In a bid to offer benefits to small and medium farmers and to improve their farm-based income, the software behemoth Infosys Technologies Ltd has joined with ACDI/VOCA, a non-profit organisation engaged in the development of civil society, to develop ICT-enabled applications improving efficiencies in the agriculture product supply-chain.
Speaking to FE, ACDI/VOCA country representative, Donald M Taylor, said that the joint venture is initially funded by USAID project to the tune of $100,000 and later Infosys will scale it up spreading to entire country. Christened as ‘freshConnect’, the project is aimed at bringing together the retailer and farmers through online connectivity thus enabling the farmer sell his produce directly to the retailer. The supply-chain will start from the retailer, who places his order online to the ‘field extension agents’ (FEAs), who were given a particular territory and a group of farmers. The order so received from the retailer will be split into smaller quantities and distributed among the farmers, who will then produce and supply directly to the retailer at predetermined price. According to Taylor, the process will eliminate supply wastages and the farmer is assured of selling.
