AGRI - BUSINESS
 (Spark - Online Refereed Journal)

Kisan Ki Mandi
Dharmanand Rao Mand Rengarajan R.
 

INTRODUCTION

The word Ryot synonymous to farmer, Rythu and Kisan has gained importance during these days as the series of conflicts that has been arising in the WTO regarding agricultural trade issues.

The government has always tried to increase the farmers’ share in the consumer’s rupee, to help this requirement the government has conceived a concept of “Kisan Ki Mandi” (KKM) or “Rythu Bazaar” where the farmer takes the direct role of a seller for all his produce from the farm which includes vegetables, fruits, cereals, flowers, tubers and other horticultural produce; surpassing all intermediaries at a place called Mandi or market for the purpose. It is the farmer as a member of the Mandi help consumers by providing fresh produce or goods at a reasonable price by avoiding the middlemen and in turn gets benefited.
Recently the mushrooming of Rythu Bazaar has taken a dominant pace in southern India. The idea of establishing Kisan Ki Mandi is to create a venue for the farmers to take up the role of sellers of their own produce directly to the consumers and help consumers buy fresh produce at a comparatively lower price from the producers directly. It also helps stabilize the prices in other related markets and provide an understanding of consumer needs to the farmers which dovetail the production system to the consumer requirements.

ORGANISATION OF KISAN KI MANDI:

A four-tier system of organisation would help set the concept of Kisan Ki Mandi in place effectively over a long time frame. KKM's would effectively be operationalised below the district level in specific spots, which can service the hinterland.
It is necessary to establish an administrative unit to operate the KKM. An estate officer will be appointed along with the minimum support staff. The Mandi would be an autonomous body with the farmers as members and representatives of consumers also as members. It will be headed by a Chairman who will be the public figure and the farmer or a well-known person. Estate officer would be the member secretary of the board. A 15 member Management Committee represented by 6 farmers, 3 consumer representatives and four officials drawn from Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry & Fisheries would be established.

The KKM's, over a period of time could be more than one or two, and would coverage into Association of KKM's at the district level. All the Chairmen of the individual KKM's would be members of this Association. The basic idea here is to sort out any issues in operationalisation of the concept, help develop each other by sharing experiences apart from acting as a forum to deal jointly with the issues relating to district administration. The district association will have a small Executive Body headed by a Chairman to look after the issues.
The third level of hierarchy of the KKM's is at the State level, wherein there will be federation of KKM's. All the district chairman would be the members. All the inner KKM's related issues would be sorted out at this forum interacting with the State Government. The Minister for Marketing at the State level would be Chairman of this body with all the district Chairman as members. This would be a policy making body at the State level.

At the national level, there would be a national level federation of KKM's, wherein Union Minister of Agriculture; Govt. of India will be the Chairman and the State Ministers of Marketing as members. This would be a top most policy making body at Govt. of India level. This would promote the interest of the farmers and focus them attention the highest level.

ORGANISATION PATTERN

ADMINISTRATION OF MANDI:

An area of 5-10 Acres would be required for operating Kisan Ki Mandi in an effective manner. The local administration would earmark this area. Each farmer who is willing and interested to be the member of the Mandi will apply to the Estate Officer on a simple form in local language along with two photographs and a membership contribution. He is issued an identity card within an hour of his application which entitles him to market his produce. On each day he uses the market yard, he has to pay for the space allotted to him.
The Mandi will provide weights and measures, containers etc., on demand at a nominal charge on hiring basis to each farmer.

The supervision and maintenance of mandis’ will be done under the overall direction of the Estate Officer appointed for this purpose. The Collectors or Joint Collectors in the district will have the responsibility to appoint Estate Officer on contract basis for various mandis. Further the Estate Officer will set up the requirements of services by contracting it out to individuals or groups for the maintenance of the mandis. The operation of works like cleaning, dusting, washing, water supply etc., will have to be contracted out to individuals, groups or workers who will be available on part time basis for particular activities.

