May 11: Benefiting a large number of farmers across the country, the government will put up ticker display boards in major mandis to disseminate information on the spot and future prices of commodities.
“The price dissemination project endeavours to capture the prices real time. It will enable the farmers to take rational and informed decision about cropping pattern and marketing strategies, thereby increasing their income,” said a senior official in the agriculture ministry.
Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar will launch the first such display board at the Azadpur Mandi here on Wednesday. Plans are afoot to install around 2,500 such boards all over the country.
While information would be provided to the farmers in their native language across different states, another benefit would be that each mandi would have the option to display the prices of commodities in the select mandis around that area.
This, said officials, would empower the farmers and will reduce chances of his getting cheated by the middlemen operating at the mandis.
The move would also help the farmer understand which crop fetches a better price and invest accordingly, they said.
In the long run, the project will also lead to greater investment in market-related infrastructure, for example standardisation, quality testing and warehousing. Besides, the system will also help integration of rural, urban and global agricultural markets.
The project, part of the 11th five year plan, has been worked out in collaboration with the AGMARKNET, which provides physical market prices across mandis, and the future prices of all agricultural commodities.