Pragati Gokhale, Chief Mentor For Mission Marketmirchi & National Resource Person for Ministry of Rural Development Govt.of India, explains the features of e-marketing for farmers and our learning.
In order to provide a free online market for the farmers who are struggling to find proper linkages to markets, I developed marketmirchi.com, an app which is a free open social mission. This app is helping a lot of farmers, FPOs, and SHGs in the country to get direct market linkages for their products which is mostly b2b markets. IIT, Rural Tech Action Group, an initiative under Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India, has taken it up as a project and supported Mission MarketMirchi. It is a user-friendly platform (website plus app), multilingual, with simple UI. There are mainly 3 sections, sales, buy, and jobs, and jobs section is only for agriculture and allied sector. Under sales and buy, we will find 26 categories such as grains, pulses, dairy, agro processing, agro machinery, animal husbandry and so on. Recently, we have included bamboo forestry, spice and cash crops, and biomass and biowaste in the categories. Whatever is marketed in rural India, we can find on marketmirchi.com.
Market Mirchi is a very user-friendly app, so if you are a farmer, FPO, or SHG, you can click on the Post Free Self Ad button, and you will be taken to the category to choose. You can choose the category and post the ad. You need to select the sub-category, give heading, and details. If the price is negotiable, you can put a 0 in the respective field. You can select the unit. You can login if you are an old user, or you can sign up with all details such as name, address, mobile number (only 10 digits which will be used as your username), and a simple password. Immediately your Ad will be Posted and you will be taken to the call list of buyers for your category with call button icons, and when you click on the call button, you can see the contact number of the buyer. You can start calling the buyers immediately. The more the number of calls you make, the better is your active ranking on the app, leading to more buyers to contact you. Your ad is thus given weightage depending on the number of calls and how active you are on the app. We are not into commercial activity. From buyers also we are not hiding sellers’ information. When you make a number of calls, you will be seen in priority list for buyers and sellers. The link for buyers list and sellers list are stored in your home page just below Post free Ad button , you can click on the same anytime and call buyers/sellers anytime. Fresh Buyers/Sellers will be automatically added to that link.
So Niti Ayog has declared MarketMirchi as the best agriculture app. It is spread all over India but not much in south India. Since it is an IIT project, there are many training videos in all Indian languages. With the help of NABARD, NRLM, SRLM, and leading NGOs, we conduct hands-on training sessions for farmers all over India, especially in remote areas. We have used AI for searching Buyers for all Agro Rural Products, and we have budget for training b2b buyers. Many B2B buyers like Akshayapatra ,Mumbai Grahak Panchayat are using Marketmirchi for procuring directly from farmers
How to Use Marketmirchi for Selling, Buying Agro Rural Products ?
In the home page , under sell section you will find post free sales ad button and link to call buyers, which will get you contact list of buyers once you post our ad. You can post free advertisements to get market linkages for all agro and rural products which is totally free. You can post the ad without any middleman and conduct the free direct agro and rural marketing inside and outside India by contacting the customers free. The whole procedure has to be done in a smart phone by visiting the website or App on Play store. Once the app is installed, you can select the language at the top right hand corner. You will see three main tabs on the home page – Sell,Buy, Jobs. When you click on sell, you will see a Post Free Sale Ad button after you click on it you will be shown the categories, to select. Select the category and post the ad for free there. After posting the ad, you will see the call list. You need to fill out all the fields marked with Asterix mark. If your product is organic, you can mention the same in the fields. In the sales details field, you can write the details of your product such as type, quality, etc. Mention price in numbers without any words. If price is negotiable, put 0 in the box. You can select the unit in the next field. At the end of the page, you will see two buttons – old user login and new registration. If not an old user, you can give details such as name, address, district, email, mobile number, and create a simple password. Click on the Post Ad button and wait for a few seconds, and you will get a message saying you can directly call the interested buyers. Click on the call button in front of the buyer and click on “I have understood”. A new page opens up with the list of all buyers who are interested in buying your product. Click on the phone icon to contact the buyer directly. The more number of calls will increase your market linkages and your ranking For each call you will get 2 points to increase the ranking. When you click on menu, and click on Home, search active seller link, you will get the list of high active ranked sellers on the top.
