In a first, the Agriculture department in Keralam has launched an integrated digital mechanism at the special Onam markets that will enable prompt payments to farmers for their produce, and also grade the markets in terms of sales turnover and efficiency.
The integrated digital mechanism permits the department to keep track of all activities right from the procurement from farmers to the sales through the Onam markets. It also allows direct benefit transfer (DBT) of the payment to the farmers’ bank accounts without delay, the department said.
Special Secretary (Agriculture) T.V. Subhash launched the digital system.
To encourage efficiency
The special markets are also being graded as ‘A,’ ‘B’ and ‘C’ in terms of their sales turnover and marketing efficiency this festival season. The grading is aimed at encouraging efficiency and building healthy competition among the markets.
