UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

INNOVATION PROJECTS 2015-16

FINAL REPORT
PROJECT CODE: 306

PROJECT TITLE: Marketing Information System for farmers using

Geospatial technology

NAME OF COLLEGE/INSTITUTION: Swami Shraddhanand College

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
(NAME, DEPARTMENT, EMAIL, PHONE NO.)

Name Department Emails Phone No

Dr. Daljit Singh Geography daljitchhiller@yahoo.com 9868933292
Dr. Mukesh Kumar Physics physics.ssn@gmail.com 9868104380
Dr. Ajay Kumar Geography saymeaj@gmail.com 9990427475

Project Mentor: Mr. Swaran Singh Jaggi

Managing Director, Wyn Technology Pvt. Ltd. Delhi

Details of Students
S. No. Names of Student Class
1 DIVAKAR PARAS\HAR B.Sc.( Physics ) 3rd yr
2 SANDEEP KUMAR B.A. Pol Science 3rd yr
3 KRISHAN KUMAR B.Sc.( Physics ) 3rd yr

4 NITESH RANA B.A. (Prog) 2nd yr

5 DEEPAK KUMAR B.A. Pol Science 3rd yr

6 NITESH KUMAR B.A. Geography 2nd yr

7 VIPIN KUMAR YADAV B.A. History 2nd yr

8 RISHABH RANA B. Sc. Phy. Sc. 2nd Yr

9 SHYAM KUMAR B.A. Geography 2nd Yr

10 VIKAS B.Sc. Phy. Sc., 3rd Yr

 UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that the research work carried out and the final report
submitted by the Project Investigators and the students of Innovation
Project having Project code SSNC -306 and Title "Marketing

Information System for farmers using Geospatial technology" of

College/ Institute Swami Shraddhanand college, University of Delhi, Delhi is
original.

Any plagiarism/academic dishonesty reported at any stage will be our

responsibility.

Signatures of the all PIs

 Utilization Certificate
Innovation Project 2015-16, SSN-306
Project Title : Marketing Information System for farmers using Geospatial
technology

Audited Financial Statement under Innovation Project scheme

College: Swami Shraddhanand College

Project Investigators: Dr. Mukesh kumar, Dr. Daljit singh, Dr. Ajay kumar

Grant Sanctioned Rs (In figures) Rs.400000/=

(In Words) Four Lakh rupees only

Budget Head Amount Sanctioned Amount Utilized Amount Remaining
Equipments/Consumables
Travel
Stipend
Honorarium
Stationery
Contingency
Total
Total amount utilized Rs.
(In figures and words )

Amount remaining Rs.

(In figures and words )

Certified that out of Rs.___________________________________(In figures and words)

sanctioned to Innovation Project Code SSNC 306, Rs_____________ has been utilized during
the period of the project. The remaining amount Rs.______________ (In figures and words) is
being returned back to the University.

Signature of Project Investigators

Financial Audit Clearance

and Stamp of Charted Accountant

Signature of Principal
 Project Code: SSNC 306
Marketing Information System for farmers using
Geospatial technology

Abstract
As we know that India is rural country by majority around 70% of India lives in rural area and
around 26.3 crores or 22% of the population (according to census 2011) work as a farmer.
Agriculture is the main source of livelihood of the rural population with about 22.5% of the rural
people engaged in agriculture. Therefore, the economic development of the rural population is
only possible if we practice agriculture management using the latest technology and optimize
production, storage, and marketing. This is utmost important in the case of perishable items
which needs to be sold and utilized before it gets spoiled. This can only happen when a farmer
gets quick information and marketing support while he is busy in getting harvest cut from the
field. There are almost three things which he has to do almost simultaneously i.e. cut the crop,
sell it out and use the money for next crop. So unless he gets current information, he will have no
option but lose resources, time and money. (through improved agricultural production and its
marketing.) In our traditional method, a farmer in agro-Business sells their agro product to
middlemen, or in mandis without much control on the selling price. Or he can go to agro-
processing units where he has to sell his produce on credit. Through in this pattern of business
the farmer and consumers are totally exploited, not only that middlemen maximize their benefit
but also exploit the innocent farmers. Moreover, most of the agricultural products (mostly
vegetables and fruits) are perishable items, if it is not sold at right time, its value may go down or
it may spoil. Since farmers do not have the right information and any other livelihood, they are
often forced to sell their produce to commission agents/brokers at lower prices in order to fulfill
their immediate needs. Hence, we have connected farmers through Digital India Mission with the
world agro- strategy, if farmers will get prior information before harvest, they could plan their
strategy and through GIS, underhand to hand delivery. Its consequences will give dynamic
outcome, the cost of packing, grading, processing will reduce and consumers will be benefited
financially drastically and will get Fresh & Healthy food. Our android application “MIS.apk" will
help the farmers to decide better. There are few websites which give broad agro produce rates
but farmer need rates from his surrounds along with the route information connected through
our website www.ssnproject.in.
 Introduction
Recent development in internet technologies has covered every field of the world. In education,
business, transportation, management etc., applications of the internet have benefited most.
India is also contributing at a significant level in a number of internet users in the world. Available
data shows that from the year 2000 to 2014 internet users in India have increased from 0.53% to
19.19% (www.internetlivestats.com). National Optical Fiber Network, NOFN (now called, Bharat
Net) has a vision of connecting over 2, 50,000 villages of India through broadband(www.track.in).
Around 60 % of livelihood in India is achieved by agriculture. Being in agriculture is being in
business. In the 19 centenaries, legally-enshrined government committees prohibit farmers from
dealing directly with buyers and require them to sell to licensed middlemen. The aim was to give
India’s huge farming community a fair and consistent price for their produce. But over the years,
the system has created several layers of intermediaries, lengthening the supply chain and
increasing the opportunity for cartels to form, which in turn drive prices down for farmers and up
for consumers. The major problem which farmers face is to sell their perishables items -
 In time (as fresh as possible)
 At reasonably good price
 By spending less transportation cost
 To get money in time

If this cycle happens properly there is a benefit to the society at large by getting fresh agricultural
produce at a reasonable price. At the same time if farmer gets money in time they will able to
plan for next crop. Since farmers do not have the right information and any other livelihood, they
are often forced to sell their produce to commission agents/brokers at lower prices in order to
fulfill their immediate needs. In India the problem [1] is -

