Sehore (Madhya Pradesh): The e-Mandi facility launched by the government to boost efficiency among farmers in selling and buying their crops has failed for lack of staff and skill among farmers to handle the system. So, most of the work in Mandi is manually done. According to sources, nearly a fortnight has passed since the facility was launched at the Krishi Upaj Mandi in the district headquarters.
As part of the system, the farmers had to make a chit at the gate of the Krisi Mandi by paying Rs 5. Afterwards the farmers were allowed to sell their crops. The information about a farmer is available on the POS machine. When the crops were auctioned, the price and measurement of the items were entered, official sources in the Krisi Mandi said.
Several shortcomings have come to light in the system due to lack of employees. So, many farmers have preferred offline to online process to sell their crops. Another reason for the failure of the system is that many farmers do not possess smart phones and many of them do not know how to operate a smartphone.
The employees are taking too much time to register the information about the farmers and their phone numbers. Because there is a shortage of staff, the number of counters for registering the names of farmers and other information is less, but the number of farmers in the Mandi is increasing with each passing day. Farmers are facing problems with the traders and weighing machines.
Mandi Sachiv of Krisi Upaj Mandi in Sehore Narendra Meshram said there had always been a lack of staff in the Mandi. The e-Mandi facility was launched as a pilot project, but because the system is new, the farmers are taking time to handle it, Meshram said. Once the details are fed in the system, a farmer only has to tell his mobile number, crop and the amount of produce, he said.
 (1).jpg)