GFAR blog

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

Peter Casier

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.

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“YAP” is part of the #GCARD3 process, the third Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development.

Published by Peter Casier

280 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

    1. Thanks for your compliments dear Kashan, I wish you write your comments in English so internationally people can understand your kind gestures for this project.

      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

  32. I belong to an agricultural family and I know that this is a great idea for Pakistani farmers
    Wish you all the best for your success.

    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

    1. Thanks Dear Awais Habib and team one roof, we can sit together and may find ways to implement this project in Pakistan, Thanks for your offer and services.

      Reply

  38. Attention: Ramzan Raffique:

    https:// m.facebook.com/ONE-ROOF-Academic-Clinic-1506887516290224/

    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

    2. Dear Ramzan,
      this is an innovative step towards agriculture modernization in Pakistan.
      You have pointed an important issues. Its all about value chain- starting from farmer fields to the dinning table and from industry to the farmers. I have an experienced from developing countries of South East Asia, where avarage farmers landholding is less than half hactare but they have developed a strong cooperation for managing practices, purchase of inputs and product export to the market. Majority of the farmers are Educated and have access and understanding of new technology. I would say in Pakistan, majority of farmers are uneducated and even some dont know the use of Mobiles. I think you should also think about farmers training workshops, advertisements etc. to send the nobel message to the remote areas as well. It would also be great if we can train the farmers to develop cooperation among them, because small farmer can not afford all inputs alone. Altogather, the project is innovative and very interesting for agriculture development in pakistan.

      Good Luck!

      Reply

      1. Thanks Azeem for your feedback, we will love to share knowledge and new technology to our farmers. Our farmers have access to mobile phones we want to establish a system integrated with simple phones where they can buy their inputs at good price at their door steps.

  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

    1. Dear Baber, Our farmer is now at the edge of technology, they are using mobile phones, in future i can see smart phones as well and then we must have something to reshape existing techniques .

      Reply

      1. Yes sir you are right, Pakistan is the leading country in terms of smart phone induction. What else you can do is to take some NGOs on board which are working in rural area so that your message and e-marketing concept reaches to farmers.

  61. may ur efforts bear fruit me student of botany if there is any need of volunteer u can contact .
    keept it up ZBRDAST

    Reply

  63. I believe it would be real justice to the farmers by making their access directly to market and also justice to buyers. I think its a great step to fulfill the gap between farmer and market and discouraging the role of Middleman. Great initiative, best of luck !

    Reply

  64. I believe it would be a real justice to farmers and also to buyers for making their access directly to market and discouraging the role of middleman. Great initiative to fulfill the gap between farmer and market.
    Best of luck !

    Reply

  65. Its a revolutionary project that will help to eradicate the exploitation of farmers hard work by middlemen. This will not only help financial but social augmentation of the local people. It will also boost their confidence to get familiar with new techniques and implementations of e-marketing.

    Reply

  66. first of all its great idea because for Pakistani farmers that type of project are important and ur idea is about reducing middleman’s share in farmers profit but sir as u said our farmers are uneducated so you should adopt that type of practices in your project in which farmers should have to know about their benefits and losses and through website how they can take benefits from ur ideas because internet and all that awareness not in their approach .u should arrange and organize training in local languages and make a team to meet farmers and listen their problems first. well best of luck.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Ayesha for your comments , Thanks for reminding local language barrier. being son of the soil i know well about language and limitations, through our extension programme we may teach farmers how to use or order their inputs in easy steps. it would be just dialing a phone.

      Reply

  70. This should be a community effort in which agriculture students/professionals can educate about use of website/mobile app as a community service/ internships. An android app is an option here (future expansion).

    Reply

    1. Thanks for your comments , we can add selling and buying from dairy sector too, but it could be in next phase. any way thank you for your kind suggestion

      Reply

  75. Dear Ramzan,
    this is an innovative step towards agriculture modernization in Pakistan.
    You have pointed an important issues. Its all about value chain- starting from farmer fields to the dinning table and from industry to the farmers. I have an experienced from developing countries of South East Asia, where avarage farmers landholding is less than half hactare but they have developed a strong cooperation for managing practices, purchase of inputs and product export to the market. Majority of the farmers are Educated and have access and understanding of new technology. I would say in Pakistan, majority of farmers are uneducated and even some dont know the use of Mobiles. I think you should also think about farmers training workshops, advertisements etc. to send the nobel message to the remote areas as well. It would also be great if we can train the farmers to develop cooperation among them, because small farmer can not afford all inputs alone. Altogather, the project is innovative and very interesting for agriculture development in pakistan.

