In a major milestone to empower India’s farmers and transform the farm sector practices, Jharkhand-based leading agro-technology player KissanPro has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Barakat Vegetables & Fruit Co, Dubai, UAE to facilitate market access to as far as Middle East for their agricultural produces. With this initiative, the tillers would be able to supply farm produces directly from their farm to warehouses located across India and also to the UAE and countries in Middle East. The initiative will provide dual benefit to the farmers: 1) providing direct access to the global markets and 2) removing the bottlenecks in the supply chain such as middlemen and commission agents who eat into farmers’ profitability while acting as a conduit between farmers and traders.
The latest initiative from KissanPro is in sync with the New Farm Laws passed by the Government of India to help farmers get the right price for their farm produce. KissanPro’s farmer-centric initiative is aimed at creating an ecosystem where the farmers can enjoy the freedom of choice relating to the sale of their produce. The Central Farm Laws provide additional marketing opportunities outside the APMC market yards and the MoU signed with the Dubai-based Barakat Vegetables & Fruit Co strives to facilitate the same.
This landmark development facilitates doubling of farm income in India by way of improved market access for the farmers. Commenting on the development, Ravindra Dasoundhi, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, KissanPro, said, “We as a team are very excited about this key milestone towards establishing food corridors between our State to various international cities. This is just the starting point and I am sure it will bring happiness for our farmers. This is a win-win proposition for both the parties. Sharing right information and data will help us in doing a demand-based crop planning which eventually will help our farmers to get better price realization, and Barakat to get the right product at right time at the right price.”
“UAE-based Barakat Vegetables import fresh produce from over 30 countries but the share of fresh produce imported from India is merely 4% while UAE has over 38 per cent of its population as Indians, which gives us promising opportunity to export more to UAE and increase India’s share in their overall fresh produce imports. We can do it by establishing right supply chain and ensuring we offer the scientifically grown produces with best agri-practices and superior quality which surpasses the quality standards of other international markets. This is the key to success here,” said Ravindra Dasoundhi.
“Directly linking our farms to international buyers is one of the core areas we are working on and multiple such agreements are under the process of getting signed,” he said. The company also invests in value addition infrastructure closer to the farm gate, thereby creating more employment opportunities in the sector. KissanPro has identified first and foremost constraint for the long-term growth of India’s agriculture sector i.e. agriculture marketing. Technology in cultivation has helped India to achieve food security, but modernisation in supply-chain and use of tech tools for agriculture marketing is the need-of-the-hour.
