Information Technology in Agro- Marketing
By Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia | @drlalitsetia
| drlalitsetia@gmail.com |
The
agenda of Government of India, to double the farmers’ income requires to
strengthen the marketing chain for sale of agricultural produce in the markets
or direct to the consumers. It is required to bring efficiency in the marketing
chain for the benefit of the farmers. Let’s take an example of Uttar Pradesh in
India where 125 sugar factories are situated to help 3 million sugarcane
farmers of 44 districts, to sale their sugarcane at reasonable price.
Lack of Capabilities in Indian Farmers:
The
Indian farmers are not much educated, even most of the farmers are
under-matric. Due to low level of literacy, they easily become victim of the
middlemen who exploit them by taking their produce at lower prices. The farmers
are not much aware of the best prices of their produce and the middlemen with
negotiation, provide less prices of their produce. Most of the times, it
happens due to weak marketing chain. After having agricultural produce in
hands, the farmers became worried due to non-access to secure area to handle
their produce, they tried to sell it at the earliest at best price.
Challenge for Government:
In
order to safeguard the interests of farmers from middlemen’s exploitation, the
challenge for Government is strengthening supply chain enough to eliminate the
middlemen by dissemination of information properly. The Agro Marketing requires
use of Information Technology to improve the whole scenario.
Agro Marketing for Wheat Produce:
In
North India, Wheat and Sugarcane are two major agricultural produce and cover
most of the farmers. The Government is focusing to improve the Agro Marketing
by improving the harvesting, selling, storage, and process of payment to the
farmers. In case of wheat, the farmers require to harvest and sell it once the
agricultural produce becomes ready to sale. As there are multiple buyers due to
demand of the wheat at field level, it becomes easy for the farmers either to
sell it directly to the consumers or sell it in the market through the
middlemen. Most of the farmers became capable to store the wheat produce for a
few time. In case, the farmers decide to sell it into the market through the
middlemen, they easily get money in return.
Agro Marketing for Sugarcane Produce:
In
case of sugarcane, the farmers have no other option then the sugar mill to sell
their produce because the sugarcane are perishable and cannot be stored for
much time; they sell it to the sugar mill even if the payment is not received
on the spot. However, generally Government ensures that they receive their
payment within 10-15 days of selling their produce.
Practical Problems for Farmers:
When
the Government was not using information technology in Uttar Pradesh for
supporting the Indian Farmers, the farmers were facing the following problems.
These problems are still existing in the states of India wherever the
information technology is not being used:
(a) What to produce:
A
farmer required to select the crop which he may produce in his farm.
Definitely, he has multiple options to select a single crop. The Government
provides facility to test the soil of the farm to decide which crop will
provide maximum benefit to the farmer. The farmer also considers the marketing
aspects of each crop before deciding what to produce in the farm.
(b) When to sell their produce to get best price:
After
the farming of the crops, the farmer requires to know the time when his
agricultural produce may provide him the best price. He is not much aware about
it. Most of the time, even after good quantity of the agricultural produce, the
farmers realized less sales amount and become worried from it. Therefore, the
Government should provide him the desired information at proper time so that he
can use that information to realize best price of his agricultural produce in
the market.
(c) How much price is expected for my agricultural produce:
More
the price, more the efforts a farmer does for getting the agricultural produce
ready to sell. The Government should ensure or forecast the price of each crop
of the agricultural produce so that the farmers may decide their expected price
for the year.
(d) Manual System of Government Agencies for procuring agricultural produce:
The
workings in Government office relating to agriculture, is still manual and due
to lack of information technology, the governance is affected badly. There is
manipulation in writing the accurate weight of their produce and they become
rewarded with less amount of sale.
What can be done to sort out practical problems of Farmers:
It
is well known that information technology is the ultimate solution to all types
of problems. Therefore, it is required to explore the potential of information
technology in the area of Agro Marketing, to support the farmers. The farmers
are not much literate but the information technology can strengthen the system
enough to make it possible to provide best prices to the farmers with transparency
in the processes. It is required to seek the ideas from various types of
stakeholders to help the farmers in getting rid of exploitation of the
middlemen. It is also required to have discussions with the experts in Agro
Marketing to evolve new mechanism supporting marketing chain of the
agriculture. It is also required to motivate those farmers who are coming ahead
to use information technology so that all farmers come ahead to use it.
Using Information Technology in Agro Marketing:
First
of all, a databank is required to be maintained containing information of
farmers, nature of their farming produce, and transactions of the farmers in
market. Thereafter, the data can be used to estimate the desired messages to be
sent to each farmer. The websites, apps can be utilised to empower the farmers
to get accurate information at real time.
With
the maximum use in marketing chain, it becomes possible for the Government to
disseminate the information at proper time to empower the farmers in making
right decisions. In case of sugarcane, if it happens then fresh sugarcane will
be available to the sugar mills and more sugar production will be possible. In
case, the sugar mills supply more quantity of sugar to the consumers, its
revenue will grow and profits will also increase. In such cases, the sugar
mills will not face any problem to make the payment of farmers.
Using Website, SMS, and IVRS Calls:
In
Uttar Pradesh, the Government sent millions of SMS to the farmers for making
them aware about the cultivation of the crops from which there is more
potential to earn money. The farmers are also provided access to the websites,
and also contacted with IVRS calls for improving their knowledge with regard to
agriculture.
Less Complaints to Government:
After
using the information technology, the exploitation of the farmers will be
reduced to a large level. There will be more transparency in farming operations
and better control over the agricultural produce.
*Copyright © 2019
Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved.
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