    Good Luck!

    Reply

  76. The intention matters all,.Allah’s help is the best, always and only the most rewarding,.Noble Intention equipped with awareness through proper information about the existing culture and myths prevailing in society, one can plan and organize (work out) its short term and long term goals by defining and scheduling each steps in precise manner through in depth knowledge,..NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE,..its off course a team effort comprised dedicated and noble people,..As far as i know, the existing prevailing system stinks with rotten and sluggish people at high command,..the need is to take the system in our own hand, or alternately make our own system,..Firstly, the middle man (nakatooo makhian) are in every department of Pakistan,..and the ignorance of common hard working people is killing them at all the stages of life,..Now the smart work is required not hard work,..Firstly never think that the government (to govern on metal states of people) not exactly people but sheep,.will do anything for us,..its a slave mind approach,..we are ourselves the cause of our destruction and anxiety,..i have observed at a v small scale that the middle man has so much influence on common and poor farmers and shopkeepers that it blew my mind,..i myself tried to bring commercial vegetables directly in vegetables market shops but they said we are reluctant to take ours because if somehow the middle man in mandi gets this information about me purchasing from your,.next time i will be in trouble,.it was a bad experience but i feel if we could market and slowly increasing its number on response it would be a very great to interact directly with the farmers produce,..alternately on internet is also workable by appointing some staff who could start with persuading and insuring the farmers that the next time we will again be available to purchase from you and always be,.we can explain them the whole theme in for future,..the internet would definitely play an open and clear role in this regard by everyone have access at the rates and destinations all the time and suggestions and opinions as well,..it will work for sure,.and i am very confident about it as it is noble cause and it will banish the evil from society,..need to work actively and make evil passive by hindering its all means and modes,..WISH YOU ALL THE BEST,…I AM WITH YOU ALL THE TIME IN THIS REGARD,..NIP THE EVIL FROM THE BUD,..AMEEEN

    Reply

    1. Thanks for understanding need of the project. Middle man is harvesting all the benefits and farmers are forced to buy and sell their produce to same person. So must provide a plate-forum where people can find alternative for buying and selling needs. And I am sure by means of internet we can provide them such a place that can reshape whole existing landscape.

      Reply

  80. Dear Ramzan Rafique. We see online service providers such as ebay, amazon, alibaba, aliexpress bring sellers and buyers online platform by eliminating third or fourth party middlemen. Misuse of such forums becomes a real challenge as their viewership increases. Much appreciated, stay blessed.

    Reply

  81. Currently, There is need to update database regarding agriculture and the idea by Ramzan Rafique plays an important role for boosting Pakistan agricultural scenario by eliminating middleman. Good Luck!

    Reply

  83. Very innovative idea and I think farmers in Pakistan badly need this as mostly they don’t get the money reflecting their hard work. Only thing I would say how farmers in extreme rural area will access this web as might not have access to computer /internet. Beleive some sort of out reaching programme in combination with this might be more helpful for them

    Reply

    1. Dear Atif Chishti , Thanks for your time, your question and thought are very relevant, our farmers have not access to internet but they have access to mobile phones, we will integrate our web system with mobile phones and will educate farmers how to take help from these innovations.

      Reply

  84. A good initiative to enhance the market linkages and develop a value chain process. Any service reuired from my side? i am available.

    Reply

  85. Dear Mr. Ramzan Rafique

    Since you are a positive and active part in motivational social activities, hence your struggle for agriculture is absolutely blessing in a society where farmers are most ignored community.

    We might have some best agricultural institutes, workshops or even universities in our country, but we have never seen any useful outcomes from those for a long time.

    In such circumstances, your ideas are like fresh oxygen and worth to adopt. I highly appreciate your work, support you from the depth of my heart and wish you all the success. Stay blessed.

    Reply

    1. Dear Muhammad Saleem, Thank you for your kind words for this project. yes our farmers are most ignored ones though most of the population depends upon agriculture but still farmers are suffering the most. I hope our project can help such farmers.

