Need to guide farmers to market their produce, says agri expert

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 16

The Punjab Agricultural Management and Extension Training Institute (PAMETI) organised a webinar on ‘Strengthening Agricultural Marketing through ICTs’ in which 92 participants from state agriculture and allied departments, including ATMA, got registered.

Dr HS Dhaliwal, Director PAMETI, emphasised that in the present crisis when the supply chain of agricultural and allied produce had been hit adversely, there was a need to guide farmers about innovative ideas to market their produce. The need of the hour was to reduce the gap between prices paid by consumers and prices realised by producers. The gap might be reduced effectively by using the latest marketing strategies supported by IT applications.

During the introductory session, Bharti Madan, Deputy Director (IT), PAMETI, made participants aware about the latest innovative ICT initiatives which are being taken by the public as well as the private sectors to strengthen the marketing of agriculture and allied produce in the country. Use of various web portals and mobile applications such as Agmarknet, Kisan Rath, Kisan Suvidha, Apni Kheti, E-pashuhaat, etc. were discussed in this regard.

Various successful IT-enabled initiatives for agri marketing such as Loop by Digital Green, Agribolo and ITC e-Choupal were also discussed.

Dr Shalendra, Deputy Director (BS), MANAGE, Hyderabad, addressed a session on National Agriculture Market (e-NAM). He explained its purpose, operation and benefits along with future challenges with the participants. The webinar ended with a vote of thanks.