e-Krishi
Description
Implemented by Kerala State IT Mission, the e-Krishi project aims at facilitating and enabling farmers and other stakeholders through IT enabled Agri-Business Centres to interact with agricultural service providers in the private, government and non-government sectors. Besides providing agricultural information and advice to farmers, the initiative is also a means of making many other services available including marketing agricultural products – both selling and buying, access to warehouses, access to schemes and subsidies, grading of agricultural produce, access to micro credit, soil testing and so on. The major agri‐procurement agencies of Kerala state, including Agmarknet, NAFED and Milma etc. were also brought into the network, thus assuring a fair price and assured market for the farmers, eliminang middle men. The e-Krishi initiative shows how government agencies can partner with community organisations like self-help groups and farmer’s clubs to develop ICT-enabled local agriculture services that can empower the citizens. Gaps in information flow and marketing infrastructure have made certain that farmers typically get very low prices for their products. Several layers of intermediaries exploit the situation and take away a disproportionately large share of the profits without providing commensurate value addition. The present project is unique in that it helps the farmers to get better price for the product and better exposure. An important factor in the success of this initiative has been the fact that it has utilized the ICT infrastructure and the existing linkages of the Akshaya e‐Kendra entrepreneurs with the local community of farmers, local self‐government institutions and the traders in the locality. As the credibility of these Akshaya centres was already established within the communities, their accessibility and ownership by the local farmers to access e‐Krishi services was no longer a challenge.
What we deliver
The benefits of the project are: Increased returns converting non-performing agricultural assets to performing asset. Empowering small farmers with real time information, collective bargain of prices for his crops, agricultural engineering knowledge & advice that is customized for the small farmer. Facilitating institutional credit, Performing agriculture support systems, Efficient and cost effective logistics support Bringing in documentation practice in Agriculture confirming quality of produce effecting in high value products. Benefits to member farmers Access to, markets with prevailing price information Access to schemes, subsidies, modern agricultural methods, best practices, soil testing, seeds, plantlets, fertilizers, pest control Facilities for grading agricultural produce and ensuring correct price for their produce Logistics support, cost sharing possibilities Access to micro credits Agri Insurance support/faster claim processing Access to Accounting practices, Documentation support Benefits to member Agricultural Input Providers Buyers/exporters to post their pick up quantities by date by market-venue/warehouse Plan logistics routes for collection of agri-produce in advance seeing the offer quantities from farmers in various locations Contact farmers producing any specific crop and confirm purchases in advance facilitating better control over supplies. Easy access to customers, facility for systematic campaigning/ demonstrations Efficient management of schemes/ programs e-platform assisting in real time transactions Benefits to member Agricultural Activists, NGOs, Government organization Informed decision making on policy issues Facilitates Integrated approach Dissemination of agriculture based interventions becomes more structured and precise and customized Faster and larger reach to stakeholders is ensured due to networking
Why is the project unique?
The present project is unique in that it helps the farmers to get better price for the product and better exposure. Similarly it also helps the buyers to know about the products well in advance with facility for virtual aggregation
Roadmap
Agriculture, even though a core contributor to National economy, is currently being neglected in the cyber space. The pressing need is to generate more encapsulated content for specific target groups of agro-ecosystem. Kerala State’s IT policy mandates the use of ICT as a vehicle for inclusive development. E-krishi is one such programme aimed at empowering farming community which forms 60 per cent of the population.
Contact
Dr.Rathan U. Kelkar IAS
Kerala State IT Mission
ICT Campus, Vellayambalam
Trivandrum, Kerala, India
695033
URL/Website – www.itmission.kerala.gov.in