" A crop cultivated by a farmer in a far-flung village goes through as many as four
intermediaries before reaching the local vegetable market in a semi-urban or urban area,
according to analyst."
In our traditional method, farmers in agro-Business sell their agro product to middlemen, or to
agro-processing units and there is almost no possibility by which he can do value addition to his
produce to get maximum profit or to store his produce to choose an appropriate time of its
selling. If you see carefully selling to middlemen is the worse but most favorable method of
selling. The main reason is to get money as soon as possible to meet household expenses or to
sow next crop. The second option of selling his produce to agro-processing units, he has to give
on credits and very well know example is sugarcane which normally farmer selling it to sugar mills
and we all knows that mills give money after a long time. This leads to increase in farmer’s
financial problems. The last option of doing value addition needs a lot of investment or
government aided facilities. Unfortunately, the farmer is neither educated nor government
provide such facilities.
Through in this pattern of business the consumers are totally exploited, not only that middlemen
maximize their benefit but also exploit the innocent farmers. Moreover, most of the agricultural
products (mostly vegetables and fruits) are perishable items, if it is not sold at right time, its value
may go down or it may spoil. So we have seen that it is very difficult to break the vicious cycle of
agricultural products. The only option left to improvise the agro marketing cycle is to use
technology.

The previous year static show farmers economic condition are instead of improving getting
more worsen and are committing suicides . Panagariya, Arvind [5] quote moreover there is 26
% increase in suicides in the year 2014. One major reason is poverty among them. Poverty is
caused as the farmers get the optimum price for their crops and are forced to sell the crops to
local brokers at a much lower price.

Here comes the role of the user friendly information system, which provide farmer to take better
decision what exactly he wanted to do with their produce. He ca get all the relevant information
about the crop he chose, for all possible sources of demads for example mandis, food processing
units, hotels, malls and other demand sources. This will give a farmer choice selling his crop. He
can keep his overheads low and optimize his profit. This way he will not of exploited by middle
men or take to mandi himself and sell and which mandi he want to sell his produce. The
information also provide him the facility to bring his produce at right place and sell in a short
span of time to keep his selling cost low. Hence, we have connected farmers through Digital India
Mission with the world agro- strategy, if farmers will get prior information before harvest, they
could plan their strategy and through GIS, under hand to hand delivery. Through different
internet facilities and services farmers can provide themselves with vast knowledge about
wholesalers, prices, direct marketing units, cold storages and food processing units, thus
establishing easy contact and making their business more profitable and beneficial.

There are many websites over internet which provide necessary input for crops (e.g. fertilizers,
seeds, pesticides, herbicides, soil testing facilities) and livestock production. It is a better option
to get a deal over internet than a traditional supplier. Farmers need to know prices for their
crops from their nearest mandis which is a great challenge these days. If they know the
commodity rates at different mandis along with transport cost and other expenditure, they can
easily do profitable selling of their production. After knowing about commodity value from
various mandis the next thing that they desire to know are queries on routes, transportation, rate
trend, to which sometimes they are unaware, to make their selling profitable.

Profitable selling = Selling value - (transportation expenditure + other expenditures)

Profit = selling value – (transportation expenditure + other expenses)

At this point of time if we can replace selling value by “opportunity selling value” and reduce the
expenses (transportation expenditure and other expenses) met in selling, we can increase the
profit

For example, In Mandi 1, selling cost is Rs 100/kg but transportation to that mandi for a farmer
costs Rs 30/kg and other expenditure costs Rs 10/kg. So, his net selling Value becomes 100-
(30+10) = Rs 60/kg. And in Mandi 2, Selling Cost is Rs 85/kg, Transportation costs Rs 10/kg and
there is no other expenditures. So, his net Selling Value becomes 85-20 = Rs 65/kg

The farmer can easily conclude that selling his product in Mandi 2 is more profitable than Mandi
1. Along with the transportation cost, knowledge of staying points near mandis, fuel filling
stations, medical facilities, banks, ATMs and other emergency facilities is also important. Having a
complete knowledge of grading and packaging, which is an important task and lead to higher
selling values, enhance the dream of profitable selling. Not only farmers will be benefitted by the
technology, the consumers can also get information about the mandi rates and can purchase
farm products at much cheaper cost as they do in present time. But, mere digitalization of agro-
markets is will not be useful, rather real-time digitalization is required. The rates in the mandis
should be updated instantly with inflow and outflow of farm products. The minimum support
prices for the coming season should also be updated, which is based on the government’s
requirement from the farmers, so that farmers can opt for crops which will be more beneficial for
them, and government can maintain a balance as per supply and demand.

Online sales of products will bring transparency of price of agricultural inputs and actual price of
pesticides, seeds and fertilizer delivered to a farm will be more apparent. This will force sellers of
these products to determine true price because of increased competition in auction sites. It is
much obvious that it’s result will be that the farmer will have to pay less price than that he used
to pay in past. A farmer will also be able to decide and purchase product according to his
individual need which is better than traditional system. The question here arises is that will
farmers sell their products for cash directly over the Internet?, probably not in current
(immediate) future.

From over last 100 years the marketing system has been set up and efficient on handling large
quantity of commodities. So what internet will provide farmers? As we know the peculiarity of
agro products is timing and criticality of items which are perishable, so the internet will provide
farmers the instant facts by which he can take quick decision and the facility of advertisement.

The answer is the ability to advertise. Such advertisements over the internet offer farmers to
locate best place to sell their products and processors to source products much easily without
having to raise their offer price at a significant amount.

For example, suppose a company X needs a product Y than it expected, it will post an
advertisement over internet. If farmers are watching for best prices over the internet and go
through this advertisement, the X will get all the product Y it needed with a moderate upward
adjustment of its offer prices.

