just this, after all this effort, they were not able to take their produce to the market due to small quantities as opposed to high costs, closing of roads due to bad weather and lack of infrastructure to store or process the produce.
All the above led to one third of the produce getting wasted.
Mountain Love (Himalayan Fresh Juice Pvt. Ltd.), a joint venture by Himalayan Mahila Swarojgar Trust and a social enterprise, promotes a sustainable-socio-economic development model called “Farmers as Owners” by which profits flow back as an additional premium paid to the women associated, with the aim of earning 100% economic ownership of this venture by 2020.
In other words, Mountain Love aids the empowerment of these women and in the development of the farms. This leads to food security, development of rural areas as well as skills, in turn, generating employment.