      Reply

  86. It is a very good initiative, our organization can support your cause by developing a mobile VAS service. You can communicate Pakistani Farmers through this VAS service and can help them to make better decisions

    Reply

    1. Thank you very much dear Ali Asghar, and thank you for your telephone call as well, You services to make this project a reality is highly appreciable. I hope we will keep in touch and will work together on this project.

      Reply

  87. This ideology is better, good to sound, but I have a suggestion that majority of farmers are uneducated, so they don’t know how to use this e market, emandi….? so I think we should manage this issue by educating this majority of farmers, or providing a facility to this community in each tehsil, town.
    All the best and stay blessed

    Reply

  89. Thats a great idea, but you have to keep it in mind that most of the farmers are poor and they always buy things on credit. so they are bound to sell their Products to the same middleman (as you have mentioned). My concern is how you would solve this problem of supplying them inputs on cash when they dont have money (reality) during the crop growing season. it would be a great Challenge. Might be involving local people or erstablishing some local contact centers at the 1st step could help to establish a link with farmers and by winning their trust and then later on gradually eliminating the role of local people or centers could help to achieve the traget at the 2nd step.

    Reply

    1. Dear Shahid , Thank you for your question. Farmers are poor they don,t have money to buy inputs, but ultimately they have to pay. In this way they will get 600 times less price than credit price so I hope poor farmers will get benefit from it. Yes we are also thinking to establish contact centers as well.

      Reply

  91. Dear Ramzan Rafique
    Its a very valueable project in favour of Pak farming community, such integrated efforts in are of agriculture was highly demanded. And the key aspect is that such activity is carried out by private organization….it will lead the conceot of public R&D and Market communication and will be free from interests of market exploiters. Such project is also needed toward poultry livestock as well. And on next you can link such emandies with international emandis as well
    Our full support is with this project.
    Good Luck.
    Regards,
    Raja

    Reply

    1. Dear Raja , Thank you for your time , we might thing to include poultry and dairy at certain levels.Regarding you suggestion to collaborate with international markets

      Reply

  93. Dear Ramzan, I appreciate your efforts as a step towards the agricultural mandi reform system, I have been engaged for the Agricultural Market reforms with USAID project and now a days a project with the name of PEEP is also working on it. We did the efforts for the Mandi distortions and the bill was approved by the Sindh Assembly but not by the Punjab assembly. We are waiting for the same.
    Its not an easy way to get the it done because under the banner of ICT with USAID we tried it in Swat but still no success. We have to realize the food and feed security of small and medium farmers. Please share your plan of work and statement of work for better understanding of the project. I am available for this national cause to contribute.

    Reply

    1. Dear Waqar sb, It is my pleasure to see your feed back on this project. I know this is not an easy task, I would like to take advantage of your work on similar lines, I will visit you soon to talk about the project. Thanks again for your time.

      Reply

  94. It’s an innovative concept of connecting buyers & sellers by providing them an E-platform in Pakistan. Pakistan is an Agricultural country. But most of buying & selling of Agricultural products is done via middle man. The end result of this old exploitive way of buying & selling the Agri. goods is a huge economical loss for small farmers. I did appreciate to Ramzan Rafique for giving a new internet based idea for finishing the role of middle man & shortening the monetary loss to farmers. But, I also do think when this project will be introduced to the farmers & the purchasers, the following initial constraints should be keep in mind:
    1) Internet facility is not widely available and or used in village areas in Pakistan.
    2) Most of small farmers are illeterate, and initially it will be very hard for them to accept & learn use of internet based Mandi/Agri market.

    However, I strongly beleive this concept would be a breaktrough for Agriculture in Pakistan to transfer traditional, exploitive system of buying & selling to a more modernized & directly connected Electronic Agriculture Market. I do also congratulate to the organizers of this competetion. All the best wishes for Ramzan.

    Best regards,
    Mian Shams Rauf

    Reply

    1. Dear Mian Shams , Thank for your brief comments about issue. Regarding your first question internet will be used but we will not depend it totally on internet , Our farmers have simple cell phones, We are working with a company that have experience in mobile technology, and you know mobile services are available throughout country. For your second question if you hear a statement in your language and you have to push simple 1, 2 3 buttons what would you say about that? This is future in Agriculture, I hope we manage to do it practically.

