Agri minister unveils mobile app for transportation of foodgrains, perishables during lockdown

Kisan Rath, a milestone in agri-produce transportation

NEW DELHI, 17 April 2020: Indian agriculture & farmers’ welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar has today launched a farmer friendly mobile application, ‘Kisan Rath’ at Krishi Bhavan today developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to facilitate farmers & traders in searching transport vehicles for Primary and Secondary transportation for movement of Agriculture & Horticulture produce.

Primary transportation would include movement from Farm to Mandis, FPO Collection Centre and Warehouses etc. Secondary Transportation would include movement from Mandis to Intra-state & Inter-state mandis, Processing units, Railway station, Warehouses and Wholesalers etc.

Speaking on the occasion, agri minister said, “While harvesting and sowing is going on amidst the lockdown, transportation will become easier with the Kisan Rath app as it will help farmers and traders for transporting produce from farm gate to mandi and mandi to mandi all over the country.”

Kisan Rath will supply linkages to farmers, warehouses, FPOs, APMC mandis

“Transportation of agri produce is critical and indispensable component of supply chain. Under the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country currently due to lockdown, “Kisan Rath” will ensure smooth and seamless supply linkages between farmers, warehouses, FPOs, APMC mandis and intra-State & inter-State buyers and help in reduction of food wastage by providing timely services. All these will contribute in better prices for perishable commodities,  agri minister added.

At this juncture while the country is passing through the COVID-19 situation, this ‘Kisan Rath’ App will greatly facilitate farmers, FPOs and Cooperatives in the country to have the choice to find a suitable transport facility to transfer their agriculture produce from farm gate to markets.   

The Mobile Application named “Kisan Rath” facilitates Farmers and Traders in identifying right mode of transportation for movement of farm produce ranging from foodgrain (cereal, coarse cereal, pulses etc), Fruits & Vegetables, oil seeds, spices, fiber crops, flowers, bamboo, log & minor forest produce, coconuts etc, the agri ministry statement said.

This App also facilitates traders in transportation of perishable commodities by Reefer (Refrigerated) vehicles.

How this mobile app works

The Consignors (farmer, FPOs, buyer/ trader) places a requirement for transportation on this app which is disseminated to transport aggregators in the market, who in turn interface with various truckers and fleet owners for obtaining a competitive quote against the requirement and passes back the quote and trucker details to the Consignor.

Thereafter, the Consignor directly negotiates off line with the trucker and finalizes the deal. Once the trip is completed, the user can provide a rating/ feedback for the trucker in the App which, over a period of time, becomes feedback mechanism for the transporter to improve their services.

This would also help the Consignors in the selection process of Logistics Service Providers in future.

The Mobile App. will be made available in eight languages in Android version initially, and is ready for pan-India use.

Will boost inter-state trade of agriculture

Tomar, speaking on the occasion, further said that ‘Kisan Rath’ mobile App. will also help in giving boost to Inter-mandi and Inter-State trade of agriculture and horticulture produce in the country. 

The Minister said that this app, with the tagline “Kisan ka apna Vahan”, is an important milestone in agri-produce transportation.

The Ministers of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Choudhary, Secretary (AC&FW), Sanjay Agarwal, Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary (Electronics and IT), Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, NIC and senior officers of the Ministry participated in the Kisan Rath mobile app launch ceremony through video conference.