Karnataka is considering expanding its pioneering Rashtriya e-Market Services (ReMS) platform to sell agriculture and horticulture products of Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs), a senior official said on Wednesday.
The ReMS electronic trading platform will connect markets with FPOs allowing the farmers’ collectives to sell their produce in bulk.
“As a pilot sale, 37 lots of 4,661 quintals with a total trade value of Rs 1.41 crore of the FPOs have been traded on the platform,” ReMS managing director Manoj Rajan said, adding that Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will soon chair a meeting to discuss the expansion of the platform to cover more FPOs.
Karnataka has 700 FPOs with an average membership of 350-400 shareholders.
Speaking at the State Credit Seminar organised by NABARD, Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Development Commissioner Vandita Sharma said FPOs help increase agricultural income in the long run. “The pilot had 4,661 quintals. This isn’t enough. The sale of FPO produce should be brought to the ReMS portal. This will provide ease of doing business to the farming community,” she said.
Sharma pointed out that Karnataka was the first state to start auctions in APMCs using the ReMS. “The National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) came later,” she said. Rajan said FPO produce like groundnut, maize, paddy, tur, ragi, jaggery, Bengal gram, green gram and soybean will get a market through ReMS.
“The electronic trading platform provides transparent, secured and comprehensive trading features for conducting online trading for FPOs,” he explained. “FPOs update details of lots available for sale, and buyers participate remotely by offering their bids. The platform supports online settlement and payments to bank accounts of FPOs/farmers.”
The platform has 44,000 traders registered across 160 markets in the state. “These traders have access to these FPOs enabling them to get fair returns on their farm produce through a transparent price discovery mechanism,” Rajan said.
Watch the latest DH Videos here: