YAP Proposal #43: “Online agricultural market” (Muhammad Ramzan Rafique, Pakistan)

Posted on by Admin

Online Agricultural market for Pakistani farmers

My name is Muhammad Ramzan Rafique, 36, and I am a graduate of University of Agriculture, Faisalabad Pakistan, with horticulture as my major. I belong to an agricultural family, born and raised in a village, studied agriculture, and now working in agriculture sector. I have worked for public as well as private sector. I am currently managing www.agrihunt.com, (agricultural information sharing) www.lsij.org, (scientific journal) and working for the development of www.sublimeseeds.org (online seed store). I also run my personal blog on various social issues at Urdu blog, and for agriculture Agrihunt blog. Team Agrihunt consist of many volunteers and we have successfully launched many social projects like Fruit for life, and publishing of agricultural books.

It is my dream to re-shape the agricultural landscape of Pakistan. My project is to set up e-Agricultural market, where farmers can buy and sell products, without the intervention of middlemen, because that results in increased costs for consumers and low profits for the farmers. I have bought a domain name www.emandi.pk (local word for agricultural market) for this purpose. Now we have to do efforts along with web and application development. We want to establish text messaging channel for establishing link with less educated farmers, where farmers can easily know the market rates of crops and other agricultural products.

In Pakistan 60-70% population is directly or indirectly related to agriculture. 95% of the farmers are small farmers and they buy agricultural inputs from middlemen, they also sell their produce via middlemen. So in both ways, they are paying to middlemen for same commodity. If we can minimize this gap by increasing mobile technology, we can make a huge difference among farming community in Pakistan.

DSC_0248I have worked with giants of agricultural input providers in Pakistan. If we provide quality products to farmers at reasonable prices and at their door step, along with guiding and introducing them to direct buyers or industry, then the existing buying and selling landscape in agricultural industry can be reshaped.

We are already working with offline agricultural stakeholders’ directory in Pakistan, so our first step would be make a database of agricultural input providers, producers or growers, and related industry for developing a web portal, smartphone application as well as text message based alert system for farmers and other stakeholders.

We wish to launch vegetable seeds distribution system by http://www.sublimeseeds.org. We will launch a pilot project in Sahiwal area of Punjab, where farmers would be able to order selected vegetable seeds at competitive prices at their door steps, and they can pay cash on delivery.

For selling their vegetables, we can recommend direct buyers rather than them selling produce to middlemen, who always procure at lowers prices from farmers. Additionally, our website will provide a place to people for advertising their products themselves and interact directly with buyers and sellers.

We can make a difference in one local market in one season, as we have capability to get good products and we wish to provide them at discounted price as middlemen commission will no longer be there, so I hope we can attract many farmers.

I aim at spending award money for establishing an online e-agricultural market setup which can bring buyers and seller at one platform. We will establish a call center facility as well, where farmers will be provided agricultural guidance and market rates.

In period of one year, we can facilitate a large farming community because Internet has no limits. All we need to do is to open just one door of opportunity for them. Our cost breakdown for the whole project is roughly as follows:

Website and application development: $1000
Message (SMS) integrated system: $2000
Advertisements: $1000
Awareness programs: $1000

Blogpost, video and picture submitted by Muhammad Ramzan Rafique (Pakistan) – ramzanrafique(at)hotmail.com

The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.

This post is published as proposal #43 of “YAP” - our “Youth Agripreneur Project”.

The first selection of the winners will be based on the number of comments, likes and views each proposal gets.

As a reader, you can support this speaker’s entry:

  • Leave a comment (question, suggestion,..) on this project in the comment field at the bottom of this page
  • Support the post by clicking the “Like” button below (only possible for those with a WordPress.com account)
  • Spread this post via your social media channels, using the hashtag: #GCARD3

Have a look at the other “YAP” proposals too!
As a donor, support young agripreneurs and sponsor this unique project. Check out the side column for our current sponsors.
“YAP” is part of the #GCARD3 process, the third Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development.

107 thoughts on “YAP Proposal #43: “Online agricultural market” (Muhammad Ramzan Rafique, Pakistan)”

  3. Great entry! I have been conceptualizing this too for the Philippines. I believe that e-commerce and agriculture can be a good mix. It can help provide farmers with the exact tools that they need.

    Wish you all the best in this project! If ever you win, I hope we get to work together and do it here in our country also.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for your comments , i believe this big issue in developing countries, one bottle of pesticides can be purchased 600 times cheaper than current market price at your door step if we only minimize share of middle man. stay connected.

      Reply
  6. Pingback: عالمی مقابلہ زرعی تجاویز اور ہماری تجویز - AgriHunt

  8. A badly needed project for country like Pakistan. I really appreciate and support the proposal. Such project will help Pakistani farmer in improving their skills.

    Reply
  10. Pingback: عالمی مقابلہ زرعی تجاویز اور ہماری تجویز ، آپ کی رائے درکار ہے ۔ « Jazba Radio

  11. Agriculture in Pakistan is really sustaining on it’s own. Every year the government announces a lot of subsidies and an even market opportunity for farmers but it is never implemented on the grass-root level and due to lack of transparency, the small and medium production farmers suffer while the middlemen and the large farm owners get the chances 70-80 percent of the time. I think that “e-Mandi” is a brilliant idea and once it get the acceptance in the small markets, it could be a huge concept. I like the domain name very much as well. :)
    I hope you get the chance to fulfill your idea.
    -Umair Latif

    Reply

  15. It will be great innovation in developing market of Pakistan where Pakistani Growers suffer from poor quality of inputs and are On the Mercy of Traders while selling their produce. Great going Ramzan Bhai..

    Reply

  19. I appreciate this effort as introduction of information and communication technology is the most effective way of improving the traditional rural farm economy in Pakistan. It is true that exploitative relationship between farmers and middleman does not allow the former to take benifit of its produce. The role of middleman has to be reduced to protect not only the farming communities but consumers as well.

    Reply

    1. Dear Masood , your appreciation for the project means a lot for me as you are subject specialist in agricultural economics, yes our farmers are being the brunt of middle man mafia. you are welcome to contribute with valuable suggestions and feedback.

      Reply

  21. Sir , Its a blessing for all the community linked with agriculture when updated and advance knowledge of agricultural crops will be in access to progressive farmers and layman. it will be a wonderful thing anyone can ever do :) GOD bless you for this cause. You are having awesome ideas :) I am with you.

    Reply

  22. that is really a great initiative…this will surly fill the gap between the farmers and the buyers.. and one of the best step to help the farmers to help themselves.. well done keep it up

    Reply

    1. Thanks Nabeel Qureshi, I know your work as extension worker in agriculture, Thanks for your feedback. we are trying to minimize informational gap through technology.

      Reply

  26. Dear Ramzan,
    Indeed its very innovative work that you intended to do. My prayers are always with you and wish you all the best for your success. I was wondering that the farmers in Pakistan mostly uneducated (small farmers) then how they will use website to do online trade?and how they can be access with this facility?

    Reply

    1. Thanks for interacting , as you everybody is using mobile phone, so we intend to make a call center along with a website where you can get services in local language in Urdu and get easily your required information. (in case of many repeated questions it could be auto-answers by pressing simple 1, 2 buttons for various crops or issues ), In future we intend to incorporate our centers in various agricultural areas of country, where people can buy at internet price.

      Reply

  29. Indeed it is the need of time. Such type of projects are urgently needed to link farmers with potential buyers for reducing multiplicity of middlemen in developing countries, let alone Pakistan.

    Reply

    1. Dear Dr.Hammad Badar , thanks for your time, as i badly needed feedback from agricultural economist like you on my project. I wish we can do this project as soon as possible

      Reply

  34. I hail from the same area where this project is being proposed to be launched . The farmers here have normally small land holding , low on cash , being exploited by middleman and are recipient low grade or fake products from middleman or vendors . This vicious circle can be really be broken with the help of technology and a sincere effort by an expert from the same field . Ramzan Rafiq is a perfect choice and initiator of the choice. i fully support and recommend his project to be realized .

    Reply

    1. Dear Riaz , Thanks for supporting my project. yes selling and buying in agricultural market is a vicious circle, where poor farmers are forced to buy product from selective seller and forced to sell their produce to the same person. This same person is taking the advantage in both ways at selling and buying.

      Reply

  37. Dear Ramzan Rafique, it is very heartening and encouraging to see read and listen to your youtube video.

    I myself belong to agriculture’s background from Rahim yar khan and can fittingly relate to your entrepreneurial ambition.

    My entrepreneurship team at One Roof would like to help you design, give you bigger platform to spread your idea to not just sahiwal but also across Punjab and Pakistan thought our strong network of farmers and corporate sponsorship.

    We are pro Faisalabad startup consultancy, fist ever in Faisalabad, who like to encourage, motivate, inspire and polish Faisalabad young entrepreneurs.

    The cost of websites can be driven down and save you money and time.

    We are a seasoned team consisting of LUMS graduates, University of London graduates and Fulbright scholars who are Faisalabad residents.

    For further details you can contact us:

    Awais Habib 0321 474 0287
    Oneroofteam@gmail.com

    Please share your contact details so we can get in touch with you.