In the future, the Internet’s most important impact on farmers might be its ability to allow some
farmers to move away from growing and marketing commodities to growing and marketing
differentiated products1.
 Research problem/hypothesis/objectives

The proposed work is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and application

development activity. It is based on following hypothesis :

 India has grown quite a lot in the recent years, but farmers are still using traditional
method and fixed crop patterns.
 Villages have vast variation of socio economic structure .
 Farmers are normally uneducated and the new generation has good knowledge of
internet but this knowledge of theirs is kept unutilized for benefitting of their agricultural
profit.
 The knowledge and resources is not sufficient enough for maximizing their agricultural
gain.
 Farmers are not aware and trained to use latest technology of agriculture provided with
the global knowledge of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc .
 Geographical location, soil type and water resources availability are a great boon and
support to the agricultural process and it vastly increases the scope of agriculture in the
area.
 Village is located alongside the highway but its position is not completely used so as to
maximize the agriculture profit
 The crops are sold in a fixed mandi and no farmer is really having even slightest
knowledge direct selling to buyer at market to maximum profit.
 Available Government policies like insurance etc are not properly utilized by the farmer
community to get maximum profit of the same. It is due to lack of implementation by the
authorities and lack of awareness of the farmers.
 Farmers lack of resources of doing value addition in its produce
 Lack of enough storage of food in nearby areas
OBJECTIVE :

The objective of the project is to integrate various sources of information and dissemination
through most popular method i.e. internet and mobile technology and likely innovation in a
number of areas as follows:

1. To develop a user friendly geospatial system to get latest vegetables and fruits rates of a
mandi and its route for the calculation of transportation cost.
2. Farmer can plan his harvest according to the market trend to maximize his profit.
3. Look for various other sources (demand centers like hotels, malls etc) of selling
agricultural products

The work was conducted to explore the potentials of digitalization of agro-markets and farmer’s
perception and their willingness to utilize the facilities of Information Communication Technology
( ICT) - website, android application, SMS alert etc to buy and sell agriculture commodities. The
work was based on primary survey conducted through questionnaire consisting of questions
regarding the strength, weakness, opportunities and threat if using ITC in the agro-farming.
Methodology Techniques/Sampling /Tools/Materials
Keeping in mind the aims and objectives of this research; it will be based on spatial as well as
attribute data. The spatial layers are generated as from various maps, GPS and remote sensing
data. GIS database consist of spatial data as geography of the road and attribute data like name,
and other facilities along the road. The rates and other dynamic information are assumed to be
updated regularly. We are assuming that mandi updates rates of vegetables and fruits everyday by
evening and mandi also update estimation of per day consumption. There are few websites which
also display the rates and other related information system. Our system fetches some of the
information from other websites to give complete picture of the item the farmer look for.

The following step are adopted :

1. Selection of the sample village which satisfies the basic requirements like – Farmer self
farming, access to web / phone, farmer adaptability.
2. Primary survey of the sample village and farmers to know the batter socio-economic
structure of the village and farmers.
3. Development of village base map, mandi & buyer locations and connecting route map
with basic facilities using GIS.
4. Development of farmer digital support services -website, mobile app etc.
5. Survey of the market and buyers to understand the consumer demands
6. Development of secure online farmer and buyer support services -Suggesting farmer
to make cooperative and removal of middle man
7. Workshops , orientation for farmers & buyers for better use of develop services.
8. Connect the farmers and buyers through developed portal so that Farmers and sellers can
advertise their supply/demand to reduce the scope of middle-man.
9. Feedback & shortcoming removal , if any

We have created a base map of a district with relevant layers along with road map and location of
panchayat bhawan. Similarly we will also have Mandi locations where farmers can sell their
produce (vegetables and fruits) at minimum transportation cost and maximum rate. The system
thus created is an open source browser with Geospatial Data. The geospatial data have the
following layers:

1. Base map
2. Panchayat locations of each village
3. Roads connecting to panchayat and various mandis (wholesale agriculture market)
4. Mandi locations
The geospatial data have the followings attributes:

1. Base map have attributes according to the layers

2. Panchayat location have various data like village name, local common produce and other
socio-economical parameter
3. Mandis location have name, items, date, maximum rate and minimum rate.
4. Road layer have date like length of the road, type of road, fuel filling stations and other
facilities along the road
 Result and Discussion
(main text, tables with titles, graphs and figures with legends) In detail

Based on the study and desperate sell by the farmer leads to conclusion that the conventional
selling of the produce needs to change and farmers should look for other demand source to get
better rates of their crops. To do so we require strong information portal which help farmer to
decide how and where he sell his produce. The portal also open new avenues of selling his
produce. We strongly recommend the use of technology in agro marketing and look for alternate
sources of selling. Rather advocate to add an intermediately layer of value addition and e-
commerce. We suggest the followings to implement in agro-marketing
 Doing value addition at local level &
 Selling at optimal price using information portal and ecommerce
 Engage other direct sources of selling produce like hotels and malls etc.
Hence we recommend the integration of the well proved methods of value addition and
electronic selling through the use of Internet technology

 Value addition using farmer’s own efforts

 Cooperative: cooperative accumulate produce of all agreed farmers and do value
addition at their end and share the profits among the farmer members
 On line selling: cooperative model can be extended to online selling
 Local bulk buyer - a completely new business where a local buyer at village/bock level do
the value addition (Grading, Packaging and processing etc ) and hence sell it at higher
price and share his profit with the farmer

After the integration of technology with the local knowledge and discussion with the farmers we
were encourage by the farmer’s feedback and their inetrest in our suggestions. . Our students &
faculty team members made a good contribution, which was seen in the results through our
website and android application. Farmers has reduced the worry fo desperate selling to the
middlemen and can take decision on their own for the rop selling. Their per acre income
increases by adopting technology from the same land holding and resources. Farmers and
buyers have made a healthy relationship and Online selling of agricultural products, easy access
to Fertilizers, Seeds, Pesticides and other needs are some boons they are provided with. Farmers
can now easily access to Bank Loans and Agricultural Insurance. Farmer now gets an easy access
to government policies.

