Farming and agriculture even in the recent times is a long tedious process involving multiple layers of production, assistance and people involvement.
Problems linked with the Traditional Marketplaces:
With the existing infrastructure existing now, products are only capable of teaching their nearest location of their marketplace – their nearest agricultural market that is under the jurisdiction of the APMC ( Agricultural Produce Market Commodities )
The biggest issue with the prevailing APMC system is that farmers are struggling with a long tedious process that involves a certain amount of crop wastage. When they arrive at the local mandis and are sitting for sale with mostly perishable items they have a good amount of trust and faith in the local agents for the sorting, grading and other processes in the agriculture process thus relying heavily on these middlemen who are not always trustworthy or honest
This whole huge process becomes a very complex one as it involves too many intermediaries comprising of the wholesalers, retailers and traders who make their own rules and pricing fixations forcing the farmers to comply with their given set of regulations whether they like it or not, hence posing a grave injustice to the hapless poor farmers who have no other option but to comply with their decisions
Hence the mandis become such that they allow absolute control over storage, dispatch and pricing decisions rest entirely with the many intermediaries who pose to be big threats in the entire process of agriculture. Due to this monopoly way of existence, the market is seen to stagger in the growth of goods and the free flow of the agricultural process and also poses injustice to the local farmers and their livelihood
Importance of Digital or E Mandi:
During the Covid 19 outbreak, certain shortcomings and failures of the local traditional mandi systems have come to light and there is an urgent need for this type of system to be redressed. With a lot of digitization and the spurt of digital media, these local mandis have seen a transformation into digital or e- mandis. This sector of agriculture requires an urgent need for transformation and revolution hence the spurt in technology and digital machinery using techniques like Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things, the agricultural sector has seen a spike in advancement and growth and also received better awareness and visibility from various digital platforms who have changed traditional perceptions of thinking on agricultural lines.
- E – mandis or digital mandis use a much more user-friendly trading module that puts all the power and rights back in the farmer’s hands. They can easily upload all their agricultural product details wherein interested buyers can view and negotiate with the farmers directly
- The B2C module enables farmers to view the real-time price points and the bargain rates. It also enables them to directly negotiate with wholesale traders and other local traders putting an end to the middlemen involved in the process that hampers their movements and freedoms of choosing crop type, variety and price point
- Other than just ensuring smooth negotiations, these digital mandis also ensure easy online payments and smooth digital transactions. They take care of cash crunches by allowing sufficient time to the farmers for ensuring a smooth profitable relationship with traders and buyers directly. The money transactions they make are double ensured and efficient keeping in mind the farmer’s rights and preserving their benefits
- Lastly, the digital media progress has lead to immense awareness about the agricultural sector. Also, new updates on newer forms of technology and their constant awareness keep farmers well informed and updated on new techniques and enables them to further themselves and their farming process better.
With the advancement in ERP technology and Saans based solutions, the agricultural sector is finding yet newer methods of improvisations in an end to end solution starting from sowing the crop, ensuring good crop quality and good harvest at a tight time. Newer concepts like fresh fruits and vegetable technology ( FFV ) the fruits and vegetables are given extra care and attention to their quality, quantity and growth processes. Various digital tools, infrastructure and digital help have come a long way in assisting farmers to function seamlessly and effectively without the fear of being deprived quantitatively or financially. Yet it’s just the start to agricultural technology, larger milestones need to be achieved inefficient time management needs to be fostered to ensure enhanced and compete for digitalisation of the agricultural sector.
-Mr Sanjay Borkar
CEO and Co-Founder, FarmERP
This news was shared to Prittle Prattle News via press release.
