A Framework for Next Generation Agricultural Marketing System in Indian Context

Abstract

In order to curtail recent agrarian distress in the country, Prime Minister of India has set the objective of Doubling Farmer's Income by 2022. The available literature suggests that widespread adoption of organized Agricultural Marketing System has got the potential to improve economic condition of farmers. However, the prevalent Agricultural Marketing practices in India are mainly unorganized with several defects. The measures required to solve these shortcomings involve different facets such as policy, infrastructure, standardization and technology. The focus of this work is to propose framework for Next Generation Agricultural Marketing System in Indian context by making use of ICT, Big Data Analytics and Blockchain technologies. The proposed framework majorly comprises of Market Intelligence, Food Supply Chain and One Stop Mobile App as functionalities. It also leverages on government initiatives such as DigiLocker, Aadhaar and Jan Dhan Yojna. The intent is to facilitate farmers to drive Agricultural Marketing System as a co-operative, provide ease of use of available resources to farmers and enable them to take informed decisions.