COMMODITIES HANDLED IN THE MARKET:

In the initial years it would be worthwhile to start with commodities like vegetables and fruits, which have a general demand from the consumers; and over the years there could be an increase of commodities depending upon the demand from consumers to include eggs, rice, dhal, honey, fish, meat, or any other commodities generated by the farmers. Apart from this it could also be goods, which are helpful for the consumers that are being generated by the rural artisans.

SUPPLY OF COMMODITIES:

One of the problems of organising the marketing centre is to ensure steady supply of commodities. If this does not happen, the mandi looses faith of the consumers to whom it is serving the most. Accordingly, it is necessary to appraise the flow of commodities both during season and off-season, so as to be available to the consumers. This activity requires a different production planning strategy from the point of view of farmers. Accordingly, the departments of agriculture and horticulture should take up the following activities:

(a) Identify link villages where production of the commodities is greater and it is possible to link these villages to the mandi. A total number of 40 – 50 villages have to be identified for each mandi.

(b) The next step is to identify the farmers willing to produce and market their produce at the mandi depending upon the requirements. A farmers group has to be identified and organized in each village for this purpose.

(c) As a third step it is necessary that both the departments of agriculture and horticulture develop an action plan for initiating adequate supply of commodities especially vegetables and fruits so that there is a steady flow of commodities but not glut in the market and also commodities are available in off season to maintain the price and interests of the consumers at all times. This requires specific action plan to be prepared by the departments and executed by the farmers.

FACILITIES PROVIDED/TO BE PROVIDED:

  • Arrangement for transportation

  • Space for Marketing of the produce brought by the farmers

  • Dormitory accommodation

  • Toilet and bath facilities

  • Bank

  • Extension Advisory Centers

  • Go down

  • Post Office

  • Parking Space

  • Doctor

  • Safety Locker Facility

  • Information and Communication Shops

  • Drinking water facility

  • Law and order support

  • Food Joint

  • Food Joint

  • Hairdresser

  • Veterinary Doctor

  • Readymade Garment Shops

  • Bio-gas Plant

  • Vermi compost unit

  • Input dealers

  • Service Centre

INVESTMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT:

It is envisaged that the mandi would be spread over a larger area with all the above mentioned facilities. Accordingly, an area between 3 -10 acres will have to be provided by the District Administration for the establishment of this centre. Apart from this, a one time investment of about Rs. 1 crore will have to be provided for each mandi. This is basically to develop the infrastructure and provide for all the functions to be operated. However, management and maintenance will have to be done through the funds generated by this function itself.

BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY:

To make the concept of KKM, a sustainable reality, it is necessary to build in mechanism for generating its own revenue and to meet expenditures. As such, different ways of collecting revenue would be used. Some of them are mentioned below:

(a) Farmer member has to provide membership fee for becoming member of the mandi and use its facilities. This membership is renewable every season

(b) Depending upon the utilized space by the farmer, he has to pay a daily rent to the Market Committee

(c) The service providers such as banks, extension centre etc., who occupy space will have to pay the rent to the mandi even though they may be the departments of governments, universities, private traders or corporations;

(d) Income would also be generated by hiring out facilities such as parking spots etc.

This income which is generated over the year would grow into a revolving fund which will be helpful to maintain and operate the system in an efficient manner, so that over a period of time the dependency on government funding for operational services should reduce and they become self-managed institutions.

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS OF KISAN KI MANDI:

There are many implications both direct and indirect to the farmers. As a first priority, the Mandi would help farmers to change their present role of only producers to marketers. This situation itself would help them to understand the needs and requirements of the consumers for whom they are producing these commodities. Accordingly, consumer needs and preferences would direct the farmers to replan the farm production strategy. This, however, leads to generation of demand for various types of technical skill requirement on the extension agencies. A continuation of this phenomenon would result in forcing the research system to become market oriented and demand-driven rather than continue to operate in the traditional manner. Accordingly, over a period of time it would lead to develop a market driven production, extension and research process.

Jai Kisan Jai Hind

Authored by Dharmanand Rao Mand Rengarajan R.
Students of the Post Graduate Programme in Agri-Business Management (PGPABM)
National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), Hyderabad.
Rated #4 among the best sectoral Business Schools in India (Outlook-MDRA survey September 2001).

Jai-Kisan Jai-Hind


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