Bengaluru: Thanks to the e-trading platforms, farmers who were earlier dependent and often used to be fleeced by the middlemen have now been able to procure better prices for their produce, increasing their agri-income substantially compared to earlier year, despite the state having faced three consecutive droughts.
According to a Niti Aayog report, state farmers earned 38% in 2015-16 from sale of agri-commodities through the e-trading interface Unified Market Platform (UMP), which facilitates interaction between traders and farmers. An initiative of the state government, the UMP was launched in 2014 by the Rashtriya e-Market Services (ReMS).
This income is expected to double in 2016-17 with many more markets coming under UMP, said a senior agriculture marketing official.
The UMP platform has ushered in transparency in market operations which was lacking earlier when the farmers depended on the middlemen, agents to know about the produce price. Often cheated of a fair value for their produce by these agents who usually quoted low prices the farmers can now know get information of prices, buyers etc at the click of a button.
Apart from this, the platform also facilitates participation of buyers from across the country thereby resulting in better prices and higher returns for the farmers. The time has also been considerably reduced. Granting of single licence to traders to allow them to operate from any part of the country created competition and reduced local cartelization, thereby increasing efficiency of market chains. Also, the system of online payment of the sale proceeds to farmers bank accounts in few major markets will go a long way in doubling farmers’ incomes in future.
