A large number of farmers’ collectives across states are now able to sell a host of unique agricultural products including rice, honey, millets, mushrooms and spices etc on the government’s pan-India e-commerce platform – Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
Since the farmers producer organisation (FPOs) joined the ONDC platform in April, 2023, 2168 such bodies have sold as many as 3,100 varieties of value added agricultural products in 28 states.
Officials said that the target is to bring 7.500 FPOs into pan India digital market place in the next couple of months. 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 fasciliatating 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 consumers get access to a range of unique agricultural products from FPOs vial platform, our focus is to empower the farmers to get better price of their produce without incurring huge costs for marketing,” T Koshy, CEO, ONDC told FE.
While ONDC has collaborated with small farmers agribusiness consortium (SFAC), a body under agriculture ministry to support FPOs, Koshy said the aim is to support small and micro enterprises as FPOs face challenges in accessing markets countrywide.
Within just couple of months on coming board, Aryahi Fed Farmers Producer Company, a Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh based collective of 673 farmers, one of the first to sell more than Rs 1,00,000 worth of honey and millets valued added products through Mystore
Following the onboarding into the platform, Chirgaon Producer Company Limited, a Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh based farmers collective has sold more than Rs 1,00,000 worth of groundnut on mystore, one of several seller applications on the platform.
A farmers collective Daringbadi Farmers Producer Company, based in Kandhamal district, Odisha sold Geographical Indication (GI) tagged turmeric power to buyers across 11 states using the online platform of Mystore.
“Initially we used the services of India Post for delivery of the products given their large network but several other logistic partners have been added to the digital network helping us quicker delivery products of consumers,” 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.
An agriculture ministry official said that the range of raw and processed food items being sold by FPOs covers a wide spectrum – more than 100 varieties of rice, several types of floral honey, pollen etc thus connecting farmers to consumers through the platform.
In April 2022, the government had launched ONDC, as a section 8 company established by the department for promotion of industry and internal trade.
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.
Farmers 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.