      Reply

  96. I hope that this would end the tyranny of the people who cut off the true worth of farmers work. Despite being a student of Arts i find it amazing and to a great extent applicable.This might be the most innovative idea i have come across liberating the agricultural producers from the hands of exploiters and white collar middlemen. Yet, its implementation demands hard work also. My bet wishes are with you on this project. Way to go.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for your comments Zunaira , It is like starting a war against mafia, I hope by completing this project we would be able to reshape existing landscape of agricultural industry in Pakistan.

      Reply

  97. Brilliant idea but i have some reservations about its working as you see that farmers are hardly educated enough to tune a radio or even watch TV or even to read newspaper. This is a bit hard to get them towards E Marketing and as you know that there are a big number of websites and e-marketing platforms that being used against the morals. I mean they are using for fraud and cyber crimes. So, still i say that Idea is extremely good since the farmer lose great share of his profit to various barriers. Especially in Government platform. Kindly elaborate the working of this project also so that one can easily work on that.

    Reply

    1. Dear Qudsia, Thanks for your time, I belong to an agricultural family and know practically whats happening with farmers, I hope we can built a repute to give quality products to farmers, Our farmers are uneducated but they can operate a phone.

      Reply

  99. Great Initiative MR. Ramzan Rafiq
    EMandi.pk can really serve as a good resource for trading as a platform but for those who have access to internet so we may need to make some sub offices or franchises with emandi or kiosks for farmers where they can fulfill heir need and can communicate in local language.
    YPARD Pakistan where i am serving as local representative can help in shaping this idea and materialize the concept. Wish you good luck for competition.

    Reply

    1. Great , good to know that you are working as local representative of YAPARD Pakistan, yes sure i will talk with you for implementing this project. we are considering making some local communication centers as well.

      Reply

  102. i like this project as this is addressing a very specific aspect that can change whole game plan in the interest of farmers. Having farmers strengthen will create a huge impact on society as crops cost to market will be reduced as well. On top of strong project idea, I think a competent team is behind to make it successful… Full support !

    Reply

  103. Dear Ramzan Rafique, I have two issues with this idea, first, farmers have financial problem and they have no ability to buy inputs from market by competitive price. If they have sufficient income, then they must seek some alternates of middlemen, Currently, in some district of punjab, some farmers buy their inputs on credit from middleman and pay after selling their outputs to the same person or other. How we can minimize this factor, Bank credit rate is same as have middleman? Secondly, If you reduce the roll of middleman, what can you suggest the alternate to the middleman (regarding income generation). I thinks, these are two major constrains of this project?

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    1. Dear Dr.Yasin, Thanks for comments, First of all I want to let you know we will be providing inputs at lower prices not on market price as we have connection with the producers, If you provide inputs 500 times lesser in price why people go for credit. Regarding your concern for middle , these are already rich people and they have earned enough to stay in market and make profit, Even big farmers are middle men, they can focus in producing more crops.

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  104. I read the idea. Though the idea is well appreciated but it has some ambiguities. Who will pay the transportation costs??either farmer or the company?, secondly, according to survey more than 90 percent farmers do not have access to social network due to absence of internet or others, how will they put order and how will they choose as well. Thirdly, confidence and awareness between farmers and companies. But overall approach is fabulous. I admire you as you are working good to boost agriculture system.Stay blessed 🙂

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    1. Dear Manzoor , Thank you for comments, Off course buyers will pay transportation charges but due to huge difference of profit margin of middleman , i am sure farmer will get a very good price even after paying transportation charges, secondly social media will not be used as marketing tool. we will use simple mobile phoes and you know very well now almost every one have mobile devices.

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  105. Dear ramzan, its wonderful start. its like gathering producer and buyer under one roof and channelize flow of information, thats practical in our situation. as far as role of middle man is concerned, I think it cant be eradicated completely bcoz, middleman also is a financer. its simple rule that investors will take its share. so to eradicate middleman, you need to provide interest free loans to small farmers on short term basis to improve them within 2 t 3 years. the role of middleman will automatically get squeezed.

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    1. Dear Aamir , Its great idea that we can offer interest free loan to some very poor farmers, Thanks for adding a very good point. we are determined to help farmers and i hope we can do it.

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  107. Dear Brother Ramzan
    Actually this proposal will some how fulfillment the gap between farmers and upcoming technology. It is definitely reduce the cost of seed when some one directly provide the required crop seed at their door step. In this regard i want to give one suggestion, may be it work
    Make the one mobile application which contain all the information regarding agriculture. When any body need any information, any sample of seed or any disease related treatment they have easy access…For purchasing purpose, they can order by using that mobile application

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    1. Dear Sadaf , Thank you for your time , yes we are already considering mobile application along with our project. Thanks for good suggestions , i hope farmers can get benefit from our product.