Few successes of this project are -

 Latest technologies awareness among farmers and buyers
 The portal and app is bilingual so that farmer can use it even in hindi.
 Helps in encouragement of “DIGITAL INDIA”.
 Farmers can use storage houses to increase the produce life and sell at right time to
increase the profit.
 Farmer can plan to do the value addition like branding, f grading and packaging .
 Suggest farmers to generate their own resources by forming cooperative societies which
will benefit its stakeholders.
 Students involved in this project learned to develop portal, apps and various other tools. It
gave them the opportunity to inegrate the website to other data source.
 They leant to work with bi-lingual portal
 Innovations shown by the project
This project facilitate the concept of online forward trading in the field of agriculture. Farmers
can put the status of his crop on net and buyer can bid for the rop at any stage of the crop
which mean buyer can buy the crop at any stage. Fermer have the choice of selling his crop as
per the trends in the market and of course at time of his personal need.
Social
 The social-economic standard of farmers may increase.
 He will sow his fields with the item which are in demand in market, hence the shortage in
the market will be checked and fulfilled.
 Young generation interest in farming or agro marketing (like forward trading, food
processing) may develop.
 New agri-businesses and cooperative will come locally which will increase employment
other then farming.
 Farmer will be proud seller of his produce rather than desperate seller through the
middlemen.
 Farmers can plan his agro business rather than mere farming.
Urban
 The urban Consumer will get more fresh agri products at reasonable rates.
 Easier, cheaper and fresher agricultural goods are available for big functions like marriages
etc.
 Urban consumer will have other source or buying fresh vegetables etc at lower rates then
mandis. This way consumer is contributing to farmer rather than making middlemen richer.
 There will not be shortage of particular item in market because of demand farmers will fulfill at
the earliest
Scientifics'
• Scientist community will get direct feedback from the farmers. .
 Proper channel of knowledge dissemination
• A powerful way of testing research and its feedback
Technological
• This project proves the the importance and use of IT technology for farmers in their agro-
management and marketing.
• This project helps “ DIGITAL INDIA” campaign of Government of India and
implementation of their schemes for farmers..
•The project also helps in enhancement of technological knowledge among farmers and buyers
through a bridge drawn between them.
 Conclusion and Future direction
The project aims at removal of farmer’s exploiting practices. And in addition to it the
farmers of pipli village have learned the new and profitable methods of farming and have
said an adieu to the traditional farming.

To make our farmers quite more aware about our project and motives evolved we have
designed our website in two versions ‘HINDI and ENGLISH’.

Through this project:-

 Community buyers have new option of getting fresh, and cheaper agricultural
goods.
 It will increase the socio-economic status of the farmers.
 The farmers are now quite aware about the government schemes and different
crop insurance policies.
 Community buyers like Gurdwara, Hostel, P.G., School ,College etc can get much
fresher and cheaper agricultural goods directly from farmers.
 All the basic need like pesticides, fertilizers and different other requirement can be
provided from a single window from our website.
 Our apps and website provide farmers with an estimate of their crops.
 The direct relation between farmer and buyer brings a steep promotion in the
economic position of our farmers.
 Also helps with removal of low literacy rate and increases familiarization with
government schemes, thus getting rid of to measure setback in the farmer’s
commercial life.
 Through our website and apps farmers will come to know about the selling prices
of different mandis and thus can keep themselves at maximum profit.
 Our Limitations:-

 The place PIPLI where we are working upon is a much smaller place. If we again get an
opportunity to do the extension of this project then we will choose bigger areas then
PIPLI.

 A larger portion of time was consumed by the student in learning about developing tools
like website and apps, if same amount of time would have been there the project could
have been reached to a much higher level.

 We had also aimed at involvement of government agencies like krishi vibag yojana, but
due to lack of time we were unable to reach the milestone.
 References in APA format
1. DEBIPRASAD NAYAK, Farmers Struggle to Escape Middlemen, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL,
Feb 26, 2014.

2. M. Neményi, P.Á. Mesterházi, Zs. Pecze, Zs. Stépán, The role of GIS and GPS in precision
farming, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2003 Vol. 40, (1-3), 45–55.

3. S.J. Staal, I. Baltenweck, M.M. Waithaka ,T. DeWolff and L. Njoroge, Location and uptake:
integrated household and GIS analysis of technology adoption and land use, with application
to smallholder dairy farms in Kenya, Agricultural Economics ,2002 , Vol. 27, 295–315.

4. Zi Hua Zhao, Hardev S. Sandhu ,Feng Gao, Da-Han He, Shifts in natural enemy assemblages
resulting from landscape simplification account for biocontrol loss in wheat fields, Ecological
Research, 2015, Vol.30 (3),493-498.

5. Panagariya, Arvind (2008). India. Oxford University Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0195315035.

6. Bruce A. Babcock, Lowa State university, Re-Energizing Supply Chains, Digital Repository, Vol
(6). Issue 2 Spring 2000, Article 1, August 2015.

7. Aanchal Magazine , Anil Sasi : http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-

india/national-optical-fibre-network-rollout-centres-nod-to-some-states-going-solo-bid-to-
push-rollout/ ;,January 13, 2016.

8. Francis J. Pierce, David Clay, BOOK-GIS Application in Agriculture Series, 2007.

 Publication/s from the work. (attach copies)
1. "ROLE OF DIGITALIZATION IN AGRO-FARMING" by Mukesh Kumar and others in
India International Science Festival, 4-8 December 2015 at IITD organized by
VIBHA, Ministry of Science & Technology and Earth Science Govt. of India.

2. " AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO AGRO-FARMING " by Mukesh Kumar , Swarn

Singh Jaggi & Daljit Singh in National conference “Climate Change Adaptation &
Sustainable Development” Organizing by Swami Shraddhanand College, University of
Delhi , 28-29, September 2016.

Conference Presentation/s (attach copies)

Poster
1. " ROLE OF DIGITALIZATION IN AGRO-FARMING" by Mukesh Kumar and others in India
International Science Festival, 4-8 December 2015 at IITD organized by VIBHA, Ministry
of Science & Technology and Earth Science Govt. of India.

2. " ROLE OF I-TECH For FARMERS" by Rishabh Rana, Diwakar , Krishna Kumar& Mukesh
Kumar in National conference “Climate Change Adaptation & Sustainable
Development” Organizing by Swami Shraddhanand College, University of Delhi , 28-
29, September 2016.

3. "Farmer marketing system & sustainable development" by Sandeep , Deepak, Aakash,

Nitesh & Mukesh Kumar in National conference “Climate Change Adaptation &
Sustainable Development” Organizing by Swami Shraddhanand College, University of
Delhi , 28-29, September 2016.
Patent/s and Technology Transfer (attach copies)
Media Coverage (attach copies)
Pictures related to the project.
 Annexure -I
About Pipli Village
Tehsil Name : Kharkhoda
District : Sonipat
State : Haryana
Division : Rohtak
Language : Hindi
Time zone: IST (UTC+5:30)
Elevation / Altitude: 216 meters. Above Sea level
Telephone Code / Std Code: 0180
Pin Code : 131402
Post Office Name : Kharkhauda
Pipli is a Village in Kharkhoda Tehsil in Sonipat District of Haryana State, India. It belongs to Rohtak
Division . It is located 18 KM towards South from District head quarters Sonipat. 3 KM from Kharkhoda.
243 KM from State capital Chandigarh.