For buying, from the menu, go to Home, click on Buy section, click on Post Free Buy ad. Similar to sell page, you will see categories list here, select the one you want, a new page appears. Fill in the fields one by one, sub category, and provide a heading. In the price field, give 0, and select the unit section. We can select the old user login option (if already registered) or the new registration process. If you want your password to be remembered, click on Remember Me box at the login. Once the popup message comes, click on “I have understood”. A new page will appear with the list of all sellers of your category. When you contact more sellers, your active rank in Market Mirchi as a buyer will increases. You can start calling the sellers. To be on the top of the list, Market Mirchi does not ask for any kind of payment.
This is because Market Mirchi is a free open social mission we are not charging anything for priority listing. Your priority will automatically increase through active rank. You will get more linkages by calling more buyers or sellers directly. You cannot delete the posted ad by yourself, but only the technical team of Market Mirchi can do. You can add the photo of the products by clicking on the photos, click on choose file button, select the picture on the mobile phone, and click on upload. The ad will now be displayed with the photo of the product.
To post ads in the job section, click on Menu, go to Home, click on jobs. Here the jobs are created only for agro and rural fields. If you want to hire someone by posting an ad, go back to Menu, click on My Ad responses, and you will see all the responses for the posted ads under each section. You will receive an SMS and WhatsApp message with the interested customer’s mobile numbers for the ad. You can go back to menu, click on Help, and you will find instructions for effectively using Market Mirchi app. You can select the language, go to Menu, click on MISSION MERA MOBILE MERA Marketing. The Market Mirchi mission is explained here. When you go to the bottom of the page and click on the link, a new page with success stories appear. This app is available only for android phones. Thus we can post free ads, get market linkages for all rural and agro products totally free.
Also with the same username(Mobile number) and password created while posting first Ad we can Post Sales,Buy and Jobs Ads multiple times and get call list of relevant buyers/sellers/job providers
What are the key principles of eMarketing that farmers should understand to be successful?
First one is the farmers should be persistent, and secondly they should not expect to get customers in queue once the ad is posted. They should know that every market is not sellers but buyers market. They can first start calling the buyers, increase the ranking of the ad, and then buyers will start calling you. So the farmers or FPO should understand that they have to take initiative to call buyers first and make them aware of the quantity available. Then buyers can buy collectively which will get them more profit. The buyers should come to the sellers’ place as the price can be negotiable depending on the logistics and many other factors. So farmers should understand that ours is a free platform with buyers and sellers call list, and they have to call and establish their market linkages. Market Mirchi is cross state, cross district, and cross border platform. When farmers find the online buyers, they can negotiate with them and do trading with them to get good price. We have seen success in Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, etc
How has eMarketing impacted the agriculture industry and farmers’ livelihoods?
Earlier, farmers used to get market linkages through some traditional marketing links like APMC. But not all products can be sold through APMC and there is not open choice of buyers outside Apmc. Also only grains, pulses can be sold here. For the other products, the farmers have to find markets, and here eMarketing helps. With most of the farmers using smart phones, they can easily learn the techniques of eMarketing, and Market Mirchi will help them. It teaches them to post ad using the smart phone and get marketing linkages without spending a single pie. Also when the farmers take their products to APMC, the expense is high, so they can try eMarketing platforms like Market Mirchi which is absolutely free and result yielding.
What is the main challenge faced by farmers in adopting eMarketing strategies, and how can they be overcome?
The main challenge is the taboo, and now through our training sessions, we help them to download the app, marketemirchi.com, post their ad, and get the buyers’ links. Capacity building is needed in this field for farmers and FPO, and we are doing it through government and non-government agencies.
Which digital platforms have proven to be more effective for farmers in eMarketing, and how?
Till date, nobody has pointed out an absolutely free platform without any subscription related thing which will help you post your ad, get the buyers and sellers list in each category and sub category with contact numbers. So there is nothing like Market Mirchi which is absolutely free, result giving within 5 minutes after posting the ad, and easy to use for any farmers, FPOs, or SHGs. That is why Niti Ayog has included it in the list of best Agri interventions.
What role does data analytics and market research play in eMarketing for farmers?
