YouTube Originals' Creator Spotlight's new episode shows journey of Santosh and Akash Jadhav in setting up Indian Farmer

YouTube Originals’ Creator Spotlight is the global video giant’s mini-documentary programme that captures and celebrates the stories of YouTube creators pushing boundaries.

One such creator duo is ‘Indian Farmer’, whose Internet journey reflects a triumph from the heartland of India. Hailing from the city of Vita in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, two friends Santosh Jadhav and Akash Jadhav set up Indian Farmer in 2018 with the aim to empower farmers with knowledge about modern agricultural practices.

The YouTube Creator Spotlight episode traces Santosh and Akash’s journey from meeting in school to starting Indian Farmer. The episode is co-created with Qyuki. Co-Founded by Samir Bangara, AR Rahman and Shekhar Kapur, Qyuki is a data-driven new media company that discovers and invests in influential creators to help them rapidly grow their audience, create content and launch new IPs.

While Santosh hails from a farming background, Akash is an engineer who was captivated by mobile technology. Together, they combined forces to solve the problems they saw their community struggling with. Now 1.63 million subscribers strong, Indian Farmer addresses a wide-ranging set of issues, including drought, irrigation, fertilisation, vermin, crop science, greenhouse set-up, business and marketing, and more. Both Santosh and Akash firmly believe that farming is not a yesteryear’s career calling. They think it is imperative now, more than ever, that India’s youth choose this field and grow it.

Talking about their solution-based approach and vision, Akash says in the powerful episode, “Community, technology, generation… yeh teenon ka agar combination ho jaaye, toh bahut badi kranti aa sakti hai (if we combine these three, we can bring about a big revolution.)”

The ‘Creator Spotlight: Indian Farmer’ episode:

On-ground agricultural experience as well as the internet has played a major role in spreading Indian Farmer’s reach and success. The 10-minute episode provides an insightful look into how Santosh and Akash’s Indian Farmer is creating a difference in India’s farming landscape. Today, farmer, from the length and breadth of the country, turn to the channel to find fixes for farming problems, as well as for education on how to upgrade their agricultural practice.

"Paison ki zaroorat nahi hai. Ek jazbe ki, junoon ki, aur kuch kar dikhane ki zaroorat hai (One doesn’t need money. One needs passion and the will to make a change),” says Santosh in the video.

Santosh and Akash said, “We hail from a very agriculturally-rich land in Maharashtra’s Sangli district. We were privileged; we had access to technology and there are very good farmers in our area. But even our privilege couldn’t help us reach our goals and overcome certain difficulties. So, we started Indian Farmer to share knowledge and resources with the larger farmer community of India; we try to solve the day-to-day problems and issues that are faced by farmers. We highlight every minor detail in our videos because we want to bridge the existing and developing gaps (of technology and education) for farmers. We’re awed, humbled and excited for our YouTube Originals Creator Spotlight episode because, especially in these times, it’ll enable us to reach and connect with our audience — the mighty farmers of India — on a deeper level. We also want to thank Qyuki for helping us with this initiative.”

The episode delves into how Santosh Jadhav and Akash Jadhav scaled Indian Farmer, and how the YouTube channel is impacting how the agricultural community networks and connects in the modern age. The comment section below their videos is the biggest indicator of the dearth and need for the current generation of farmers to share their knowledge and grow the sector.

While Santosh and Akash are working towards upgrading their production scale and quality, they’re also developing content that will be valuable and relevant in the future — Indian Farmer might well release a specialised, long-form series in the years to come. They’re also looking at building a farmer’s community that’ll help each other through their knowledge, network and experiences. They hope this community will enable farmers to better interact with governmental bodies, as well as international and national trading organisations.