Pipli Pin code is 131402 and postal head office is Kharkhauda . onipat , Bahadurgarh , Ganaur , Rohtak
are the nearby Cities to Pipli. This Place is in the border of the Sonipat District and Rohtak District.
Rohtak District Sampla is west towards this place .
Demographics of Pipli : Hindi is the Local Language here.
HOW TO REACH Pipli : There is no railway station near to Pipli in less than 10 km. How ever Sonipat
Rail Way Station is major railway station 18 KM near to Pipli

Colleges near Pipli : Rajkiya Maha Vidayla Pipli

Schools in Pipli : Modern High School Pipli , M.d. Shiksha Sadan High School

Why Pipli Village

 The farmers have good holding in number of agricultural land.
 Village has vast varity of socio and economic structure, this variation help us to understand this
project.
 There is not a labour based agricultural land.
 Our few investigator belong to this village so, it is easier for us to collect data.
 Easy approaches to marketing for agricultural business purpose.
 There are educated farmers so, it is good for us that they can understand our project.
 This village is surrounded by many markets therefore, lots of choices are available.
 The prior in village information helps us to project methodology.
 Farmars are faimilier with technology like mobile internet or computer.
 It is near by our insititute/college so, as per our needs the investigators can go and get the
necessary information about villagers.
 Annexure -II GIS MAP
A qGIS map is constructed for farmer / buyer help. The geospatial map have the followings
attributes :
 Base map will have attributes according to the layers ,
 Panchayat location will have various data like village name, local common produce and
other socio-economical parameter ,
 Mandis location locations & tems wise ,
 Road layer will have length of the road, type of road, fuel filling stations and other facility
along the road
 Annexure III - QUESTIONARE FORMAT
Part - I (Socio-Economic Structure)
Name Age - Sex – Male/ Female

No of family members >3 [ ] 4-6 [ ] 7- 9 [ ] < 10 [ ]

Family income (year) >100,000 [ ] 100,001-200,000 [ ] 200,001-300,000[ ] < 300,000 [ ]

Education Illiterate [ ] Primary [ ] Schools [ ] College & above [ ]

No. of Co- worker <4 [ ] 5-7 [ ] 8-10 [ ] < 10 [ ]

Age group of co-worker >18 [ ] 19-30 [ ] 31-40 [ ] < 40 [ ]

Land of holding >1 acre [ ] 1-3 acre [ ] 3-5 acre [ ] < 5 acre [ ]

Area of House >50 yards [ ] 51-100 yards [ ] 101-200 yards [ ] < 200 yards [ ]

Employment Farmer [ ] Government [ ] Private [ ] Unemployed [ ]

Religious (Optional) Cast (Optional) Income- Yearly

Using Mobile Yes [ ] No [ ] Type of mobile Ordinary [ ] Smartphone [ ]

Using internet Yes [ ] No [ ] Using mobile internet Yes [ ] No [ ]

Part II ( Current Crop Details)
Cultivation Crop Sell Time Crop Variety &
Name of Crops Where to sell Next crops ?
Area (in killa) ( Month – Week ) Health
Crop-1
Crop-2
Crop-3
Part III ( Farming Details)
Insurance Yes / No Area : Price : Time :

Weather Forecast Yes / No Use of other Help Yes / No \……………………….

Crop Sell ( %) Sell = % Self = % Lease = Yes / No Type of

lease =
Money /
Crop
Per hectare cost : Per hectare tentative rates
(fertiliser, seed and other cost)
Seed : Timely availability Yes /No Fertilizers : Timely availability Yes /No Cost : Rs.
Cost : Rs. Quality-
Part IV (Agriculture / Farming details)
Net Agri Outcome Profit / Loss Rs…………. Why ?
If loss, then how you cover =
Agriculture loan ? Yes / No Agency Loan Rs…… …
Resources other than Agriculture YES / No If yes the details of resources
Will you continue agriculture in future Yes / No Why?
X” crop profit is more than “Y” cop, Yes / No Experience ?
 Annexure -IV
SWAMI SHRADDHANAND COLLEGE (UNIVERSITY OF DELHI )

REPORT OF THE PIPLI VILLAGE THROUGH SOCIO ECONOMIC STRUCTURE, CROP AND
FARMING

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY:
• To understand the crop varities and its component,techniques to cultivate the fields etc.
• To understand the weather timings according to harvests.

RESEARCH METHEDOLOGY:-
Direct data collection and interpretation.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS:-

Data was collected by primary as well as secondary method .primary data was collected through
questionnaires and discussions with the people of the pipli village, and understand the agricultural
fields near the village.

Sample Information

FARMER Sex Farmer Age in Years NO OF MEMBERS

20-30 30-40
Male -32% , Female -68% 40-50 50-60

20-30=6%, 30-40=47%, 40-50=21%, 50- 0-3=28%., 3-6=21%, 6-9=26%

60=26%, 60 and above=0% > 9=25 %
EDUCATION NO OF COWORKER AGE OF COWORKER

0-4=21%, 4-8=32% 8-12=18%, 0-18=12%,19-30=50%,

LITERATURE=28% PRIMARY-35%,
>12=29% 31-40=18%, >40=12%
SCHOOL-28% COLLEGE&ABOVE=21%
 LAND OF HOLDING AREA OF HOUSE CASTE

0-50YRD=24%, 50-100YRD=50%, 100-

<1ACRE=32%, 1-2ACRE=44%, 2- 200YRD=12% , >200YRD=15%
GEN=41%, OBC=32%,
5ACRE=24%, >5ACRE=0%
SC/ST=26%
RELIGIOUS INCOME USING INTERNET

YEARLY-32%, MONTHLY-38%,
HINDU-53%, MUSLIM-12%, SIKH- WEEKLY-29% MOBILE INTERNET-85%, CAFE-
32%, ISHAI-6%, 15%
EMPLOYMENT FAMILY INCOME USING MOBILE
100
80
60
40
20
0

