Amid coronavirus lockdown, Centre unveils truck booking app for farmers

Farmers now can book trucks or tractors to ferry their produce to markets the same way one books cab rides in cities through aggregator apps such as Uber and Ola.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday unveiled ‘Kisan Rath’, a transport aggregator app to enable farmers book trucks or tractors which are in demand at a time when harvesting rabi crops has begun with gusto across the food grain belt.

“The Kisan Rath App aims to provide a timely, economical and hassle-free mechanism to transport the agricultural produce,” Tomar said. The App has been developed by the National Informatics Centre.

The app is currently available in eight languages. A farmer would be required to post the quantity of farm produce he wishes to transport using the app. The request would be visible to transporters as well as traders who could quote a price for the service.

The farmers can negotiate the price offline and arrange for a pick up at the required date.

Similar services would also be available for traders to transport farm produce from one market to the other.

According to an official statement, 20,000 tractors from 14,000 Custom Hiring Centres and 5.7 lakh trucks from five transport aggregators have already been registered with the ‘Kisan Rath’ app.

The app could help the farmer in identifying the right mode of transportation for the movement of farm produce ranging from foodgrain (cereal, coarse cereal, pulses, etc), fruits & vegetables, oilseeds, spices, fiber crops, flowers, bamboo, log & minor forest produce, coconuts.

It also facilitates traders in the transportation of perishable commodities by reefer (Refrigerated) vehicles, an official statement said.

Transportation of Agri produce is a critical and indispensable component of the supply chain.

During the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country currently due to lockdown, ‘Kisan Rath’ could ensure smooth and seamless supply linkages between farmers, warehouses, Farmer Producer Organisations, Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee mandis and intra-state & inter-state buyers and help in the reduction of food wastage by providing timely services.