The e-Uparjan initiative strengthens procurement operations, develops a near real-time reporting mechanism and a decision support system for enhancing the forecasting, monitoring and tracking capabilities of the Madhya Pradesh Government

Need for this initiative

• Madhya Pradesh has seen significant improvement in the production of wheat and paddy since 2009. This has had a direct impact on the procurement mechanism in the state.
• The increase in production also led to an increase in the number of farmers who want to sell their produce at the MSP offered by the Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP). This increase in service seekers has adversely impacted the quality of service delivery of the Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Protection (DFCS & CP).
• Inefficient monitoring and management of procurement processes made it difficult for the authorities to check and curb malpractices. Finally, manual payments to farmers through cheques led to delays, losses, and corruption.

Objectives

• The primary objective was to enable a smooth, regulated, and efficient process of procurement at the centers.
• The initiative also sought to enable better planning, monitoring, and management. A significant objective of this initiative was to protect small and vulnerable farmers from being shortchanged by middlemen.

Key Stakeholders

The main stakeholders of the programme include DFCS & CP, Madhya Pradesh State Civil Supply Corporation (MPSCSC), Madhya Pradesh Warehouse and Logistics Corporation (MPWLC), Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation Limited (MARKFED), Mandi Board, District Central Co-operative Banks, Food Corporation of India (FCI), National Informatics Centre (NIC), cooperative societies and farmers.

Implementation Strategy

• e-Uparjandigitises the entire process of procurement. NIC conceptualised, designed, and developed applications,both online and offline, in Hindi for MPSCSC. The offline application included eight features:
  • Processes related to the buying and selling of crops
  • Corrections in the farmer’s registration details
  • SMS scheduling according to the daily storage capacity and daily wheat procurement status
  • Payment report generation for direct money transfer to the farmer’s account
  • Gunny bag management
  • Transport management
  • Storage management
  • Agriculture loans recovery option
• Similarly, an online application was developed toregister farmers, and subsequent MIS reports fed intothe offline module.
• Apart from the above-mentionedfeatures, the second phase included verification of details provided by farmers, making online changes after verification, SMS scheduling for procurement date area-wise, approving new procurement centers, entering farmer data for crop loss due to natural disasters

Key Challenges

• The sheer extent of the operation was a major challenge with Rabi procurement undertaken in 40 districts and Kharif procurement undertaken in all the 50 districts of the state.
• Apart from this, the implementation was hampered by challenges such as difficult terrain in some regions, limited train connectivity, limited internet connectivity, deployment of IT operators in interior areas, and limited power supply in many areas.

Conclusion

The impact of real-time data that it has generated has helped in making more informed decisions. With an efficient database of information on procurement, the DFCS & CP is now able to plan for silo storage bags and steel silos in advance. Robust planning and the mechanism for real-time data reporting enhance the forecasting, monitoring, and tracking capabilities of the Madhya Pradesh Government and these are the qualities that make this initiative unique and significant.