Data analytics is important as we use it to reach B2B buyers for this platform. We have different modules developed for the data mining. Using AI only we are reaching the B2B buyers on this platform.
Can you share some success stories of farmers who have benefited from eMarketing practices?
A farmer from Rajasthan placed an ad on our app for selling desi cow dung for which he got huge market linkages in Delhi and Mumbai as there is huge demand for desi cow dung for rituals. The women from Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana from Jharkhand posted their ad for sarson in the app as they were getting low price in the APMC mandi. We trained them, they came together, negotiated, contacted buyers, and got a good deal from Gujarat as the traders came to their place to buy at the rate of Rs.6000 per ton than the local mandi. In Chhattisgarh, a farmer advertised millet on our app. At that time, the price of millet was Rs. 60 per kg which he mentioned in his ad. He contacted the buyer who was in a nearby district, purchased millet from his place at Rs. 60 per kg and sold it for Rs. 70 per kg. When they are empowered with proper training, they can trade among themselves. In Osmanabad, a SHG prepared vermicelli from millets, we connected them to Mumbai Graha Panchayat through our app. Another story is from the Northeast, a bamboo entrepreneur from Guwahati was successful to get B2B market linkages for the artefact things he developed with a Chennai man. All these success stories are recorded, and you can watch them on Market Mirchi YouTube channel.Recently Akshaypatra the biggest Mid Day Meal Program has also started procuring from farmers on Marketmirchi
What are the future prospects and trends in eMarketing for farmers, and how they can stay ahead?
There will be only eMarketing after some years. Since there is a plan to abolish or modify the model of APMCs, there will be local markets or if the farmers have to get good markets cross districts, states, and borders, they have to learn eMarketing techniques. Here our app, MarketMirchi.com and our Training drives Mission Mera Mobile Mera Marketing for Rural India can help the farmers of this country to get good linkages and sell or buy goods.
Ms. Pragati Gokhale
Advisor
Founder & Chief Mentor Mission Mera Mobile Mera Marketing Advisor Rajiv Gandhi Science & Technology Commission
Govt. of Maharashtra National Resource Person Ministry of Rural Development Govt. of India
Founder - Marketmirchi.com
Nagpur
Email: pragatikin@gmail.com
Telephone: 09822719618
In order to provide a free online market for the farmers who are struggling to find proper linkages to markets, I developed marketmirchi.com, an app which is a free open social mission. This app is helping a lot of farmers, FPOs, and SHGs in the country to get direct market linkages for their products which is mostly b2b markets. IIT, Rural Tech Action Group, an initiative under Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India, has taken it up as a project and supported Mission MarketMirchi. It is a user-friendly platform (website plus app), multilingual, with simple UI. There are mainly 3 sections, sales, buy, and jobs, and jobs section is only for agriculture and allied sector. Under sales and buy, we will find 26 categories such as grains, pulses, dairy, agro processing, agro machinery, animal husbandry and so on. Recently, we have included bamboo forestry, spice and cash crops, and biomass and biowaste in the categories. Whatever is marketed in rural India, we can find on marketmirchi.com.
Market Mirchi is a very user-friendly app, so if you are a farmer, FPO, or SHG, you can click on the Post Free Self Ad button, and you will be taken to the category to choose. You can choose the category and post the ad. You need to select the sub-category, give heading, and details. If the price is negotiable, you can put a 0 in the respective field. You can select the unit. You can login if you are an old user, or you can sign up with all details such as name, address, mobile number (only 10 digits which will be used as your username), and a simple password. Immediately your Ad will be Posted and you will be taken to the call list of buyers for your category with call button icons, and when you click on the call button, you can see the contact number of the buyer. You can start calling the buyers immediately. The more the number of calls you make, the better is your active ranking on the app, leading to more buyers to contact you. Your ad is thus given weightage depending on the number of calls and how active you are on the app. We are not into commercial activity. From buyers also we are not hiding sellers’ information. When you make a number of calls, you will be seen in priority list for buyers and sellers. The link for buyers list and sellers list are stored in your home page just below Post free Ad button , you can click on the same anytime and call buyers/sellers anytime. Fresh Buyers/Sellers will be automatically added to that link.
