A farm, not a financial product

Every so often someone asks us a version of the same question: “If I put in ₹50,000, what do I get back?” It's a fair question, and it deserves a straight answer. UGAANA is not an investment. There are no returns, no profit sharing and no guaranteed yields, and we will never describe it as if there were. You pay for a service, and the service is growing food for your family.

We want to explain why we're so firm about this, because it isn't only a matter of words.

What you're actually paying for

When your crop goes ahead, you'll pay two things, and you'll see both amounts before you reserve anything:

• A one-time setup fee, which covers establishing your plants: saplings or seed, pit preparation, drip lines and tagging.
• An annual care fee, from planting onwards, which covers what it takes to keep them growing: water, nutrition, pruning, pest management, inspections, the farm team, the software and harvesting.

In exchange, our farm team grows specific plants for you, and you receive what they actually produce: delivered, collected at the farm, swapped for a seasonal basket, donated or kept as farm credit. That's it. It's much closer to a gym membership or a weekly vegetable box than to anything a bank sells.

What you don't get

• You don't own land. No title, no lease and no plot in your name.
• You don't own the trees. Your plants are grown and cared for on your behalf under a contract, but they remain part of the farm.
• No share in the business. No equity, no partnership and no security interest.
• No promised quantity of fruit, and no money back from the harvest. Harvests are shown as reference, planning and conservative ranges, because farming varies. Why three numbers.
• No resale promise. We don't say you can sell anything on for more than you paid.

Why we're so careful

India has a painful history here. In the 1990s, many plantation and teak schemes promised city savers large payouts from trees. Many collapsed, and people lost their savings. That history is one reason Indian law defines a collective investment scheme broadly. Under Section 11AA of the SEBI Act, an arrangement where people's contributions are pooled and managed on their behalf, with a view to receiving profits, income, produce or property, and where they have no day-to-day control, can fall inside that definition.

Notice the word “produce”. Saying “you get fruit, not money” isn't automatically enough: the substance of the arrangement matters, not just the wording. That's why we're taking specialist legal advice on the structure of UGAANA's membership agreement before any money is collected, and why this website is free to use until that's done.

How money will work, step by step

1. Today: nothing. Building a farm on our website and sending a reservation request is free and non-binding.
2. When your crop is close to going ahead: we'll call you and, once our legal set-up is complete, collect a ₹1,000 reservation. It's refundable in full, for any reason, until you sign the membership agreement.
3. When enough families have joined a crop: we send you the membership agreement. You pay the setup fee once you've signed, and we plant in the next window. For Jaipur, that's targeted for 13 February 2027.
4. From planting onwards: the annual care fee. Every invoice shows tax line by line.

If a crop never reaches enough families, you pay nothing for it, and any reservation you've paid is refunded in full or moved to a crop that is going ahead. The details are in our refund policy.

Tax, briefly

Because you're paying for a service, not buying an asset, we don't tell anyone that anything is tax-free, and we don't give tax advice. Different parts of a membership (farm care, delivery, visits) can be taxed differently, which is why invoices will show tax line by line.

So why do it?

Because the value is real, just not financial. Fruit you can trace to a row. Vegetables picked the morning they reach your door in Jaipur. Children who know what a pomegranate flower looks like. A farm you can visit and feel part of without owning one. If that's what you're after, you're in the right place. If you're looking for a financial return, UGAANA isn't for you, and we'd rather tell you now.