By IANS
Mumbai : Software major Infosys Technologies Ltd has partnered with ACDI/VOCA, a non-profit international development organisation, to develop an information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled application to improve the agro supply chain in India.
ACDI/VOCA promotes broad-based economic growth, and develops applications, which fall under growth oriented micro enterprise development (GMED) programme, which is a $6.3 million a USAID-funded initiative.
The application is aimed at tackling the entire supply chain management, right from profiling of farmer clusters to crop planning, scheduling, tracking and forecasting.
The application allows farmers to access technical information including database searches for data and images, access to region-specific weather updates and market information, daily sales volumes and average prices.
Binod H.R., senior vice-president and head, India Business Unit of Infosys, said: “Maintaining on-time, programmed delivery of fresh produce from a large and scattered production base is a complex and critical operation. This solution gives the organised retail sector access to a reliable small holder production base.”
According to an estimate, there are over 17,000 farmers currently integrated into organised retail supply chains through this application. Over the next five to eight years, the usage is expected to increase to a million farmers.
The application also enables wholesaler, retailer or other intermediaries to optimise cost by allowing large procurement, efficient transportation management and enabling intelligent crop production management.