For providing agriculture extension services like information on soil condition, ground water assessment and ensuring market access to small and marginal farmers, a Hyderabad-based company has devised a vehicle namely Grameen Vikas Rath.
The Rath designed by Speck Systems Limited would provide specialized services to farmers located across backward regions of the country. Through specially designed raths, farmers would get information on soil mapping, ground water condition and seeds.
“We have received in principle approval from Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), which would be co-supporting the project,” M Krishna Prasad, senior advisor, corporate affairs of Speck systems told FE.
The pilot project would be launched shortly across six districts. Each rath costing about Rs 1 crore would move around the rural areas of a district for providing facilities such Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), banks loans and prices of essential commodities.
“We will roll out the raths in Dungarpur (Rajasthan), Pathanamthitta (Kerala), Mehbub Nagar (Andhra Pradesh), Yavatmal (Mahrashtra) and Darbhanga (Bihar) and ministry of panchayati raj has agreed to provide Rs 15 lakh for each rath in these districts,” Prasad said. The panchayati raj ministry would fund the project from the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF). If succeeds, the company intends to take raths to rest of backward districts. The Speck Systems is also talking to Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank & regional rural banks for providing ATMs and other banking facilities through the rath. Even the real time prices of commodities from Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) & National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) would be made available through the raths.