Series 1

0
Smartphone user=95 %,
FARMER-68%,GOVERNMENT-
0-1L=56%, 1-2L=12%, 2-3L=12%, ordinary phone user=4.9%,
6%,PRIVATE-18%, >3L=21% not using phones=0.1%
UNEMPLOYMENT-9%
 No. of Family Members FAMILY INCOME YEARLY MALE AND FEMALE

MALE=68% , FEMALE=32%
0-3=38% , 3-6=21% , 6-9=26% , 0-100,000=56% , 100,000-
<9=15% 200,000=12% , 200,000-
300,000=12% , end above=21%

EDUCATION NO. OF CO WORKER AGE GR. OF CO WORKER

40
20
0

Column1

ILLITERATE=18% , PRIMARY=35% ,
SCHOOLS=26% , COLLEGE
ABOVE=21% 0-4=21% , 4-8=32% , 8-12=18% , 0-18=12% , 19-30=50% , 31-
AND ABOVE=29% 40=26% , 40 AND ABOVE=12%
LAND OF HOLDING (%) AREA OF HOUSE EMPIOYMENT

>1 ACRE=32% , 1-3 ACRE=44% , 3-5 0-50 Yards=24% , 50-100 FARMER=68% ,

ACRE=24% , <5 ACRE=0% Yards=50% , 101-200 Yards=12% , GOVERNMENT=6% ,
200 Above=15% PRIVATE=18% ,
UNEMPLOYMENT=9%
RELIGIOUS CASTE INCOME

HINDU=53% , MUSLIM=12% , GEN=41% , OBC=32% ,

SIKH=32% , ISHAI=6% SC.ST=26% YEARLY=32% ,
MONTHLY=38% ,
WEAKLY=29% ,
 USING INTERNET CROP CULTIVATED AREA(KILLA)

RICE=47% , VEGETABLES=32% ,
1-3=21% , 3-5=29% , 5-8=18%
MOBILE INTERNET =85% , CAFÉ=15% GRASS=21%
, 8-11=21% , ABOVE 11=12%

WHERE TO SELL EXPECTED PRICE CROP SELL TIME

mandi
vender

MANDI=56% , VENDER=44% 10-20=26% , 20-30=18% , 30-

OCT-NOV=10% , AUG-SEP=41%
40=24% , 40-50=17% , 50-
, JUNE-JULY=47%
60=12% , 60 AND ABOVE=3%
CROP VARITY INSURANCE WEATHER FORECAST

YES=68% , NO=32%
YES=0% , NO=34%
HYBRID=68% , LOCAL=32%
USE OF OTHER HELP CROP SELL CROP SELF

Crop Sell
60
40
20
0
0 - 30 30 - 60 60 and
above

Crop Sell

YES=65% , NO=35% 0-30=47% , 30-60=32% , 60 AND

0-30=41% , 30-60=15% , 60 AND
ABOVE=44% ABOVE=21%
 LEASE TYPE OF LEASE PERHECTARE
COST(FERTILIZER/SEED/OTHERS)

YES=9% , NO=91%
SEED TIMELY AVAILABILITY
0-20,000=32% , 20-40,000=47% ,
40-60,000=6% , 60,000ABOVE
MONEY=9% , CROP=0% =15%
FARMING SUPPORT SERVICES
FERTILIZER TIMELY AVAILABITY NET AGRI. OUTCOME

YES=85% , NO=15% , COST/KILLA=

YES=100% , NO=0% , 0-3,000=53% , 3-6/ABOVE=47% PROFIT=82% , LOSS=18%
COST/KILLA=MOSTLY3000%
AGRICULTURAL LOAN RESOURCES OTHER THAN WILL YOU CONTINUE
AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURE IN FUTURE

YES=0% , NO=100% YES=9% , NO=91% YES=79% , NO=21%

X CROP PROFIT IS MORE THAN Y
CROP

X=67% , Y=33%
 ANNEXURE V : WEBSITE SUMMARY
English and Hindi are two major tools at communication in India, therefore our website is
available in two versions in both of languages so as to reach every person communicating with
them through their comforting language.

The home page contains link to all major pages related to farmers and buyers link. Some
informative things like government advisories, news, contact info, download button for MIS app,
images, project reports etc are also provided in main page. In the bottom, we have provided
many farmer services related link.
Price calculator is a tool for farmers to see the available prices at different mandi’s and can
calculate the amount which he could earn at particular mandi, thereby making his future
planning’s for selling their crops at maximum profitable place.

Expense calculator is another tool to help farmers to calculate an estimate of the crop price. This
included every cost from field labour to madi taxes. It also includes different available transport
facilities and their fare estimate with different selecting mode of transport .
Buyer’s portal on our website have links to all major requirements of buyers, tools like
advertisement links, crops price calculator, farmers details, available crops, mandi location,
expense calculator, weather forecasting, Mandi’s rates etc.

Our website very interactive in the sense that Farmers as well as Buyers can advertise their
demands or available holding on our server. Anyone can view the supply and demand
advertisement . Their contact no is public so that everyone can contact each other. The sms
alert facility is also provided to farmers.
Buyers can also draft a demand advertisement so that their demands could reach to farmers
more easily and also can specify their demands and need.

Link to crop Insurance facilities by government and their website is given in our project website
so that farmers could have the knowledge of such schemes and have benefits in situation when
natural calamities occurs destroying crops.
 ANNEXURE VI : ANDROID APP SUMMARY
An android application was also developed to save time and efforts for those who owns an
android device, through this application anyone can access to every tool of our website like
farmers and buyers portal, advertisement, crop insurance, contact info, seeds fertilizers traders
through a much similar, simple and user friendly interface.

