The Centre will soon launch an AI-powered ‘price information and market intelligence system’ which will enable farmers to find out the latest rates of various farm produce in markets across the country, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said on Friday. “We are developing a mechanism for prices…Through this mechanism, even a person sitting in Badaun will know the prices prevailing in Kolkata market everyday in the morning. This system is being developed and it will be launched very soon,” Tomar said. He added that implementing this new system was possible because of the newly-enacted Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Act 2020 — which gives farmers freedom to to sell their produce outside Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis. Section 7 of the Act empowers the government to develop a price information and market intelligence system and a framework for dissemination of information. According to an official from the ministry, the proposed system will collect the latest price data from APMC-regulated mandis and other market yards; commodity exchanges (spot, futures) and e-trading platforms; registered farmer agreement databases; and other data sources for the aggregation of pricing information by variety and quality. It will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse and disseminate price information, the official said. “Dissemination will be done through app, SMS. We have mobile numbers of 10 crore farmers. We can also send this through common service centres and Media — social media and print media,” the official said.
