An innovative initiative by India's leading commodity bourse -- the Multi-Commodity Exchange -- in collaboration with India's Postal Department is making farmers and traders in rural India 'richer.'

Gramin Suvidha Kendra, a joint initiative of MCX and India Post, was launched on April 13 at Dhamangaon sub-post office, 55 km away from Amravati in Maharashtra.

There was a training session at the post office, which was attended by all branch postmasters under Dhamangaon and farmers of these villages.

This is just one of the dozens such similar exercises that MCX has planned to conduct across the rural belt provide market information, warehousing, advisory and agri-input needs of farmers.

MCX officials said the services offered through India Post alliance would make it possible for farmers to avail of, among other things, expert advice on farm-related issues, better market price for their produce, better warehousing facilities, funding against warehouse receipts, quality testing and grading facilities.

For instance, the Dhamangaon sub�post office will act as the nodal centre through which villages covered by six branch post offices (Anjansingi, Teora, Kamnapur Ghusli, Wadhona, Juna Dhamangaon and Jalka Patache) linked to it can avail of the GSK service.

MCX provides the infrastructure, such as a computer terminal, the Internet access, a printer, a scanner, a fax machine, a webcam and an electronic MCX commodity price ticker within the premises of the Dhamangaon sub�post office.

In order to display market information to farmers and traders, blackboards are being dispatched to the branch post offices. In this way, the computer set up at the sub-post office will address all the requirements of farmers and traders via the concerned branch post offices linked to it.

Farmers and traders would have access to price information and receive responses to queries on support services directly with a central hub for fast and accurate information.

For instance, a farmer could route his query from his village through the postal network to the GSK, where an India Post�MCX representative would feed in the query and procure the response online. The reverse leg -- routing the response to the branch post office -- would again utilise the postal network. Besides specific queries, support information on pricing, news and agri-inputs would ride on this daily network.

The model -- already operational in the Jalgaon region of Maharashtra and recently extended to Itarsi in MP and Unjha in Gujarat -- has been replicated in Dhamangaon and would be scaled up to a national level, once it becomes commercially self-sustainable.

It is envisioned that GSK will act as a single-window service for all pre- and post-harvest requirements of Indian farmers. The model would become an e-commerce network of choice for both their input needs and output marketing and herald benefits of financial inclusion in rural areas covered by the India Post network.

It would also become a marketing network of choice for agricultural input producers due to the wide coverage and trust that India Post enjoys in rural areas.

The Offerings

The deliverables through the GSK platform have been conceptualised in two phases.

The aim of phase I is to make farmers sensitive to futures market prices of the relevant commodities and empower them with the provision of spot market information.

The desirable state would be accomplished when farmers start basing their cropping and selling decisions on futures market prices. In addition, agri-inputs will be made available in partnership with national level agri-input companies, ensuring quality and timely availability at reasonable prices.

Also, this stage would involve assessing needs to decide the future deliverables to make the GSK platform relevant to farmers to the maximum extent possible.

Based on the information collected during phase I, in phase II, the aim is to provide further services.

GSK will help farmers gain access to institutional mechanisms providing marketing and input-supply services.

In order to make the GSK platform usable towards that purpose, efforts would encompass modifying existing systems or creating new systems altogether.