Taking a leaf out of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation move to promote cashless transactions, the Agriculture Ministry is all set to launch an online haat for livestock trade. The portal, which is christened as e-pashudhan portal, hopes to double farmer’s income by harnessing the potential of Digital India platform.
Explaining the rationale, sources in agriculture ministry, said, “The objective behind the move is promote sale and purchase of animals among farmers. Farmers would get a dedicated platform to sell their livestock produce by uploading details of their animals on the portal.” The portal is a brainchild of Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, the source added.
“It’s been noticed that farmers or people belonging to the weaker sections of the society rear domestic animals such as cow, buffalo, goats, chicken and sheep to meet their financial needs, but they don’t have direct access to market, they end up with selling their ‘product’ at unsatisfactory price. The portal, which would be available in the form of a mobile app and website, would bridge that gap,” the source said, adding that it would also have the pre-order facility, feature available in most of the e-commerce portals.
“The owners of livestock animals would have to upload details of their animals such as age of the cattle, price, location, etc, so that buyers would place their order as it happens with portals dealing with FMCG products,” the source said, adding that the ministry is also mulling to provide options of special offers like buy one, get one free, free shipping of animals, etc.