\
 ANNEXURE VII : WHAT IS MIS

What is Marketing Information System for

farmers using Geospatial technology
Scheme for AGRICULTURE
MNCFC application, Digital Mandi
India, Kisan Suvidha, Soil testing,
Crop info, Pusha Krisi, M- KISAN,
Shetkari Masik Android app,
Farm-O- Pedia,Bhuvan Hailstorm
application, Crop Insurance
applications,

Primary survey of the sample village and farmers & Development of farmer digital support
services -website, mobile app etc. Survey of the market and buyers to understand the consumer
demands & Development of village base map, mandi & buyer locations and connecting route map
with basic facilities. Development of secure online farmer and buyer support services -
Suggesting farmer to make cooperative and removal of the middle man. Workshops , orientation
for farmers & buyers for better use of developing services. Connect the farmers and buyers
through developed portal Farmers and sellers can advertise their supply/demand to reduce the
scope of middle-man. Feedback & shortcoming removal , if any

•
• -
•

• -
• ( UPIS )

- PMFBY /
WBCIS)
 15

( )

‘‘ 999’’
0 0

-
- - 7
0 - -
- -
ANNEXURE VIII : SUCESS STOREY
Success Story -1
Success Story -2
Success Story -3
Success Story -4
Publication/s from the work
 Role of Digitalization in agro-farming
Mukesh Kumar1, Swaran Singh Jaggi 2, Daljit Singh3, Ajay Kumar4

1
Department of Physics, SSNC, University of Delhi, Delhi, INDIA; e-mail: physics.ssn@gmail.com
2
WynTech, Managing Director, Delhi, INDIA; e-mail: swaran.jaggi@gmail.com
3-4
Department of Geography, SSNC, University of Delhi, Delhi, INDIA; e-mail: daljitchhiller@yahoo.com

Abstract
In our conventional method of agro-business, the manufacturer (farmer) sells its produce to the middle men or to the
agro-processing units who store or process the commodity and do business at a higher margin of profit. Whereas in the
absence of opportunities of selling produce directly to the consumers or option of various wholesale markets and
without knowledge of demand supply opportunities farmer is being forced to sell their produce to a middle man who
makes the maximum profit. But in the presence of opportunity of the digital world, if the farmer gets information
before the harvest, then he can plan his marketing strategy. He can sell his produce according to the need of the buyer
and do value addition like, grading, packaging, processing and sells at the right time in the market. This work we
have devised a model for maximizing agro-farming profits with a better marketing options for a farmer. The only
requirement in getting digitalization of agro-business is to have information and some basic facilities at the village or
block level. Finally, some remarks are made about the implementation of proposed model for a better farmer
marketing strategy and scope of digitalization in agro-farming.

1. INTRODUCTION :
Recent development in internet technologies has covered every field of world. In education,
business, transportation, management etc., applications of internet have benefited everyone. India
is also contributing at a significant level in number of internet users in world. Data shows that from
year 2000 to 2014 internet users in India have increased from 0.53% to 19.19%2 . National Optical
Fiber Network, NOFN (now Bharat Net) has a vision of connecting over 2,50,000 villages of India
through broadband3. More than 58% of population of India get livelihood from agriculture. Being
in farming is being in business. Farmers constitute a huge part of business in the country4. But still
farmers are committing suicide. Farmers’ suicide cases have increase by 26% in 2014 5. One of
many reasons is that they are not getting an optimum price for their crops and are thus forced to
sell their products to local brokers at low prices to fulfill their immediate needs and with this the
dream of profitable farming gets a setback. Besides this, small businessmen's, who keep stock of
agricultural products and wait for rates to increase most commonly face loss because of not having
exact knowledge of current market trend. This growing problem can also be tackled using
developing internet technologies preventing exploitation of farmers providing suitable information
needed in their hand. John Bateman says even farmers today cannot survive without the internet 3.
Farmers also need the internet. Use of internet based platforms can advantage farmers,

2
www.internetlivestats.com
3
www.track.in
4
http://www.irishtimes.com/
55
Indianexpress.com
wholesalers, brokers, direct marketing units (e.g. hotels, cooperatives etc.), food processing units,
and cold storages to establish easy contact and make their business more outputting and
benefic\ial.

2. METHOD OF STUDY
The research was conducted to explore the potentials of digitalization of agro-markets and farmer’s
perception and their willingness to utilize the facilities of Information Communication Technology
to buy and sell agriculture commodities. The study was based on primary survey conducted
through questionnaire consisting of questions regarding the strength, weakness, opportunities and
threat if using ITC in the agro-farming.

The authors strongly disapprove conventional selling of produce. Rather advocate to add an
intermediately layer of value addition and e-commerce. Our methodology is two pronged:
1. Doing value addition at local level
2. Selling at optimal price using ecommerce
Hence we recommend the integration of the well proved methods of value addition and electronic
selling through the use of Internet technology
 Value addition using farmer’s own efforts
 Cooperative: cooperative accumulate produce of all agreed farmers and do value addition
at their end and share the profits among the farmer members
 On line selling: cooperative model can be extended to online selling
 Local bulk buyer - a completely new business where a local buyer at village/bock level do
the value addition (Grading, Packaging and processing etc ) and hence sell it at higher price
and share his profit with the farmer

3. METHOD ANALYSIS
3.1 Farmer and the internet technologies:
There are many websites over internet which provide necessary input for crops (e.g. fertilizers,
seeds, pesticides, herbicides, soil testing facilities) and livestock production. It is a better option to
get a deal over internet than a traditional supplier. Farmers need to know prices for their crops
from their nearest mandis which is a great challenge these days. If they know the commodity rates
at different mandis along with transport cost and other expenditure, they can easily do profitable
selling of their production. After knowing about commodity value from various mandis the next
thing that they desire to know are queries on routes, transportation, rate trend, to which sometimes
they are unaware, to make their selling profitable.

Profitable selling = Selling value - (transportation expenditure + other expenditures)

Profit = selling value – (transportation expenditure + other expenses)

At this point of time if we can replace selling value by “opportunity selling value” and reduce
the expenses (transportation expenditure and other expenses) met in selling, we can increase
the profit
For example, In Mandi 1, selling cost is Rs 100/kg but transportation to that mandi for a farmer
costs Rs 30/kg and other expenditure costs Rs 10/kg.
So, his net selling Value becomes 100-(30+10) = Rs 60/kg.
And in Mandi 2, Selling Cost is Rs 85/kg, Transportation costs Rs 10/kg and there is no other
expenditures.
So, his net Selling Value becomes 85-20 = Rs 65/kg
The farmer can easily conclude that selling his product in Mandi 2 is more profitable than Mandi
1. Along with the transportation cost, knowledge of staying points near mandis, fuel filling
stations, medical facilities, banks, ATMs and other emergency facilities is also important. Having a
complete knowledge of grading and packaging, which is an important task and lead to higher
selling values, enhance the dream of profitable selling. Not only farmers will be benefitted by the
technology, the consumers can also get information about the mandi rates and can purchase farm
products at much cheaper cost as they do in present time. But, mere digitalization of agro-markets
is will not be useful, rather real-time digitalization is required. The rates in the mandis should be
updated instantly with inflow and outflow of farm products. The minimum support prices for the
coming season should also be updated, which is based on the government’s requirement from the
farmers, so that farmers can opt for crops which will be more beneficial for them, and government
can maintain a balance as per supply and demand.

