Direct Farmer and Customer Commerce Using Data Mining

Abstract

Farmers in India are finding it more and more difficult to sustain their livelihoods. There are several causes that are responsible for the prevalent agrarian distress in the country, but the predominant reason for this is the substandard prices at which farmers are compelled to sell their produce. Farmers lack the means to transport their produce and sell it to the customers directly. Instead, the produce passes through a long chain of merchants, traders, wholesalers etc. before they reach the customers. This in turn leads to a monumental surge in prices. The only long term, sustainable solution that can benefit both farmers and customers is to empower them to buy and sell directly from each other. But there are 2 major challenges that obstruct direct interaction between farmers and customers. At first, it is not feasible for farmers to cater to individual customers as an individual is likely to buy not more than 10–15 kg at a time while farmers produce in tens of thousands of kilograms. Secondly there is no existing Supply Chain Management or Freight Management solution that can execute deliveries from farm to customers directly. This paper deals with the common challenges faced by the farmer’s and a detailed investigation is carried out to find the possible solutions for the problem. We try to explore a possible solution to aid the dystopian situation of farmers through the system. The system tries to empower and enable farmers to engage in direct interaction and commerce with the consumers by developing a digital platform and integrating all the stakeholders in that platform.