‘Kerala Agri-Net’ on the cards for farm sector

As part of adopting a farm plan-based development model for the State’s farm sector, the Agriculture department proposes to put in place a network of value-and-supply chains designed on a hub-and-spoke model.

Named ‘Kerala Agri-Net,’ it is primarily meant to be a robust value-and-supply-chain system for managing agricultural inputs and produce, the guidelines for the development model published by the Agriculture department say.

The Kerala Agri-Net will digitally link farmers to aggregation agencies (like Krishikootams) and farmer producer organisations (FPO) and the FPOs to ‘hubs,’ which will act as the information and input support mechanism for demand-driven production. The hubs, in turn, will be linked to regional and wholesale markets under the department.

A centralised market information system for vegetable and fruits arriving from all sources, including other States, will be developed based on price, place, produce, and time/seasonality intelligence — ‘‘the four pillars of market intelligence.’‘

Customer app

The Kerala Agri-Net will also feature the customer app ‘Kerala Farm Fresh’, which will allow online sale of products.

The ‘farm plan-based model’ mooted by the department seeks to do away with individual crop-based approaches. Instead, agricultural holdings will be encouraged to switch to integrated, multi-crop system-based development. The department expects this transition to enhance production and farmer incomes substantially.

The approach is defined as a ‘‘programme of total farm activities of a farmer drawn out in advance. It is considered that an optimum farm plan would satisfy all the resource constraints at the farm level and yield the maximum profit.’‘

Farm plans will be implemented with the convergence of all State and Central sector schemes, programmes of local bodies, employment guarantee schemes, the ‘Njangalum Krishiyilekku’ campaign and government departments.

For rolling out this model, the department also plans to organise ‘farm schools’ for farmers for establishing model farms and FPOs. They will also be given training in small farm mechanisation as part of upgrading their skill sets.