3 AGMARKNET

Brief Introduction:

Hello Friends. You must have enjoyed my previous discussion with you regarding the concept of eReadiness. And I am sure now you are getting yourself e-Ready, to acquire all possible information related to Agriculture and Allied sciences, so that you emerge as a successful e-Ready extension professional. In today’s topic we will be discussing about the concept of AGMARKNET. As you are already aware the Indian farmers are facing a number of problems. The prominent problem the Indian farmers are facing is, the issues related to the marketing. The farmers are not getting the remunerative prices. The institutions, the governments are making all possible efforts to see that farmers get appropriate prices, for which they are making all possible efforts like providing them MSP, providing them marketing support etc etc.But because of lack of appropriate information; what market is behaving in what type of way and what are the current prices that are going on indifferent markets is not known by the primary producer and the primary seller, so that is how the marketing institutions or the agencies are exploiting the farmers. Just to see that the farmers get appropriate information related to marketing on a daily basis and the commodity that is being sold and the quantum of commodities that has arrived, what is the modal price etc etc should be made available to the farmers.

So with all these ideas the AGMARKNET was established. The full form of it is the Agricultural Marketing Information Network, so established by the Ministry of Agriculture(Govt of India).

Objectives:

The objectives of this AGMARKNET includes,

• To establish nationwide information network for speedy collection and dissemination of market information and data for its efficient and timely utilization. Since beginning we have been discussing about information itself leads to the empowerment. What kind of information? If the kind of information what they are getting is appropriate, automatically that empowers me, so that I can take appropriate decision. And to reach that level the AGMARKNET is working very hard.
• Then the second objective is to facilitate collection and dissemination of information related to better price realization by the farmers. The information like

o The market related information— the market fee, market charges etc etc. many times farmers are not aware of these things. And once they reach the market with their produce. So then they started telling that this is the market fee and this is the market charge etc etc. Then the farmers feel cheated. So just to avoid that, that information is given to them in advance.
o Then the price related information. Minimum price, maximum price, modal price etc etc. and the quantum of arrival and the quantum that is being sold. So all this information are very essential to take the decision. So if the quantum arrived in the market is very huge, then he can postpone a particular day, so that next day he can realize the best possible price. Such decisions that he can take provided he has the information.
o Then infrastructure related information like what are the facilities available there, and what are the services available to the farmers at the market yard, at the marketing place etc etc are the information to be provided to the farmer.

• Then to sensitize and orient farmers to respond to the new challenges and to improve efficiency in marketing through regular training. Imparting training and educating as well as capacity building of the farmers is another important objective, through which we can empower the farmers.

Implementation:

• So the concept of AGMARKNET implementation process was involved in the
  • Directorate of Marketing and Inspection at the State level.
  • Then the State Agricultural Marketing Board(SAMB)
  • And the State Agricultural Marketing Depts.
  • Then the APMC which are very popular. You are already aware of these Agricultural Produce Market Committees.
  • And the National Informatics Center(NIC) which provides the software development process for the purpose of collection of data and dissemination of data, to reach to the target group
• The beneficiaries of this implementation of AGMARKNET includes the farmers, the traders, the exporters, processors, govt depts, planners, researchers, agri-business firms, then commodity exchanges etc. Number of beneficiaries are there. But the basic challenge is to collect the information and provide the information at appropriate places

AGMARKNET:

• If you look at the market infrastructure at the national level.
  • So there are about 2416 principal market yards throughout the country
  • And about 825 sub market yards are there.

So it means put together 3200 plus marketing places are there in the country, wherein the agricultural produce is being sold as well as purchased.

• So based on this data the database was created covering 300 commodities. So that may include the cereals, pulses, flowers, oilseeds, spices, condiments etc etc. And 2000 varieties, because rice itself is having number of varieties, wheat itself is having number of varieties. There are number of qualities of toor dal that are available. Number of such commodities are there. So more than 2000 varieties of 300 commodities were covered under this AGMARKNET.
• Then networking involves providing hardware as well as software connectivity. And training to the each marketing node. This is what is the responsibility of NIC.
• And as on date, yesterday itself I was checking. The number of hits on this AGMARKNET site include 1.6 crore hits have already been done. It means that a number of people are hitting the site, forgetting the information.