So Niti Ayog has declared MarketMirchi as the best agriculture app. It is spread all over India but not much in south India. Since it is an IIT project, there are many training videos in all Indian languages. With the help of NABARD, NRLM, SRLM, and leading NGOs, we conduct hands-on training sessions for farmers all over India, especially in remote areas. We have used AI for searching Buyers for all Agro Rural Products, and we have budget for training b2b buyers. Many B2B buyers like Akshayapatra ,Mumbai Grahak Panchayat are using Marketmirchi for procuring directly from farmers
How to Use Marketmirchi for Selling, Buying Agro Rural Products ?
In the home page , under sell section you will find post free sales ad button and link to call buyers, which will get you contact list of buyers once you post our ad. You can post free advertisements to get market linkages for all agro and rural products which is totally free. You can post the ad without any middleman and conduct the free direct agro and rural marketing inside and outside India by contacting the customers free. The whole procedure has to be done in a smart phone by visiting the website or App on Play store. Once the app is installed, you can select the language at the top right hand corner. You will see three main tabs on the home page – Sell,Buy, Jobs. When you click on sell, you will see a Post Free Sale Ad button after you click on it you will be shown the categories, to select. Select the category and post the ad for free there. After posting the ad, you will see the call list. You need to fill out all the fields marked with Asterix mark. If your product is organic, you can mention the same in the fields. In the sales details field, you can write the details of your product such as type, quality, etc. Mention price in numbers without any words. If price is negotiable, put 0 in the box. You can select the unit in the next field. At the end of the page, you will see two buttons – old user login and new registration. If not an old user, you can give details such as name, address, district, email, mobile number, and create a simple password. Click on the Post Ad button and wait for a few seconds, and you will get a message saying you can directly call the interested buyers. Click on the call button in front of the buyer and click on “I have understood”. A new page opens up with the list of all buyers who are interested in buying your product. Click on the phone icon to contact the buyer directly. The more number of calls will increase your market linkages and your ranking For each call you will get 2 points to increase the ranking. When you click on menu, and click on Home, search active seller link, you will get the list of high active ranked sellers on the top.
For buying, from the menu, go to Home, click on Buy section, click on Post Free Buy ad. Similar to sell page, you will see categories list here, select the one you want, a new page appears. Fill in the fields one by one, sub category, and provide a heading. In the price field, give 0, and select the unit section. We can select the old user login option (if already registered) or the new registration process. If you want your password to be remembered, click on Remember Me box at the login. Once the popup message comes, click on “I have understood”. A new page will appear with the list of all sellers of your category. When you contact more sellers, your active rank in Market Mirchi as a buyer will increases. You can start calling the sellers. To be on the top of the list, Market Mirchi does not ask for any kind of payment.
This is because Market Mirchi is a free open social mission we are not charging anything for priority listing. Your priority will automatically increase through active rank. You will get more linkages by calling more buyers or sellers directly. You cannot delete the posted ad by yourself, but only the technical team of Market Mirchi can do. You can add the photo of the products by clicking on the photos, click on choose file button, select the picture on the mobile phone, and click on upload. The ad will now be displayed with the photo of the product.
To post ads in the job section, click on Menu, go to Home, click on jobs. Here the jobs are created only for agro and rural fields. If you want to hire someone by posting an ad, go back to Menu, click on My Ad responses, and you will see all the responses for the posted ads under each section. You will receive an SMS and WhatsApp message with the interested customer’s mobile numbers for the ad. You can go back to menu, click on Help, and you will find instructions for effectively using Market Mirchi app. You can select the language, go to Menu, click on MISSION MERA MOBILE MERA Marketing. The Market Mirchi mission is explained here. When you go to the bottom of the page and click on the link, a new page with success stories appear. This app is available only for android phones. Thus we can post free ads, get market linkages for all rural and agro products totally free.
Also with the same username(Mobile number) and password created while posting first Ad we can Post Sales,Buy and Jobs Ads multiple times and get call list of relevant buyers/sellers/job providers
What are the key principles of eMarketing that farmers should understand to be successful?
