Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS)

Mangaluru, Jan 27: Rural India is also slowly opening up to the digital technology. A online farmer market is functioning silently since four months at Bondala, rural area of Bantwal taluk. Farmer are selling their products through website under the leadership of young techies, who have given up their jobs and taken up agriculture.

Farmers are getting good profit by selling their products without the hassle of middlemen on https://www.localfarmers.in website. Now a market has developed between the consumers and the farmers directly. This online dais is formed to provide economical and moral support to the farmers. Good response is being given by the consumers to this online forum. Now the young techie farmers, who are inspired by this success, are planning to develop an app through which the farm products are marketed directly.

Bondala Yatish Shetty, his wife Sridevi D N and Rajath Shetty are the trio who have developed this website. All the three have worked several years in different IT companies and now returned to agriculture. They have come to know the injustice that is meted out to the farmers including them, with regards to the prices for the crop that is grown by them due to the high handedness of the middlemen. Accordingly, they developed this website to overcome the issue of middlemen. As the trio are aware of the technology themselves, they thought of providing a online platform for the farmers to market their produce and the result is the online farmers market. Now the farmers are selling their produce in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and some areas of Bengaluru. They are aiming to contact the farmers of various parts of the state and widen the network as per the information given by one of the founders of this website Bondala Yatish Shetty.

Yatish Shetty says, "Farmers are getting very less profit for the crops that they grow. So we thought that if direct marketing is done it would be easier. So we formed a WhatsApp group in the beginning. Now through website, we have created a forum for the farmers to sell their produce. In future we have the intention of developing an app and selling the produce through the same."

More than 25 farmers of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts have registered their names on the website. The introduction, type of produce and the contact number of the registered farmers is displayed on the website. Consumers can directly approach the farmers. They can buy the produce. There is an option on the website for the customers to provide their feedback on the produce which they have purchased. One more additional benefit the farmers get through this arrangment is that they can harvest the produce after they get the orders on the website. There is no registration fee for the farmers.

If they sell the product directly they need to give 2.5% to 5%. "Farmers are immensely benefitted from this website. Farmers are able to sell their crops, which they have cultivated, directly to the consumers. It is also possible to get in touch with the common farmers. Small produces like drum stick etc are also getting demand," says Praveen Saralaya, agriculturist.

Now the website is being used to sell products like vegetables, fruits and diary products produced by the farmers of the coastal region. In addition, home products like nursery plants, plantain, chips of jackfruit, ghee, honey and coconut oil are being sold also.

Apart from selling the produce online, the progressive techie farmers get involved in direct marketing also. They sell the produces through stalls under the name 'Organic producers of Tulunadu'. They sell their own grown products and those that have been bought from the farmers at various places including Kadri Park in the city.