More than 3 lakh farmers join India Inc

Since it kicked off eight months ago, the portal - "Krishidoot" - has received 35,000 queries. Farmers have sold 13,000 quintals of produce such as grain, vegetables, flowers and soyabean, worth Rs 2.5 crore, to their online buyers. And made up to 18% more money than before. In return, farmers are buying seeds, pesticides, crop insurance, godown space and even personal loans from the same portal. In 10 states where it is working, the APMC Act permits a corporate to buy directly from the FPO under a special license. The sheer convenience has made it a winning concept. Queries can be texted, leaving no need for a computer. These are instantly matched with buyer demands. Reuters Market Light, which runs the portal on behalf of the Small Farmers Agri-business Consortium, a government-owned incubation company, follows up with personal calls to each party. The rest of the transaction - price, quality, delivery - is decided by buyer and seller offline on terms that are invariably better than usual. Easy. Efficient. Value-for-money. The techno-savvy supply chain for farm produce.