    Reply

  39. Ramzan Rafique its a good idea to facilitate farmer community both in yield increase and products availability at low prices

    Reply

  40. Great initiative my dear.
    A monopoly of middlemen worsen the output for farmers.
    So prayers and also back support for ur idea.

    Reply

  41. Foremost I support the great idea of Mr. Ramzan. In addition to support alone, I take this opportunity to bring about some real issues in e-marketing or providing direct access of Farmers (especially small ones) to the buyers:

    (i) The farmers produces are very fragile; they can pack it and sell it at profitable rates.
    (ii) One the produce is ready it must be sold within hours or maximum days (e.g. vegetables).
    (iii) They will never be able to reach to customers who need vegetable for their meals.
    (iv) Every crop has its own particular season and is produced in bulk quantities, that needs immediate disposal.
    (v) Customer sitting in city can’t ask farmer to provide him 1 or 5 kg vegetable within hour.
    (vi) Suppose point (v) is made possible, it means Farmer will no longer be farmer he will be a trader. He need extra labor to do this job and pay for this additional work.
    (vii) Even in developed countries, this has not been possible. I have never seen any farmer selling their fruits or vegetables directly to the customers except for very rare examples I have come across in the Europe.

    Farmer-to-Buyer Direct Access (FBDA) can be possible through better market mechanism e.g:

    (i) Fix the market place only for FBDA business. Build the huts, rent them to the farmers at very low rent where they can bring their produce, sit there and sell to the customers and go back in the afternoon.
    (ii) Only Farmers should be allowed for FBDA type arrangement. But here again nepotism will come and ruin all the set-up.

    In any case I support the cause and wish you good luck.

    Reply

    1. Dear NA Virk, Thanks for your detailed comments, you are right as you are watching an other side of the issue. Let me explain you. If a farmers buys a vegetable seeds for sowing purpose , he pays 100 times extra money as company sells to , trader, and trader sells to middle man and from middle man to farmer. where every body is adding his profit, if we minimize role of middle man every farmer can save money. On the other hand Farmers sells to middle man, and than middle man sells to market and market to the user. If we skip middle man and farmer sells directly to market, so again farmer can save some money and it would be little cheaper for end user as well. I hope this can indicate the way we are thinking on this project. Your questions and suggestions are welcome.

      Reply

  43. I’m wondering how much this project will be successful in Pakistan where most of the farmers are illiterate. With my little experience in the field and working with farmers what I observed is that majority of our farmers are not familiar with the electronic gadgets. The percentage who use smart phones and laptops would be few and hardly any one of them used internet in their life. In these circumstances its look very difficult that they will use this online facility for buying and selling their products.

    Reply

    1. Dear Ahsan, Thanks for indicating very critical issue. I have talked a lot about the same issue. As this seems a biggest hurdle. At first step our website will be working and at second step we will establish a call center facility integrated with SMS based system. I agree our farmer are bad with internet but they are quiet familiar with simple mobile phones and SMS technology. for instance for 5 crops we are selling a seed , you can get a message in your own language are you interested in best quality seed at best price at your door step. answer 1 for wheat, 2 for cucumber, 3 for chilies. and our call center may contact them and confirm their order. what do you say about this?

      Reply

  45. Dear Ramzan,
    I am Hamid Manzoor Malik from Teh. Kallar Kahar Distt Chakwal a farmer. I own 13 acers of rainfed land here in Chakwal. I grow wheat organically every year. Last year I produced 400 maunds of organic wheat. Anyways. Yes you are doing desperately needed job of the time for Pakistan. My services are always with you.
    May Allah almighty bless you.
    Best of luck.

    Reply

    1. Dear Hamid Manzoor , Thanks for your support, It means a lot for me that a practical farmer endorsing my project. Your further comments and suggestions are also welcome.

      Reply

  49. Indeed it is a great idea.
    as I myself belong to an agricultural family, I can say it will bring real change
    prays for successful execution and completion

    Reply

  51. A noble cause that will be very helpful for the farmers and in turn for the country. Hope you get all the support you need to be successful.

    Reply

  55. Hi rafiq
    This is a wonderful in fact revolutionary idea to boost up agricultural productivity and economic stability of farmers in Pakistan may Allah bless you with success

    Reply

  56. Reducing middleman’s share in farmers profit by proving them an alternative and better place to trade is a wonderful plan. It has potential to better farmers margins and will reduce their exploitation.

    Reply

  57. This is very good idea keeping in view the poor marketing policy in Pakistan. First step should be to encourage the afrmers to get used to internet based market or e-market to benefit from it.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s