The number of markets covered, Statewise if you look into. The highest number of markets that were covered were from the State of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra as well as the State of Gujarat. It is not that these States are important but all other States are being connected. Maybe in some States the number is more and in some States the number is less. That shows the activism of that particular State as well as participation of the people of that particular State in such initiatives.

Information Through SmS

• The marketing information is being sent through SmS services,
• For which you need to register with your mobile number, giving personal details, and specially you need to request for the price of 3 commodities in 3 market yards of your choice, so that you can get the market related information free of cost, once you register yourself at this AGMARKNET site.
• The price information through e-alert on the AGMARKNET portal that you can obtain.
• The State Agricultural Marketing Boards, then Marketing Depts, APMC’s are motivating farmers to be part of the efforts of AGMARKNET. As we observe, number of farmers are participating in this automatically, the website get strengthened, and we can have the appropriate information.
• The Managing Directors as well as secretaries of this State Agricultural Marketing Boards and the Director of Agriculture Marketing services are also popularizing this services among the farming community, so that we can have the appropriate information services to them.
• And secretary, APMC’s at the village level or at the block level are also registering the mobile numbers of the farmers. And provide the price information through sms from AGMARKNET portal, so that we can cover maximum number of farmers into this services.

Problems in Data Reporting:

• The problems that are being faced especially while recording the data include,
• Not uploading the data on a daily basis. Now once in 2-3 days that they are doing this. So because of that they are not able to catch hold of the best possible price in the market.
• Then the modal price are not entered correctly. So here I am sure you might be aware of the concept of the modal price. It is not the average of the maximum price that is being offered in the market or the minimum price that is being offered in the market. It is the average, the modal price means the price at which the maximum number of transactions take place. For example the minimum price maybe Rs 10 and the maximum price maybe Rs 20. But the maximum transactions; or the maximum number of purchase or sold the commodity, at maybe Rs 17 or Rs 18, so that is what is the modal price. It is not the average. 10 +20 it is 30, then average is 15, but the modal price is 17 or 18. So there will be loss of Rs2 per kilo for the farmer if he enter the wrong data. That’s what is the maximum problem that this particular site is facing.
• Some APMC’s are not reporting the data on the portal. So even though you are part of that particular network. But if your data is not reflected, farmer cannot take the appropriate decision, because that might be his nearest market.
• Then the lack of monitoring by the officials at the district as well as the State level. So the local level APMC’s are not working because there is no pressure from the top or there is no coordination between these institutions.
• And there are number of technical problems related to hardware as well as software. So once they face the problem, they need to approach appropriate authorities and those appropriate authorities will take the necessary measures, and that is how some administrative as well as operational problems that this particular concept is facing.

Measures for Improvement:

Just to take care of these problems.

• The secretary APMC has been given the responsibility to ensure the data on arrival prices as well as the market prices are uploaded everyday at
• least before 5 p.m. on that particular day, so that by evening or by next day morning, they will get the summary of the activities that happened in the previous day.
• The officers should monitor the data being reported by the APMC’s at the district, division as well as the State level. So that it requires the participation of the local level, the district level as well as the State level officers. Then only we can improve upon.
• Then enter the modal price of the commodity correctly, not the average of the minimum and maximum, as I have already told, the maximum number of transactions that happened for that particular commodity. What is the price of that? It is not the average price but what is the modal price that needs to be updated.
• Then the secretary of APMC, the officials of State Agricultural Marketing Board as well as Department should sort out the problems related to hardware in consultation with the NIC and DMI etc etc. so that we can resolve the issues at source itself, so that the system becomes more efficient.

Conclusion:

To conclude we can say that the AGMARKNET

• Is providing you the facility of anytime anywhere marketing opportunity
• Service providers are facing the challenge of collecting the appropriate information by the sources. But that can be overcome over a period of time with the participation of different stakeholders.
• Then there is a need of participation of farmers into these activities. And the farmers can also make use of AgMark App, so that they can get the appropriate information, and at the same time they can upload the necessary information also.

With this we are coming to the end of this discussion on the topic AGMARKNET. And in the next interaction we will be discussing about the concept of Hole in the Wall, which is a very interesting exercise or the experiment, that was conducted in Delhi. Now it has become a model for not only India but for many of under developed as well as developing nations.

Thank You.