Cropfit, the unique mobile app developed by farmers, is all set for soft launch on May 25. Farmers can list items like vegetables, fruits, flowers, spices, pulses, grains, fibre, forest produces and oil seeds in the app in the Phase-I.
“All these products can be listed under two categories - organic or not - to encourage agro-ecology practices,” says Cropfit Mobile App co-founder Aswini Ganesan. These categories can be enquired by traders based on grade, location and date wise. Besides, all categories are available for bidding, she said.
Noting that product grade input is mandator, she told Rural Voice that this will push sellers to cultivate better quality produces to compete in both domestic and international market. “Our system will track genuine good quality sellers and help them with export opportunities through feedback from co-farmers and traders,” she explained. Feedback is very, very important. “Based on users’ feedback, we will fine tune the features to its best,” she said. Nilgiri MP A Raja will release the app in a fuction on May 25, she said.
Kannaian Subramaniam is the second co-founder of Thalavady Farmers Foundation. Cropfit will be run on a pilot mode in Thalavady, a taluka in Erode district of Tamil Nadu, and a few districts around it in western Tamil Nadu. The app will be scaled up later. “After Thalavady, we are planning a series of launches in all districts of Tamil Nadu, before proceeding to Karnataka and then to Kerala,” Subramaniam said.
While other apps mainly focus on the traders and how they can benefit them and the mandis, the prime focus of Cropfit – an app of the farmers, for the farmers, by the farmers - is on the farmers and their benefits because the app has been developed by farmers. It will have an algorithm such that no bidders can bid below MSP. This app will ensure that farmers do not find themselves at the receiving end when they sell their crops. Its algorithm will be such that no bidder can bid below the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
Says Ganesan, “This mobile app is about linking the farmers and the traders and creating a very healthy ecosystem. The farmers are the stakeholders.” Cropfit is a mobile application that can run on both Android and iOS. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t bring the iOS version live yet,” Ganesan said.
What makes the app unique? Says Aswini: “There are a lot of applications. But other apps mainly focus on the traders and how they can benefit the traders, mandis, etc. We are mainly focusing on the farmers and the benefits of the farmers because the app is being developed by farmers.”
Subramaniam, the other co-founder, Subramaniam, who is also the General Secretary of the South Indian Coordination Committee of the Farmers’ Movement, expounds on the app: “There are hundreds of apps like this. But this is unique. We are trying farmers to list whatever they produce. The farmers are not always sellers; they are also buyers. We promote one farmer buying from another. Besides, crops, cereals and livestock are all there in one app.” Adds Kannaiyan, “This app will have bidding also. That is a unique feature. And the bidding will start from the MSP.” Aswini adds, “The algorithm works in such a way that none of the bidders can bid below the MSP.”
Transparency, feels Kannaiyan, is another plus point of this app. “We would like to add features in the future to keep records of the transactions by the farmers. At present, the farmers do not get any sort of billing vouchers properly. In many places, trading is done without any records as it is not taxable.”
There will be another kind of transparency, too. At present, “who is having what is not known to the next door. Even the farmers do not know what their co-farmers are producing. As a result, middlemen come in and the costs go higher. This app will address that gap.” Besides, it will be possible to transact with the banks through the Cropfit app. The payments will be done online through a payment gateway.
Thalavady Farmers Foundation is a non-profit organisation under Section 8 of the Companies Act. The mission of the Foundation is to provide various kinds of support to the farmers and the traders at large. Aswini has an experience of a dozen years in IT services. In 2019, however, her passion for agriculture made her leave her comfort in Copenhagen. And she moved to India. She came to know that farmers with small landholdings and tenant farmers were still in a pitiable situation. Wanting to be a part of the solution, she believes that the advancement of technology along with digitalisation can make agriculture more profitable for producers.
How does the app link the farmers and the traders? “We are creating buyers and leads and giving advisory services to farmers. There are credit options for buyers. We are also planning to bring in selling livestock online.” Of course, funding and investment are important, admit the developers. But this app is again different. Other apps get a lot of angel investment and other private investments, but then that is for profit. Cropfit also looks for support from business houses, government and non-government foundations but not with a profit motive.
“As of now, we don’t want to bring in so many things. There is an impressive network of input dealers across the country. Both synthetic and non-synthetic things are there. But we would like to exchange organic inputs. For example, a poultry farmer who has organic manure can list his produce and farmers can buy it” Says Kannaiyan.
The developers of Cropfit also want to create a category where farmers can exchange seeds among themselves and also exchange knowledge on the community platform. “This is our comprehensive plan.”
Efforts are on to link farmers to the Cropfit app. The Thalavady Farmers Foundation is physically going to the farmers, deploying volunteers to reach out to the farmers, download the application and commission it. It goes without saying that Kannaian’s own influence will also help increase the number of subscribers to the app. He is well-connected with farmers in South India and even the rest of the country.