April 15, 2021
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal launched the e-commerce platform eSaNTA for marine products that will empower farmers as they will be able to sell their produce at the click of a button through this portal. This will enable farmers to do spot as well as forward sales.
It will also revolutionize traditional aqua farming by providing a cashless, contactless, and paperless electronic trade platform between farmers, exporters, and domestic markets and will be available in Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali and Odiya. There are plans to make the portal available in other languages too.
This website will clearly empower our farmers with a new and digital solution, with an additional alternative way of selling their products. Now, our farmers can sell with a click of a button from this platform. The platform would also provide more freedom, options, and opportunities to fish and aqua farmers, he said, adding that it will ensure fair prices and traceability to both buyers and sellers.
The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) should have a rating system for both buyers and sellers on the portal as one can see the ratings and take decisions accordingly. Currently, there are about 18,000 farmers who are contributing to the country’s marine exports.
In fact the use of modern tools and techniques can help in increasing shrimp production to 6-7 lakh tons from 40,000 tons. Also, the platform provides services like easy registration, details of buyers and sellers as well as help expand the business and ensure better prices to farmers.
Similarly, the platform will change the traditional way of carrying out business from a word of mouth basis to business with more formal and legally binding and it will raise the lives and income of farmers by reducing risks, awareness of products and markets, and shielding against wrong practices.
ESaNTA (which means mandi or market) is a digital bridge to end the market divide and will act as an alternative marketing tool between farmers and buyers by eliminating middlemen. It will also revolutionize traditional aqua farming by providing a cashless, contactless and paperless electronic trade platform between farmers, exporters and domestic markets.