Percentage of households having mobile phones in Andhra Pradesh is lesser than National average. In India 5.32% households have mobile phones, whereas in Andhra the figure is at only 4.5%. Yet, the Government of Andhra Pradesh and US global payment and technology company Mastercard have introduced e-Rythu (e-farmer in Telugu), a mobile platform that digitizes agriculture marketplace on September 12, 2018. The app provides farmers an easy and secure way to buy, sell and receive payments for agricultural products.

Agriculture has been the chief source of income and main occupation for the state with 60% of population engaged in agriculture and related activities. The app is helpful in number of ways-

1. E-Rythu does not require a smartphone. Only 340 million people in India own smartphones that too only 18% of them are from rural area. It is easier for the farmers (mostly illiterate or without any formal education) to use a cheaper feature phone with lesser intricacies to avail the application.
2. The app targets small and medium farmers. Small scale production and long travel distance from the places where the farmers sell, most of these small and medium farmers in Andhra suffer income losses. An app like e-Rythu is helpful indeed to financially include the farmers digitally.
3. The app operates in local language. It will not be too difficult for a farmer, who owns a feature phone to connect with potential buyers though E-Rythu and to get best possible price for their crop.
4. The farmers do not have a formal credit history. Accessing any formal financial service is difficult for them. The platform will enable farmers to access formal credits from banks and other financial institutions.
5. Farmers in India do not maintain a Farmer’s Diary. At the end of a season, it gets difficult for them to account how much they have produced, how much they have sold and how much they have earned. However, with an app like E-Rythu accounting for production and earning will become easier for the farmers.
6. Horticulture market in Andhra will become more transparent to sellers, buyers and other stakeholders.

With its commercial launch expected soon, , E-Rythu will be first implemented by fresh produce supply chain company Lawrencedale Agro Processing India Ltd (LEAF), and four FPOs, namely LEAF Lambasinghi Horticulture Farmers Producers Cooperative Society Limited, Visakhapatnam, Chicacole Coconut Farmers Producer Company, Srikakulam, Giri Chaitanya Farming and Marketing Mutually Aided Cooperative Society Ltd, Visakhapatnam and Andhra Kashmir Farmers Producer Organization (Grijana Vikas Foundation), Visakhapatnam.

The app aims to include one million horticulture farmers and over 300 farmer producer organizations in the state to generate cashless farm ecosystem. Mastercard Lab in Nairobi, Kenya has taken a similar initiative with 2Kuze application in Africa and have been successful in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania previously. We can hope for success of such an E-farmer app in Andhra Pradesh and eventually in other Indian states as well.

Click on the link to check for top 10 Apps that have revolutionized Indian agriculture.