Digital Trading Platform
Digital Trading Platform
A network connecting all existing APMCs to establish a unified marketplace.
Before introducing AdviTech’s digital trading platform, let’s examine how trading works in traditional agricultural markets.
Farmers transport their produce to the market (mandi) and either sell through commission agents or directly to traders. Buyers inspect the goods and negotiate prices. Without a transparent pricing system, farmers often receive unfair prices, exacerbated by middlemen and delayed payments. AdviTech aims to address these challenges with a modern solution.
Flaws with the Traditional Agriculture Trading System
Lack of Price Transparency
The traditional trading process in physical mandis often suffers from a lack of price transparency. Farmers typically do not have access to real-time market price information, which creates an information imbalance. This can lead to exploitation by middlemen or traders, who may take advantage of the farmer’s limited knowledge of current market rates.
Limited Market Access
Physical mandis are typically localized, restricting farmers’ access to larger markets. This limited market reach reduces buyer competition, which can result in lower prices for farmers and fewer opportunities for them to explore more favorable market options.
Middlemen Exploitation
The involvement of intermediaries, such as commission agents, can lead to exploitative practices. Some middlemen may charge high commissions, impose unfair deductions, or manipulate weighing scales, ultimately reducing the income farmers receive for their produce.
Inadequate Infrastructure
Many physical mandis suffer from inadequate infrastructure, such as a lack of proper storage, grading, sorting facilities, and reliable connectivity. This often leads to the deterioration of the quality of agricultural produce, which in turn results in lower prices and diminished market value for the farmers’ goods.
Limited Access to Financial Services
Farmers often struggle to access financial services like credit and insurance through the traditional trading process. This limitation hinders their ability to invest in modern farming techniques, manage risks, and enhance productivity.
Fragmented Market Regulations
Agricultural trading regulations vary across states and mandis, resulting in a fragmented market structure. This inconsistency can lead to confusion, inefficiencies, and disruptions in the trading process.
Benefits
The developed Digital Trading Platform has facilitated the following:
- Expanded market access and more competitive pricing for sellers.
- Streamlined digital operations and online payments, ensuring timely transactions without delays.
- Enhanced transparency, security, and reliability throughout the process, fostering greater accountability.
- Improved quality of produce for traders by eliminating multiple handling stages.
Digital Trading Platform Features
- Real-time updates on traded commodities and their current prices are accessible.
- It supports 12 regional languages for enhanced usability.
- Users can register as farmers, traders, FPOs, or commission agents (CAs).
- Its POP connects users to diverse agricultural services like warehousing and transportation via third-party providers.
- Farmers can list their commodities via a nearby mandi, while traders bid and quote prices digitally from anywhere.
- More than 200 commodities available.
- 1.70 Crore farmers, 1.6 lakh traders, 90,000 CAs, and 1,800+ FPOs registered.
- It operates in 1,361 markets across 23 states and 4 Union territories in India, handling lakhs of transactions daily.