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  108. Its a wonderful effort to reduce the role of middle men in the agricultural sector in Pakistan. I would be also be nice to launch a mobile app so that more and more farmers may use. However, illiteracy may be an issue to deal with and to make this project successful. Wish you all the best from Germany

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    1. Dear Muhammad , Thanks for your comments, we are already considering education gap, so we will integrate mobile system and app with local languages as well. I hope this will help the farmers.

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  109. Dear Ramzan rafiq …
    In Pakistan we dnt have any proper system for marketing of Agriculture commodity’s, I Already done a pilot project on fruits and vegetables marketing at Lahore and Islamabad , and got excellent response from consumers. It’s real need of our market.. Best wishes for your project…

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    1. Dear Mohsin Malik , Thank you for sharing your success story from Pakistani cities, but you know situation could be difficult in villages, so we are ready for that, you are welcome to share more detailed experience with us.

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  110. Dear Ramzaan,
    Thanks for the most wanted issue to be worked upon in Pakistan. The role of middleman should be minimized as much as possible. The farmer suffer alot due to non accessibility to the direct market. Market should work upon the free market principle where both producers and consumers have free access to get the real market price that is beneficial to both farmer and consumer. Good luck and keep on going with new ideas.

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    1. Dear Zahid, people involved in agriculture know very well that this issue should be solved, as rich people involved so no body is taking a pain for poor farmers, my project wish to make a difference and want to provide free access to everyone to free market.

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  111. Great work Ramzan Sb,I thick majority of our farmers are illiterate and they don’t have access to internet and even know nothing about it.And your second suggestion to aware the farmers with SMS service is awesome and put your best efforts to minimize the role of a middle man.Please carry on and keep it up.

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    1. Dear Asif , Thanks for your comments, we gonna make SMS channel and will integrate some other technologies where you can even order chosen products by pressing 1,2 3 digits .

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  115. Nice effort which will help poor farmers getting out of poverty. It will help in decreasing transaction cost and the availability of quality inputs. On the other hand, farmers will be able to sell their produce directly to the buyers or retailers which help eliminating price gaps created by middle men. This can be an excellent project for uplifting farmers’ economic conditions.

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  117. Although it is really good project but i have some concerns over ‘E’ market thinking about literacy rate and internet access to local farmers. I didnt read prevous comments so i am sure someone already have raised this point.
    Best of luck

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    1. Dear Ali, I wish you read above comments as well, we are already considering the fact that our farmers are less educated. But every body agrees they can use and operate a simple cell phone.

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  119. AOA Ramzan sb. This is very good innovative idea for the farmers who want to get rid of the conventional commission agent system. Poor farmers are always revolving around them to get the inputs and are forced to sell their produce by them. While doing this they don’t get the quality inputs and while selling the produce they get nothing. I think now this is enough and it is the time to change the system by our agri educated people. Wish u best of luck for the project and good wishes for agricultural industry.

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    1. Dear Ulfat, Thank you very much for reviewing the whole idea. Thank you for believing in this idea. I hope by this idea we can contribute in poor farmers lives.

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  120. very good proposal , but kindly do conduct seminars in villages to educate farmers regarding E-mandi so that they can understand the concept and have better access to this facility.

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  123. Well Done Ramzan Bhai. it is a great initiative and will surly fill the gap between farmers and the buyers..Keep it up…..

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  124. This is like entrepreneurial project. I wish you good luck and pray for the success of your efforts. I would say this is the right project for agricultural country Pakistan.

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  127. This is really a great step as everything now a days is linked to the Internet. So if we succeeding this matter it will really be a great favor towards the suffering farmers community. I’m from an agricultural family and I know what benefits the producer is getting and the perks which the commission agents are enjoying. So my all supports are with you people.

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    1. Dear Zohaib Thanks for your time for comments, I appreciate the fact agricultural community of my country is supporting my project. As they are suffering the most from middle man mafia.

