The state government of Karnataka, in order to facilitate farmers to sell their produce and get reasonable prices, created Agricultural produce market committees (APMCs) in many towns. Under the supervision of APMC, farmers can sell their produce to agents or traders. APMC, now to further benefit the farmers has taken decision of bringing in cotton under e-trading process.

After seeing success of online trading of copra, an initiative by Rashtriya e-Market Services (ReMS) in joint venture with NCDEX Spot Exchange and the state government help farmers to get better price for their product. The Department of Agriculture and Marketing has planned to introduce e-Trading process for cotton from this month.

ReMS officials are working on bringing cotton under online trading for which there has been an encouraging response coming from banking institutions, including SBI and HDFC .

Bankers are ready to open zero balance savings account for farmers, extend loans under the e-pledge scheme and also give cash credit to traders.

As the new system will eliminate the role of middlemen and ensured better transparency in trading. It also helped farmers get payment through the hassel-free e-Transfer platform.

The main benefit of online trading is the end local traders monopoly. Wholesale dealers, including Metro Cash and Carry, and traders from across the state, on registration with ReMS, can participate in the trading acitivities.

However, according to Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha state convener Maruthi Manpade strongly countered the claims of ReMS officials saying that the initiative of ReMS online trading of copra has not help farmers gain good price but it is so because of the state government’s market intervention.

Market intervention and heavy duty on imports are two main factors enough to protect the interests of farmers.

In fact, the system will be disadvantageous for local traders who will fall into the hands of international operators. His organization will be strictly opposing the move take up by APMC to introduce online trading for cotton and would be staging a protest against it.

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