Online sales of products will bring transparency of price of agricultural inputs and actual price of
pesticides, seeds and fertilizer delivered to a farm will be more apparent. This will force sellers of
these products to determine true price because of increased competition in auction sites. It is much
obvious that it’s result will be that the farmer will have to pay less price than that he used to pay in
past. A farmer will also be able to decide and purchase product according to his individual need
which is better than traditional system. The question here arises is that will farmers sell their
products for cash directly over the Internet?, probably not in current (immediate) future.

From over last 100 years the marketing system has been set up and efficient on handling large
quantity of commodities. So what internet will provide farmers?
As we know the peculiarity of agro products is timing and criticality of items which are perishable,
so the internet will provide farmers the instant facts by which he can take quick decision and the
facility of advertisement.

The answer is the ability to advertise. Such advertisements over the internet offer farmers to locate
best place to sell their products and processors to source products much easily without having to
raise their offer price at a significant amount. For example, suppose a mill needs more soybean
than it expected, it will post an advertisement over internet. If farmers are watching for best prices
over the internet and go through this advertisement, the mill will get all the Soyabean it needed
with a moderate upward adjustment of its offer prices. In the future, the Internet’s most important
impact on farmers might be its ability to allow some farmers to move away from growing and
marketing commodities to growing and marketing differentiated products6.

6
https://www.extension.iastate.edu
3.2 Way for markets and business bodies:

Figure 1: Framework for digitalization of agro-markets

In recent years, agricultural has been increased at a significant level. Many factors are responsible
for this which includes household income growth and growth in expansion of food processing
sectors, increase in agricultural exports, reduced transaction costs and time, improved port gate
management and better fiscal incentives. Growth in organic farming, private participation and use
of information technologies are some key trends in Indian agricultural industry. Chemical
companies need feedback of farmers about their products and current demands of farmers so that
they can avail products according to present demand. This is a challenging task in traditional
system as it is hard for companies to establish direct contact with farmers. Support forums and
other tools using internet technologies makes this process easier. The need of soil testing and
solving other farming related problems can easily be solved using these technologies.

With the increasing competition in market food processing firms needs quality cereal at as low
prices as possible. For this they used to contact wholesalers, brokers or cold storages. They add
their commission in the rates and thus food processing firms has to pay an extra amount. With the
use of these technologies they will be able to establish contact directly to farmers, offer them their
rates and this way can purchase products directly from farmers at a rate that is less than that they
used to pay to brokers. And this offered rate can also be higher than what the farmers were getting
from brokers, and will always will to sell their products directly to companies. This all will result
in lowering the price of final products from food processing firms. Farmers will also get a way to
contact to transport facility providers to take their product to sell to mandi of their choice where
they are getting a profit. This will make the transport more beneficial and attract more and more
investors to invest in transport business also. Besides this there are many others business that will
be affected directly with the advancement of internet technologies in agriculture. These include IT
service providers, cold storages, hotels, veterinary and husbandry doctors etc.

4. RESULTS
The results show that the farmers are very willing to adopt the new technology.
 Status of accessibility to internet connection with farmers: 100 per cent of surveyed
farmers or any of their family members have mobile connection. Internet connection was
found with only 20 per cent of farmers. But 70 per cent of farmers have internet connection
with their teenage or adult son or daughter.
 Role of education in digitalization of agro-markets: All educated farmers have mobile
connection. 95 per cent of graduated farmers have internet connection. All the high school
pass farmers are willing to connect with mandis through digital mode. The illiterate farmers
or only primary educated farmers are unwilling or hesitate to adopt the technology.
 Expected increase in percent profit from digitalization: All the farmers willing to opt for
digitalization expect the profit to increase manifolds. They are well aware of the
importance of timely information about weather, subsidies, mandi rates and value them at
par with money.
 Perceived threats by farmers in use of digital technology:About 30 per cent farmers find it
not convenient and feel scared of frauds. The digital technology is perceived by such
farmers as something which does not exists.
5. DISCUSSION
The internet has proved a useful tool for everyone. The growth rate of Internet use continues at a
phenomenal pace. Therefore, it is important that Extension professionals teach agricultural
producers to become familiar with this resource and take advantage of its use in market
development and promotion7. The 12th Five-Year Plan estimates the food-grains storage capacity
to expand to 35 MT. Also, a 4 per cent growth would help restructure the agriculture sector in
India in the next few years8. The mandi is the marketplace where farmers and traders collect to sell
or purchase agricultural products. Developing user friendly tools using internet technologies will
help farmers to maximize yield and plan his harvest according to market trend to maximize his
profit. That will result agricultural related business more profitable than past for everyone.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Authors are thankful to University of Delhi for financial Support to INNOVATION
RESEARCH PROJECT Marketing Information System for farmers Using Geospatial Technology

7
http://www.joe.org/
8
http://www.ibef.org/
7. REFERENCES
9. Zi Hua Zhao, Hardev S. Sandhu ,Feng Gao, Da-Han He, Shifts in natural enemy
assemblages resulting from landscape simplification account for biocontrol loss in wheat
fields, Ecological Research, 2015, Vol.30 (3),493-498.
10. M. Neményi, P.Á. Mesterházi, Zs. Pecze, Zs. Stépán, The role of GIS and GPS in
precision farming, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2003 Vol. 40, (1-3), 45–55.
11. S.J. Staal, I. Baltenweck, M.M. Waithaka ,T. DeWolff and L. Njoroge, Location and
uptake: integrated household and GIS analysis of technology adoption and land use, with
application to smallholder dairy farms in Kenya, Agricultural Economics ,2002 , Vol. 27,
295–315.
12. Website Resources : www.internetlivestats.com, www.extension.iastate.edu, mkisan.gov.in,
www.joe.org and www.ibef.org.