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  129. I very much like your sms enabled services. Even though most farmers have access to mobile phones, not all have access to smart phones or an internet connection at all times. This is where you SMS system will work best. When signing up a farmer you can ask them about their interests and update them on those with bi-weekly/weekly SMSs on price developments, market situation, best time for seeding, emerging weather patterns that they should be aware of given their location and crop they want to invest in.

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  133. The project contains some novel ideas. The good aspect is that it is focusing on benefiting the poor farming community. The execution of such project will ease the marketing of their production, consumers on the other hand will have more chances to get fresh farm products. Best of luck to the author of this project.

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  134. In my view, this is a need based and innovative idea presented by Muhammad Ramzan. Involvement of middle man in agricultural input and output marketing deprive the profits of the farmers. Some study reveals that in some cases middle man gets more profit by undermining the profit of the farmer in the marketing process of agri. commodities. So, It is need of the hour to minimize the role of middle man and the curent project proposal has potential to address this issue. More over, in Pakistan, the seed sector has been monopolized and it is working as curtail. Seed agents mislead farmers in the name of unapproved new varieties and charges even 2-4 time more cost as compared to approved varieties. It can be safely stated that more then 70% cotton crop area remained under the cover of unapproved seed. So, it is very important to provide farmers, the approved and pure seed and the current project intended to work in this regard.
    Keeping in view the above contents, it strongly recommend this project for its approval.

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  135. It is dire need of the way to support agriculture procedures and to facilitate them with market access. Once the proposal will get mature, I am optimistic that it will bring a tangible change in agriculture of Pakistan. It is very important to strengthen the agriculture sector of coutry for a sustainable economic development.

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  136. Dear Ramzan
    Nice to know your innovative idea for marketing in agribusiness. Agricultural markets are so badly distorted by the middle men that the whole system of production, and sustainability of agriculture sector of economy is undermined by these distortions. The farmers are many a time reluctant to grow more onnly bauacuse previous years of marketing their produce were bad. Similarly the hoarding, adulteration of inputs is another problem. Your program is likely to provide an open market where both sellers and buyers can launch their commodities, and try to seek the clients on competitive prices as well as quality. I strongly support the idea for grant of funds.

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  139. It is great to see such a nice concept for reducing the role of middleman. The poor farmers lose their profit only because there is no system to market their produce without the middleman. This problem is forcing the rural community to quit the agriculture as business.

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  143. This is a good effort to make the farmer aware and help Pakistan to utilize its potential. Wish you very good luck.

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  145. Very innovative idea for marketing the agricultural products. Will surpass the middle man monopoly as well.
    Wish you all the best for the welfare of farmers and community.

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  146. It seems an excellent and workable project. It can enhance the agricultural productivity, utilization and price control as well as reduce the post-production waste or losses.
    Novel idea and must be employed particularly in developing countries like Pakistan.,.,
    Keep it up Dear Ramzan Rafique !

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  147. In Pakistan farmers are facing problems in getting the quality raw material and good price of their produce. Agricultural marketing through internet may give them a better chance of selling their products on better prices. I wish you all the best for this project and I believe your efforts will improve life status of farming community in Pakistan.

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  148. I think this project will be a milestone. It will change the lifestyle of our country’s deprived farming community. I predict a bright future of a common farmer.

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  149. A very great effort to support low income farmer of a third world country. I highly appriciate this your endavour and praying for ur success. Very hopefull for positive outcome of your proposal.

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  152. I am thankful for this tremendous effort you are doing for the betterment of a truly agricultural Pakistan. You come up with a unique concept wich shows your intellectual thinking as well as love for the land. I wish you all the best for this project and assure my support all the way.

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  155. The concept of e-marketing is not new in the world but it’s really novel in case of agri-farming community, especially in Pakistan as middle man is getting the maximum profit and both seller and the buyer are in loss. However, there is also need to teach the farmers who illiterate to use these e-marketing sources. I strongly support this new and an innovative way and strongly recommend to the funding authority to fund this highly important proposal.

    Dr. M. Binyameen
    Agriculture Scientist

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    1. Dear Dr.M. Binyameen , Thank you for your time, Thanks for supporting the idea as in Pakistani agricultural community every one knows the role of middle man and we wish to minimize this role.

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  157. I will suggest an involvement of major agri input providers from very beginning. Separate links for websites to the individual companies can be provided to change or update prices and product range by themselves on regular basis. A separate web application can be developed to compare the prices once you enter the generic name (Agri chemicals) or variety name (Seeds) etc.

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