First one is the farmers should be persistent, and secondly they should not expect to get customers in queue once the ad is posted. They should know that every market is not sellers but buyers market. They can first start calling the buyers, increase the ranking of the ad, and then buyers will start calling you. So the farmers or FPO should understand that they have to take initiative to call buyers first and make them aware of the quantity available. Then buyers can buy collectively which will get them more profit. The buyers should come to the sellers’ place as the price can be negotiable depending on the logistics and many other factors. So farmers should understand that ours is a free platform with buyers and sellers call list, and they have to call and establish their market linkages. Market Mirchi is cross state, cross district, and cross border platform. When farmers find the online buyers, they can negotiate with them and do trading with them to get good price. We have seen success in Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, etc
How has eMarketing impacted the agriculture industry and farmers’ livelihoods?
Earlier, farmers used to get market linkages through some traditional marketing links like APMC. But not all products can be sold through APMC and there is not open choice of buyers outside Apmc. Also only grains, pulses can be sold here. For the other products, the farmers have to find markets, and here eMarketing helps. With most of the farmers using smart phones, they can easily learn the techniques of eMarketing, and Market Mirchi will help them. It teaches them to post ad using the smart phone and get marketing linkages without spending a single pie. Also when the farmers take their products to APMC, the expense is high, so they can try eMarketing platforms like Market Mirchi which is absolutely free and result yielding.
What is the main challenge faced by farmers in adopting eMarketing strategies, and how can they be overcome?
The main challenge is the taboo, and now through our training sessions, we help them to download the app, marketemirchi.com, post their ad, and get the buyers’ links. Capacity building is needed in this field for farmers and FPO, and we are doing it through government and non-government agencies.
Which digital platforms have proven to be more effective for farmers in eMarketing, and how?
Till date, nobody has pointed out an absolutely free platform without any subscription related thing which will help you post your ad, get the buyers and sellers list in each category and sub category with contact numbers. So there is nothing like Market Mirchi which is absolutely free, result giving within 5 minutes after posting the ad, and easy to use for any farmers, FPOs, or SHGs. That is why Niti Ayog has included it in the list of best Agri interventions.
What role does data analytics and market research play in eMarketing for farmers?
Data analytics is important as we use it to reach B2B buyers for this platform. We have different modules developed for the data mining. Using AI only we are reaching the B2B buyers on this platform.
Can you share some success stories of farmers who have benefited from eMarketing practices?
A farmer from Rajasthan placed an ad on our app for selling desi cow dung for which he got huge market linkages in Delhi and Mumbai as there is huge demand for desi cow dung for rituals. The women from Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana from Jharkhand posted their ad for sarson in the app as they were getting low price in the APMC mandi. We trained them, they came together, negotiated, contacted buyers, and got a good deal from Gujarat as the traders came to their place to buy at the rate of Rs.6000 per ton than the local mandi. In Chhattisgarh, a farmer advertised millet on our app. At that time, the price of millet was Rs. 60 per kg which he mentioned in his ad. He contacted the buyer who was in a nearby district, purchased millet from his place at Rs. 60 per kg and sold it for Rs. 70 per kg. When they are empowered with proper training, they can trade among themselves. In Osmanabad, a SHG prepared vermicelli from millets, we connected them to Mumbai Graha Panchayat through our app. Another story is from the Northeast, a bamboo entrepreneur from Guwahati was successful to get B2B market linkages for the artefact things he developed with a Chennai man. All these success stories are recorded, and you can watch them on Market Mirchi YouTube channel.Recently Akshaypatra the biggest Mid Day Meal Program has also started procuring from farmers on Marketmirchi
What are the future prospects and trends in eMarketing for farmers, and how they can stay ahead?
There will be only eMarketing after some years. Since there is a plan to abolish or modify the model of APMCs, there will be local markets or if the farmers have to get good markets cross districts, states, and borders, they have to learn eMarketing techniques. Here our app, MarketMirchi.com and our Training drives Mission Mera Mobile Mera Marketing for Rural India can help the farmers of this country to get good linkages and sell or buy goods.
Ms. Pragati Gokhale
Advisor
Founder & Chief Mentor Mission Mera Mobile Mera Marketing Advisor Rajiv Gandhi Science & Technology Commission
Govt. of Maharashtra National Resource Person Ministry of Rural Development Govt. of India
Founder - Marketmirchi.com
Nagpur
Email: pragatikin@gmail.com
Telephone: 09822719618