Thousands of farmers’ collectives across the states are now able to sell a host of unique agricultural products including rice, pulses, honey, millets, mushrooms, spices and value added products on the government’s e-commerce platform – Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
Since the farmers producer organisation (FPOs) started joining the ONDC platform in April, 2023, 4000 such bodies so far have sold as many as 3,100 varieties of value-added agricultural products using the facility.
Officials said that the target is to bring 6000 FPOs into pan-India digital market place by the end of FY24. The platform is being promoted by the government as an alternative to global e-commerce majors such as Amazon and Walmart for supporting small enterprises.
ONDC supports and trains FPOs, free registration, in developing and digitisation of product catalogues, generating shipping labels, identifying delivery partners and facilitating digital payments so that they leverage the platform for marketing of their product.
The network has more than 30 odd digital applications including Mystore, PayTM, Maginpin and Delhivery in the spheres of intercity logistics provider, platform for buyers and sellers and others.
While ONDC has collaborated with small farmers agribusiness consortium (SFAC), a body under agriculture ministry to support FPOs, officials said the aim is to support small and micro enterprises as FPOs face challenges in accessing markets countrywide.
“Since on board of ONDC earlier this year, we have are expecting our sales to cross Rs 5 million in the current fiscal and the target is increase sales to Rs 10 million in FY25,” Tapas Kumar Pati, chief operating officer, BASIX Krishi Samruddhi , a group which has supported 59 FPO into ONDC in Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Pati said initially FPOs used services of India Post for delivery of the products because of the large network but subsequently other logistic partners have been added ensuring quicker delivery of products to consumers.
In the last couple of months, Rich Returns, Baran, Rajasthan based FPOs has sold Rs 3,00,000 worth of chana and garlic papards and millets based products through Mystore. “We are hoping to achieve a sales turnover of Rs 5,00,000 by end of current fiscal,” Hari Om Nagar, CEO, Rich Returns, told FE.
In April 2022, the government had launched ONDC, as a section 8 company established by the department for promotion of industry and internal trade.
Recently tech major Meta had announced a partnership with ONDC to upskill small businesses including FPOs.
For FPOs, the digital network provides direct access to digital marketing, online payment, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer transactions, and encourages local value addition, catalyzing growth of logistics in rural areas.
Officials said that the government now must provide support to FPOs to sell their products on the Government e-Marketplace portal, used for public procurement by central and state government agencies.